YOU COULD be forgiven if the words ‘boat race’ conjure up only images of Oxbridge posh lads and leafy English rivers.
Back in 1958, however, it was the chilly waters of the Clyde which was the focus for a hotly contested regatta.
This was the annual meet of the Glasgow Schools Rowing Club in which a record 69 crews took part, competing for four trophies.
Thousands of spectators crowded on to Glasgow Green to catch a glimpse of the young athletes in action.
The event was attended by the Lord Provost Myer Galpern, with Allan Glen's retaining the St Mungo Quaichan invitation event.
Possil School, who had only recently joined the schools’ club, won the Tub Fours Championship for the Boyd Cup, and a team from Adelphi School in the Gorbals also took part, putting in a fine performance.
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The other trophy winners were Hutcheson No 4 in the Coronation Cup and St Joseph’s College, Dumfries, in the Murchison Cup.
The schools rowing club was set up during the war, in 1942, initially boating out of Clydesdale Rowing Club. In 1951, with the help of Glasgow Corporation, it finally got its own boathouse at Glasgow Green, and by the early 60s, around 18 schools and more than 500 rowers regularly took to the water on Wednesday afternoons and Saturday mornings.
The club declined in the 1970s, but the introduction of indoor rowing to all Glasgow Secondary Schools in 2007 sparked a revival in rowing activity amongst local schools.
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