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24
ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE
The Boat Race
four at the National Championships but
needed to expand the squad. The step
up to training six days a week with heavy
weights sessions and very long distances on
the water took some adjusting to but the
results turned out exceptionally well. Our
Chemistry teacher, Bruce Grainger, was the
most forward-thinking rowing coach in the
country, emerging as the top junior coach
for well over a decade. In 1973, not only did
we win the Junior National Championships
but were also selected for GB and won a
surprise bronze medal at the World Junior
Rowing Championships.
On the 40th anniversary of the
first of his three Boat Race wins,
we talk to John Wiggins about a
life spent messing about in boats.
When and where did you start rowing?
At Wallingford Grammar School, aged 14.
I was one of three boys kept behind in a
Chemistry lesson and asked if we wanted
to try rowing; I was the only one still going
after a year. I progressed to an elite group
that had won the Colts (now J16) coxed
You gained a place at Keble
College, Oxford to read Materials
Science.What was it like on arrival?
After three intensive and relatively monastic
years as a schoolboy rower and without a
gap year, the early days as an undergraduate
at Keble College were very exciting and the
prospect of throwing myself straight back in
to full-time training was not that compelling
- especially coming from a very small pond
and being now only a small fish. However,
with rowing Blues at the college, I was easily
located. The twin worlds of some relatively
earthy characters at Keble - I was not the
only one from a state school - and the mostly
public school university rowing squad provided
for some interesting times, not least for my
social life when it occasionally burst into life.
But, more significant was trying to balance
a science course against rowing each day;
I missed many afternoon practicals. Other
challenges that first term included switching
sides: after three years rowing only on stroke-
side, it was decided that I might be needed on
bow-side - a whole new set of blisters!
What was it like training and racing
in the public eye?
I soon moved from the safety and obscurity of
the bow-end of the boat down to the key seat
at seven. But my grip on bow-side rowing was
tenuous and in rough conditions in a pre-race
fixture, I caught a massive crab approaching
Hammersmith Bridge, jamming the seat, which
was caught on camera (and published) as well
as on film - I recently discovered.
John Wiggins in the Quad and, above, at seven seat in 1976