_En passant_ we may say of Chambers that, apart from grand physique and
science as an oarsman, he displayed qualities throughout his career
which would stamp him as a model for champions of the present day. He
was always courteous, never puffed up with success, never overbearing,
and yet at the same time always fondly confident in his own powers and
stamina. A more honourable man never sat in a boat. The writer recalls a
little incident as characteristic of Chambers. Just before the 1865
match against Kelley, he accosted Chambers at Putney and asked him if he
wished to sell his boat after the match. (It was a common practice for
Tyne scullers to do this, to save the cost of conveyance back to the
Tyne.) Chambers replied, he would sell her. The writer asked if he might
try her after the race. 'Hoot mon,' said Chambers, 'try her noo, if ye
like.' Now the writer was known to be an ally of Kelley (who usually
accompanied him when training on the tideway for sculling races). In
these days we much doubt whether any championship candidate would allow
a third person--whether amateur or professional--known to be in sympathy
with his opponent, to set foot in his racing craft on the eve of a
match. Nothing would be easier than to have an 'accident' with her; and
all scullers know that to have to adopt a strange boat on the day of a
match would be a most serious drawback. That Chambers never for a moment
harboured such suspicion of his rivals shows that he judged them by his
own faultless standard of fair play.
Not that we suggest for an instant that amateurs of this or of former
days were ever suspected of being prone to foul play, but none the less
do we believe that in these days few scullers in such a position as
Chambers would have made the gratuitous offer which he did upon the
occasion referred to.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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