Step Back In Time
FIRST AUSTRALIAN WORLD CHAMPION
He
was
known
as
Australia’s first ever world
champion sportsman but
long-time Narrandera
resident Harold Trickett
only remembers him as his
grandfather.
Edward ‘Ned’ Trickett was
a champion winner and
recognised as world champion after winning the World
Sculling Championship in
1876, a title he held until 1880,
when he was beaten by
Canadian Ned Hanlan.
The son of a convict
bootmaker George and an
Irish mother Mary, Ned was
born in Greenwich Parramatta
in 1851 and began rowing at
the age of 10.
Below is an extract from
an article appearing in the
Sydney Morning Herald in
1985 by Hugo Kelly:
On 27 June, 1876, the tall
25 year old from the colony
of New South Wales defeated
Joseph H. Sadler in a sculling
race on the River Thames.
The stakes were significant.
As well as collecting a £400
purse, Trickett had won the
Aquatic Championship of the
World -Australia’s first world
title. And the new colonies
celebrated their first sporting
hero.
Trickett’s opportunity
came when a Pitt Street
hotelier named James Punch
decided to take him to England
to race, so impressed was he
with Trickett’s style.
Although the race with
Sadler, a diminutive fellow
from Teddington, was held in
late June, the result did not
get to Sydney for three weeks
because the mail steamer
carrying the good news took
two weeks to travel from Suez
to Port Adelaide, from where
the result was telegraphed to
Sydney.
The ‘Sydney Morning
Herald’ of July 18 reported
that “the words on everybody’s lips were, ‘have you
heard the result?’”.
Crowds gathered outside
the Sydney telegraph office
and when it was announced
that Trickett had won by four
lengths many people refused
to believe that an Australian
could actually return ‘home’
and beat an Englishman.
Nevertheless, ‘Trickett
fever’ hit Sydney. Men strung
pale blue ribbons in their
buttonholes, bunting was
placed on buildings and
Punch had large transparencies erected in his hotel
highlighting himself and the
new hero.
An immense throng
gathered on the quay to greet
Trickett when he arrived
home in November.
Unfortunately, his ship,
the Zealandia, was delayed by
a day, and it was decided that
Trickett would arrive on
shore the next evening at
eight pm, so giving everyone a
chance to see him.
The Zealandia’s captain
personally rowed Trickett
Narrandera Argus
ashore, where he was met by
25,000 people.
So large was the crowd
that at first, Trickett was
unable to find a place to
disembark.
Standing on the dock was
a carriage drawn by two
horses, waiting to bear him
away. According to the
‘Sydney Morning Herald’,
several eager young men
unharnessed the horses and
put themselves in their places.
“Here were arms, strong and
willing, too glad to accord
homage to Australian pluck
and courage ...Such a crowd
rarely has been seen in
Sydney. The crowd surged
like the waves in the sea,” said
the newspaper.
A collection was started
which raised a further £850
for Trickett, who bought his
own hotel with the proceeds.
Soon after, Trickett
crushed his hand on a rolling
beer keg.
The self amputation of
several fingers affected the
balance of his stroke, but he
still defeated Elias Laycock in
a £200-a-side challenge for the
world championship on the
Parramatta River.
Trickett
held
his
championship for four years
– 12 months after his initial
victory he beat Michael Rush
in a £200-a-side challenge on
the Parramatta River to retain
his title.
A year later he out-rowed
Laycock.
Trickett’s Waterloo came
at the very place he secured
fame. He was humiliated by a
short, confident Canadian
named Ned Hanlan in a £500
challenge on the Thames In
1880.
The race was a disaster for
Trickett, who was confident
of retaining the championship.
Hanlan sped to an early
lead and proceeded to make
a mockery of the race by
rowing first with one hand,
then the other, waving to some
friends in the crowd and
stopping to wash his face towards the end. Hanlan won
by three lengths but it could
have been half a mile.
But it will be for his
successes that Trickett is
remembered - in all he won
over 150 trophies and was
regarded as one of the most
versatile oarsmen of his time.
According
to
the
Australian Dictionary of
Biography, his prowess was
recorded in ballad and verse
and his portrait in rowing
colours was featured on
cigarette cards for many
years.
After relinquishing the
world title Trickett lost a
considerable sum of money
in a failed Queensland mining
venture, and returned to
Sydney in dire straits. A succession of jobs followed.
In 1916, aged 65, Trickett
died of injuries and shock received when the walls of a
gold mine shaft collapsed.
Edward ‘Ned’ Trickett was a champion winner and recognised as world champion after winning the World Sculling
Championship in 1876, but local resident Harold Trickett best remembers him as his grandfather.
Webster’s Narrandera connection
Did you know that the
Riverina was selected
from the whole of Australia for the first full scale
promotion of Cottees
drinks?
Webster’s Soft Drinks, of
Narrandera, were among
the first five bottlers outside
the metropolitan area chosen to bottle Cottees drinks
on franchise.
The other centres were
Ardlethan (also owned by
Websters), Wagga, West
Wyalong and Junee.
On returning from his visit
to the Riverina in 1959, Ken
Cottee said:
“The Riverina is the ideal
promotion area for our first
major country campaign. It
contains a large, balanced
population and has excellent
advertising coverage by radio,
theatres and newspapers.
“What is probably even
more important, the area is
fortunate in having progressive minded retailers, who
are highly aware of the results
that can be obtained from the
type of campaign we envisage.” As the proprietor of
Websters Soft Drinks the late
Harold Webster explained,
for many years Cottees had
supplied bottling concentrate to local franchised
bottlers who had been
responsible for their own
local promotion.
Webster’s Soft Drinks
took over operations at the
former historical Oakbank
Brewery site in 1957 and
continued operations until
1986.
A collection of Webster’s soft drink labels.
www.narranderaargus.com.au
Wednesday, June 10, 2015 — 7