Fifty years since they last took to the River Stour together, the members of Canford’s 1976 1st VIII returned to the School for a very special anniversary reunion.

Having previously reunited at Canford for their 30th anniversary in 2006 and again for their 40th in 2016, this year’s gathering was particularly significant. For the first time since they rowed together in 1976, the full crew was back at Canford together.

It was a truly international reunion, with cox Julian Halliday B76 flying in from Ohio and Peter Monk F76, Captain of Boats in 1976, travelling from Sydney. Meanwhile, finding bow man Steve Ball W77 required a particularly determined search, with Jonno Tennant eventually turning to a private investigator, who tracked Steve down within a day in Twickenham, where he is still rowing and regularly attending Henley Regatta.

The crew once again took to the River Stour, with Julian in the cox’s seat for his third anniversary outing with the crew, and also recreated their original 1976 crew photograph.

A huge thank you to Tim Messent, Head of Rowing and the Canford Rowing team for helping to make this very special reunion possible, and to the crew for returning to Canford and sharing their memories of an unforgettable year.

Read Jonno Tennant’s speech below, in which he reflects on the crew’s 1976 season, their coach Derek Drury, and the friendships that have endured for 50 years.

Photographs from the reunion can be viewed here.

Jonno's Speech:

On behalf of the crew, I cannot tell you what an honour it is for the nine of us to be at Canford today once again rowing 50 years on from the summer of 1976 which was such a special year for us.

Of course, there were actually 10 of us and without the 10th member we would not have had the year we did. Derek Drury our coach sadly died a few months after our last outing, our 40th anniversary here at Canford. He was 90. He was a truly unique coach. In his career he coached both Oxford and Cambridge blue boats, Emanuel School, Shiplake, Bryanston and, luckily for us, Canford. He was also the driving force that rejuvenated The Leander Club in the 1960s.

His strategy for crew selection, which these days is more commonplace, was to select his crew strictly from the eight fastest scullers. He kept a large notebook each year in which he planned his strategy for the season with sculling in the winter months come rain, shine or snow through to the heads and then the summer regattas. At the beginning of the Spring term, we raced for a place in the boat. It’s difficult to describe how much focus this process gave you particularly when three of us were upstarts from the lower sixth!

The eight of us were chosen in time for the school’s head in March, one from Beaufort, one from Montacute, one from School, one from Franklin, two of us from the best house, Court and annoyingly three from Wimborne. We are actually today in what was I think Wimborne’s JCR.

We had a very good season as the crew photo with the pots taken that summer shows. We came third in the school’s head, and it felt particularly good that day on the Tideway as we rowed past Eton’s first eight. It was a hot summer that year and, in the lead up to Henley, the river here was so low that it was not safe to row. Derek was not to be beaten by this minor setback, and we rowed on Poole Harbour instead. Those on the beach were amazed to see our beautiful craft being assembled and in that distant less media informed world we were regularly asked, “are you Oxford or Cambridge?”.

On the first outing in the harbour Derek commandeered the school sailing club’s launch and its schoolboy captain as its driver so that Derek could coach us from alongside. We took off across the harbour, and it was immediately clear that the launch simply couldn’t keep up. Aidan the driver, mid harbour, volunteered to get out and wait for us to finish our interval training asking only that he was picked up on the way back! A hair-raising prospect which I’m sure any rowing coach today wouldn’t consider but, in those days, this was simply “character-building stuff” and he duly got out and Derek then drove the boat and coached us for the next 20 minutes. Mercifully Aidan was still there bobbing up and down on our return.

It’s difficult to describe the sense of pride I felt, I think we all felt, in being selected for the eight. We were also proud getting into our Italian made Donoratico eight - the Ferrari of its day - with its highly polished shell. It was a beautiful boat which we called the Don.

We did endless weight circuits in the boat club with equipment which no modern gym would recognise today. We ran along the tow path up to the railway bridge and back just to loosen up before outings - although of course Rob and I had already run down from Court House! And then we would put the boat in - and off we would go upstream towards flag bend, experiencing again that tremendous sense of power and rhythm enhanced I suppose by the many pairs of eyes gazing at our departure.

I could go on – although that was not something I was thinking of as I got out of the boat this morning!! - but I won’t detain you much longer. I had the time of my life here at Canford and although I did all the ball sports to a reasonably high standard once I sat down in an eight everything changed. Here were demands on skill, strength and stamina coupled with the injection of mechanical speed that made it easy for me to give up mud sliding on pitches in the winter and instead I savoured everything that a river can offer in every month of the year.

The camaraderie, the esprit de corps and the friendships you build and the fun you experience in a boat is hard to describe to someone who has not been there but as you can see today that spirit can live on for half a Century.

Thanks to Canford’s generosity we have been able rekindle that spirit here on our 30th, 40th - and today - 50th anniversaries. We are so grateful to you for your hospitality and for the help we have received from Rowena and Rachael in the Development Office and from Tim Messent Head of Rowing. A big thank you to you all.

This year’s outing has been extra special. On neither of the previous anniversary events was I able to assemble the whole crew. Charlie and Peter were working in the Far East and none of the dates would work for them and search as I might I could never find our Bow man, Steve. This year I even signed on to the Ancestry website to see if that might help provide a link and ultimately, I resorted to a private investigator who to my embarrassment found Steve within about a day happily living in Twickenham, still rowing and regularly attending the regatta at Henley! As he said, “Jonno I’ve been hiding in plain sight”!

It is both fitting and poignant that we are complete today since the outing this morning will surely be our last outing together – although I’m quite sure that Rob will be here ready to row at our 75th anniversary. As with the meeting of all really good friends, with whom one has shared very special moments, when we meet it is as if we have never been apart.

I would like to thank Canford for today’s lunch and in closing propose a toast to an absent friend, the late great Derek Drury who created the crew that we became, and I venture to suggest played a part in the making of the men that we became.

To Derek!