{"id":318,"date":"2023-10-07T08:26:35","date_gmt":"2023-10-06T21:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.graftonrowing.asn.au\/web3\/?p=318"},"modified":"2023-10-07T15:15:33","modified_gmt":"2023-10-07T04:15:33","slug":"141-years-ago-today-the-francis-punch-trophy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.graftonrowing.asn.au\/web3\/2023\/10\/07\/141-years-ago-today-the-francis-punch-trophy\/","title":{"rendered":"141 Years Ago Today – The Francis Punch Trophy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 1881, Francis Punch took over the hotel known as “The Corner” on the corner of Pitt and King Streets in Sydney, following the death of the former proprietor, Francis’ brother James Punch.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Francis and James were both rowers and had a keen interest in the sport, with Francis being a member of North Shore Rowing Club and later becoming Vice President of the NSWRA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1882, Francis sponsored a sculling race called the Francis Punch Trophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eleven scullers nominated, including two from England, but only six scullers ended up competing, including Clarence River sculler, Michael Rush, who, in that same year, was one of the founders of Grafton Rowing Club.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Michael Rush<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The competitors were among the best in Australia at the time, including former World Champion Edward Trickett, future World Champion Bill Beach, and triple World Champion challenger Elias Laycock, who was favourite to win the event based on recent racing performances. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Rush was ultimately the winner of the trophy, however, and the \u00a3200 first prize, with the up and coming Beach in second. Trickett and Laycock both put in “disappointing performances”. That \u00a3200 in 1882 is equivalent to over $30,000 now! (Historic money value calculator<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rush used his experience and athleticism to stay in front throughout the racing, as evidenced by newspaper reports of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Source: https:\/\/trove.nla.gov.au\/newspaper\/article\/161922240\/16501688<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

References and further reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initial Punch Trophy Entries<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Punch Trophy First Two Day’s Heats<\/a> continued here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Punch Trophy Final<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another Final Article<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An article about Michael Rush<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An article based on an interview with Michael Rush<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1881, Francis Punch took over the hotel known as “The Corner” on the corner of Pitt and King Streets in Sydney, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.graftonrowing.asn.au\/web3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.graftonrowing.asn.au\/web3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.graftonrowing.asn.au\/web3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.graftonrowing.asn.au\/web3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.graftonrowing.asn.au\/web3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.graftonrowing.asn.au\/web3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":328,"href":"https:\/\/www.graftonrowing.asn.au\/web3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318\/revisions\/328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.graftonrowing.asn.au\/web3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.graftonrowing.asn.au\/web3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.graftonrowing.asn.au\/web3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}