Angus Mackay (G70) and Dan Moore (G67), former members of Churchill College Boat Club, have donated Canon Duckworth’s rowing timer to the Churchill College Archives Centre.
Angus and Dan rowed ‘Threesacrowd’ for the College Boat Club in many races during their time here (the Coxless pair at Oxford Town Regatta 1973, Henley 1973, Kingston Sprints 1973, Boston Marathon 1973 and Boston Marathon 1977). Earlier this year, Angus finally unpacked some 45-year old rowing kit following the Boston Marathon in 1977, to find the strokes watch used to measure strokes per minute in rowing, which was given to him and Dan by Canon Duckworth on his retirement from College in 1973. It has now been conserved and is safely in the Churchill Archives.
The timer was a gift to the Canon, being inscribed Marya and Alan 6-9-60. Unfortunately nothing is known of this couple. What is certain, he must have used this timepiece to exhort, in his own inimitable manner, hundreds of past members of the Boat Club to ever greater exertions.
Fittingly, CCBC has also just refurbished the boat, Canon Duckworth, thanks partly to donations from alumni; it is now the men’s second boat.
Photo: Tom Upton (U15), outgoing CCBC Captain, with the restored Duckworth timepiece in the Churchill Archives Centre
