Row responsibly (From Oxford Mail)

Row responsibly

10:00am Wednesday 28th July 2010 in

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ONE morning I was walking by the River Thames.

It was very peaceful, and I decided to take a picture of two large birds with their three young enjoying the warm day.

Then, in the distance, I saw two boats, with their racing crews going at, I believe, almost top speed, with the usual chap following in his motor boat, megaphone to his mouth, shouting and screaming orders to the crews.

By now the birds were directly in the path of the boats bearing down on them.

The two parent birds seemed to sense danger and frantically steered their young, as fast as they could, to the side.

The coach must have seen them but made no attempt to stop or slow his boats down.

At this moment, I would guess they were at top speed.

The oars were flailing in the air, oblivious of the danger they were about to inflict on those birds.

You could see how powerful the strokes were by the amount of water splashing in the air and the position of each oarsman leaning backwards on their powerful oar strokes.

How they missed the birds I will never know. There must have been a very special angel watching over them on that day.

They were swept to one side by the wave motion of the boat and oars, just out of danger.

My heart was beating and I can say, without shame, I shed a little tear of relief for them that morning.

Then, to my disbelief, I saw one of the crews repeat the same manoeuvre going back up the river.

Have these people no shame? Have they no feeling or respect for life at all, especially as the person in charge of the training session could see all in front of him?

Most people, including me, like the thrill of watching a good boat race, but if this is the attitude of the competitors and trainers, then, as far as I am concerned, these people have cast a very dark shadow over their so-called sport.

BILL GOODWIN, Pebble Hill, Radley, near Abingdon