Bill Beach

Infobox Person
name = William Beach


image_size = 200px
caption = Bill beach, Champion Sculler of the World 1884-1887
birth_name = William Beach
birth_date = 1850-09-06
birth_place = Chertsey, Surrey,England
death_date = 1935-01-28
death_place = Brownsville, New South Wales, Australia
death_cause =
resting_place = St Luke's Church of England cemetery
residence =
nationality = Australian
other_names =
title = World champion sculler
height =
weight =
term = 1884 - 1887
predecessor = Edward Hanlan
successor = Peter Kemp

William Beach (1850-1935), was a famous professional Australian sculler. He was unbeaten as World Sculling Champion from 1884 to 1887.

Born on 6 September 1850 at Chertsey, Surrey, England, to Alexander Beach, blacksmith, and his wife Mary, née Gibbons. Beach's family migrated to New South Wales while he was a small child and he lived at Dapto for most of his life, learning to row on Lake Illawarra. He began his sporting career in a wooden tub on the Macquarie Rivulet and ended it as champion sculler of the world.

Beach trained as a blacksmith like his father and for some time appears to have been a fisherman. According to local legend, Beach won his first race as a teenager against a local publican, either for a bottle of brandy or 5s.

Early Rowing Career

Beach was said to have visited the sculler, Edward Trickett, but the date of his first race on Sydney Harbour is uncertain: the Illawarra Mercury, 1 February 1935, claimed 1875-76 but the Town and Country Journal, December 1881, recorded that he won the handicap skiff race for amateurs on Woolloomooloo Bay on the 24th.

Among the donors of his £25 prize was J. Deeble, a publican who became his sponsor. In other races he was said to have won £150 with which he built his home at Dapto. On Boxing Day at Pyrmont he was beaten in the allcomers' handicap skiff race by A. Pearce. On 25 February 1882 he won £50 in a match with Solomons, and in October in his first outrigger race he was second for the Punch trophy on the Parramatta River, finishing ahead of Trickett.

In December 1883 he defeated Trickett for the James Henry trophy of £150. On 26 January 1884 he finished ahead of Trickett but, after a protest, lost when the race was rowed again; on 12 April he beat Trickett for £200 a side, the championship of Australia and the right to race against Ned Hanlan.

Champion Sculler of the World

Beach was 33 when he challenged Hanlan for his first attempt at the world title. Hanlan had come to Australia that year to give sculling exhibitions. He claimed he was out of condition and went off on tours of all the eastern states. However Beach's credentials seemed limited and the Canadian reputedly had never lost a race. Hanlan believed Beach wouldn't stand a chance.

The race was on the Parramatta River was on 16th August 1884 and was rowed over a distance of 3 miles 330 yards (5.13km). Beach won by 6 lengths.

After the race, Hanlan could not accept the fact that his long reign had ended, blaming the Australian climate, the treacherous tides and an excess of hospitality for his defeat, which he took so badly that he refused to attend the customary celebrations for the pay-over of stakes.

Beach went on to row unbeaten in the next six World Sculling Championships held in Australia and England. Defending it three times the following year, against Clifford on 28 February , Hanlon on 28 March and Matterson on 18 December.

In March 1886 Beach left for London and in August won the final of the International Sweepstakes on the Thames for a prize of £1200. On 18 September he successfully defended his title against Gaudaur on the Thames; in this exhausting race each rower in turn stopped and slumped in his boat. After beating Ross for £1000 and the world championship, he returned to Sydney in December.

He was met by the president of the Rowing Association who congratulated him 'on his great achievements … [and] his steady, careful, upright and manly character'. Welcomed as a hero by band and banners, he was presented to Governor Lord Carrington and his lady on the way to Sydney Town Hall where he was met by the mayor and the premier and given an illuminated address.

Special trains ran from Sydney, Bathurst and Goulburn on 26 November 1887 when, on the Nepean, Beach again defeated Hanlan for the world championship. After the race he announced that he would hand the title to his young training partner, Peter Kemp, instead of accepting his challenge. On the Parramatta River on 27 November 1888 in a race with Hanlan for £500 a side, Beach won by three lengths in the presence of 5000 spectators. Beach was then 5ft 9½ ins (177 cm) tall with a 42 ins (107 cm) chest, 15½ ins (39 cm) biceps, 16 ins (41 cm) calf and a weight of 170 lbs (77 kg).

Life After Sculling

After a short time in Sydney he returned to Dapto to his home in Kanahooka Road - 'Champion Cottage' - until his death in 1935 at the age of 84. At Dapto, Beach was made a trustee of the showground and Gooseberry and Hooker Islands in Lake Illawarra, and also became president of the Regatta Club, alderman of the Central Illawarra Council and patron of the Boy Scouts.

In 1873 at Brownsville he married Sarah Duley; they had six sons and six daughters. He died at Brownsville on 28 January 1935 and was buried at St Luke's Church of England cemetery. He was predeceased by his wife and survived by ten children.

Monuments in his memory are in Cabarita Park, Sydney, and in Bill Beach Park, Mullet Creek, Dapto.

References

* Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 3, Melbourne University Press, 1969, pp 122-123.
* http://www.wollongong.nsw.gov.au/library/localinfo/brownsville/history.html Brownsville history
* Athletic Sports in America, England, and Australia (Philadelphia, 1889);
* Town and Country Journal, Dec 1881–Nov 1887
* Burrangong Argus, 12 Sept 1886
* Sydney Morning Herald, 28 Dec 1888
* Illawarra Mercury, 19 Dec 1924