Martin Spencer, who passed away on 26th November 2019 at the age of 71, was the stroke man in a successful double, with Bob Prentice at bow, which was the first to win the Double Sculls event for the Club at Henley, in 1976.
LRC had established a happy association in the 1960s and 1970s with two leading East End clubs, Poplar Blackwall & District RC and the National Dock Labour Board’s Argosies Club. London provided racks for boats and a base for training in the somewhat calmer waters of Putney up to Teddington. The real story behind Martin and Bob’s success, however, was the coaching of Doug Melvin. It is one worth telling, and we are indebted to Bob Prentice for the following account:
“Both Martin and I started our rowing careers at Poplar in the early sixties. It was sometime in the early seventies that we both found ourselves at Hammersmith; I was sculling out of Auriol training for the youth championships and Martin was sculling out of West End boathouse, racing for Argosies.
At this time London was under renovation [the major development of 1969-72, when the entire clubhouse and boathouse were vacated] and a lot of the sculling bays had to be cleared, including Doug Melvin’s. What a stroke of luck ! At one of the local regattas I was introduced to him by the Captain of Poplar, John Skelton. John had so much cheek – he asked Doug to coach me. Thankfully Doug did just that.
When London re-opened Doug said he would still coach me, but I would have to move down and join London so I did. Martin still sculled for Argosies but used one of the London racks, so we trained together. We did some racing in a double under London & Argosies; this was quite successful, along with our singles under the eye of Doug.
Come 1976 both Martin and I trained in the Olympic squad [for Montreal] under Mike Spracklen; I got dropped a long time before Martin. I will always believe that Martin should have gone to those Olympics.
This is when it started properly. Doug got us together and said we have to do a double and go to Henley – ‘no doubling up in the Diamonds, you just do the double under LRC’ – we both jumped at it. We first raced in Doug’s double that he bought from Farn Carpmael. It was a big boat for us but we won all the major regattas in it that year; Come Henley, Doug loaned Theo Nomicos’s boat, perfect for us. Doug told us what would happen in the final and he was right! We owe all his to Doug and we have never forgotten that. That year we went on to win the Championships and Home International for LRC.”
The Henley records show that both finallists in the Double Sculls won their earlier rounds by at least thr ee lengths. The final was against van Drooge and Nolet of ASR Nereus, Holland. The Dutch double led by a length at the quarter mile until after the three quarter mile when Prentice and Spencer began to close up. They drew level just beyond the mile and a spurt at the beginning of the enclosures put the result beyond doubt; they won by 2 lengths in a time of 7m. 22secs.
Martin had a lifetime on the river. He was bound as an apprentice waterman and lighterman, being admitted to the Company as a Journeyman Freeman in 1969. He won the Doggett’s Coat & Badge Wager race in 1970 (Bob was to do the same in 1973) and became a Waterman to HM The Queen in 1996. He was a longstanding member and past Captain of Poplar Blackwall & District RC. He attended London’s Annual Dinner in 2014, when a Doggetts’ honours board was presented to the Club.
