Edward Trickett - First Defence

First Defence

In June the following year fellow Australian Michael Rush (rower) challenged Trickett for the World Championship. The scullers had raced before for the New South Wales Championship but the race was unequal because Trickett used the new sliding seat and Rush continued to use a fixed seat. The stake for the World Title was £400 a side. Rush had not learned his lesson and again used the fixed seat while Trickett used a sliding seat which gave him a huge advantage notwithstanding claims to the contrary by Rush’s backers. The course was on the Parramatta River, Sydney, over a distance of about three and a half miles. After an even start Rush went ahead and by Uhr’s Point was a clear length ahead. However, by the mile and a half point Trickett had overtaken the leader and from then on the race was a procession and he crossed the line twenty-two seconds ahead. The total time was 23m.26.3s. Alan May wrote in Sydney Rows magazine that it was "a race that was said to have excited more interest than any other event that has ever happened in the sporting world of Australia." Some fifty thousand people were said to have witnessed the race. Trickett won several non-title races over the next couple of years and earned enough money to buy a hotel. He became licensee of Trickett's Hotel and later became the proprietor of the International Hotel which was located on the corner of Pitt and King Streets in Sydney. However, in June 1878, he was involved in an accident when a rolling keg of beer crushed his hand and several fingers had to be amputated. This was to affect the balance of his stroke in future races and was possibly the cause of the downturn in Edward Trickett's rowing.