When Jack Phelps won the Doggett's Coat and Badge in 1928, he could not have imagined that, 93 years later, the race could be viewed anywhere using a pocket telephone. Jack's trophies displayed here include the Hammersmith Badge for 1924, the Kingston Badge for 1927, the 1928 Staines Easter Sculling Rum Tum Handicap (90 entries), the 1928 Putney Town Sculling Handicap (80 entries) and the Putney Town Championship Sculls (won outright, 1928 - 29 - 30).

7 September 2021

By Tim Koch

Tim Koch on DCB307.

Some hold that you can never have too much of a good thing and on Wednesday, 8 September, will see the second Doggett's Coat and Badge Wager of 2021. The first was run on 25 June and was the pandemic delayed 2020 race. The official website tells us that Wednesday's race for the 2021 title can be viewed free on-line with live video commentary and thereafter is available on-demand:

The broadcast starts at 11:35 hrs BST with the race itself getting under way at 11:45 hrs. Four competitors will battle it out on the 7,400 metres upstream course from London Bridge to Chelsea: Coran Cherry, Lucas Britton, Max Carter-Miller and George Gilbert. The umpire will be the 1973 Doggett's winner Bobby Prentice, Barge Master to the Fishmongers' Company, and race commentary will be provided by the Voice of Rowing, Robert Treharne Jones. Watch from 11:35 hrs on Wednesday, 8 September on YouTube.

The boys who will race for the 307th Doggett's: George Gilbert, Lucas Britton, Max Carter-Miller and Coran Cherry. Picture: Facebook.

Doggett's: Before, during and after

In training. Pictured in 2020, George Gilbert, a Mate at CPBS Marine Services, gets into shape for Doggetts onboard "Seadog", one of the two barges moored near Hammersmith Bridge when it was thought that the Victorian span was in danger of collapse.
Going afloat, 1935.
The start of the 1906 Race.
The winner in 2012, Merlin Dwan, about 1000m in.
With nearly 3000m of the 2018 Doggetts gone, the eventual winner, Alfie Anderson (left) leads George McCarthy (right).
Approaching 6000m, the 2017 winner, Jack Keech, nears the old Battersea Power Station.
At the finish, 7400m, George Wright wins the 1869 Race.
Celebrating after the 1937 Coat and Badge. On the left is Henry Thomas Silvester (1932), in the middle is his younger brother, William Fredrick Silvester (1937) and on the right is their father, Henry Silvester (1905).
The winner's coat and breeches are tailor-made for him. Here, the 2013 winner, Nathaniel Brice, is measured for size. Picture: Twitter.
The 2012 winner Merlin Dwan, wearing his coat and badge for the first time in public, is presented to the Prime Warden of the Fishmongers' Company at a grand dinner held in Fishmongers' Hall in November.
A course map for those who can attend Doggett's in person – as Jack Phelps would have expected.