For those of you who don’t know, Ballarat High School was first ‘allowed’ to enter in the Head of the Lake in 1944. Even though the school had been rowing in the early 1900s.

In August 2021 we had the privilege of interviewing one of Ballarat High School’s first ever Head of the Lake participants, Mr Noel Frencham. Noel was the stroke seat of the 1944 seconds crew and now at age 93, he might be one of, if not the oldest Ballarat High School rower still alive today.

Some of you might hear the name Frencham and think that sounds familiar, well you are correct, Noel’s Uncle, Ray Frencham was school Principal from 1953 to 1962.

The way Noel got into rowing was nothing special, the school simply put out a call for anyone interested in trying out for rowing and Noel took up the offer. Noel was quite sporty, playing tennis, baseball, athletics but maybe what helped him the most get into rowing was that Noel was a top swimmer completing his Bronze medallion and was undertaking his silver medallion at the time. Luckily Noel did not need to call upon these skills when he took up rowing!

As Ballarat High School didn’t have any rowing equipment or boat shed back then, the boys were lucky enough that Ballarat Rowing Club offered to assist the school with the program. In December 1943 the boys started training. The boys had to do 6am training 5 days per week! For Noel that wasn’t too bad as he lived up the top end of Mair Street at the time and it was just a short walk to training each morning.

There were two main gentlemen who looked after the High School rowing at the time, Mr J Hobba and Mr Fred Luke. Noel wanted to emphasise the great help he received from Mr Luke and could remember him there for every morning training session.

In 1944 it was war time and therefore there was little in the way of activity and events around Ballarat. There were no lead up regattas, just the head of the lake that year. It was the main reason why Ballarat High School had access to all the boats and equipment at Ballarat Rowing Club, so the boys were pretty lucky in that sense.

But luck was not on Noel’s side that year. Noel picked up rowing very quickly and soon established himself as one of the top rowers at High School. He was named as the stroke seat of the first crew and was on track to become Ballarat High School's first ever Head of the Lake Division 1 stroke seat until an unfortunate incident at a baseball match where he broke his middle finger quite badly requiring him to get 4 stitches (you can still see the scar today). Unfortunately he had to drop back to the 2nds crew for the Head of the Lake.

Post school Noel never rowed again but kept up his sport including in 1951 winning the Basketball Country Championships, and kept his involvement in the YMCA Ballarat. Noel had many career pathways since leaving school including 32 years at the S and A Bank, liquor shop owner in Footscray and working in a pattern attorneys office before retiring in Port Fairy. We thank Noel for providing us with his stories and insight into rowing back in 1944.

If you know of anyone else involved in Ballarat High School rowing in 1944 especially, we would love to hear from you.

If you would like to read more about the history of Ballarat High School rowing you can purchase our book, ‘Row Up, High School’. It is available from the Ballarat High School general office, Collins Books on Lydiard Street or online at, https://www.trybooking.com/BTARQ

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