WHERE ARE THEY NOW - DICK JOYCE ?

JOSEPH ROMANOS LOOKS BACK TO THE ‘GOLDEN AGE’ OF NEW ZEALAND ROWING TO REVISIT WITH ONE OF OUR GREATS AND DISCOVERS WHAT HE’S BEEN DOING SINCE.

Dick Joyce was a central fi gure in a memorable era of New Zealand rowing, being part of his country’s fi rst two gold medalwinning Olympic crews.

These days he’s a successful businessman in the Hutt Valley and has been in the news a bit for various reasons. Last year, he was inducted into the Legends of Wellington Sport and a few weeks ago was among the Olympians honoured at various functions around the country. They each received a pin to acknowledge their status as Olympians. Joyce is snowy-haired these days, but still looks formidably strong.

The tall former Wellington High School student didn’t begin rowing until he was 18, having previously been a competitive swimmer. He quickly impressed rowing followers and was chosen to represent New Zealand in North America in 1967. Surprised by this sudden elevation, he opted to fi nish his engineering degree at Canterbury University. “I don’t think that decision was too popular with the selectors,” he said.

However, before his fi nal year of study was fi nished, Joyce was called into the New Zealand team, as the stroke of the coxed four for a home test series against Australia in late 1967.

Coach Rusty Robertson pinpointed Joyce as an oarsman with the physical and mental attributes to be a champion.

Joyce was chosen in the coxed four for the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. Like the rest of the four, he had been seeking a spot in the New Zealand eight. But after a few weeks in camp at Kerrs Reach, Christchurch, the four realised they had a special chemistry. In Robertson’s words: “When they got together, they were they funniest-looking crew you’d ever seen.” This dark horse status was to work to their advantage.

The eight, so impressive in the build-up to the Olympics and in the early rounds, crumbled late in the fi nal and came fourth. The New Zealand oarsmen fi nished in a state of distress, mainly because of the thinner altitude at Mexico City.

However the four – stroke Joyce, Dudley Storey, Ross Collinge and Warren Cole, plus cox Simon Dickie - never put a foot wrong, winning their heat and semi-fi nal, though not in the fastest times. In the fi nal they pushed their bow ahead at 300m and continued to attack, winning by nearly three seconds, from East Germany and Switzerland. That was the last time they raced together – three races, three victories, and the gold medal.

Joyce was then elevated to the eight, taking the No 4 seat, and was in the crew that fi nished third at the 1970 world championship at St Catherine’s, Canada, after earlier winning the United States national championship at Camden, Philadelphia.

In 1971 Joyce was promoted to the No 6 seat in a revamped eight that won international races at Duisburg, Germany, and Klagenfurt, Austria. When the eight beat the feared East Germans to win the European title at Copenhagen, they were awarded the International Olympic Committee’s Taher Pacha Trophy for excellence in amateur sport.

The New Zealanders were among the favourites at the 1972 Munich Olympics and duly delivered. Robertson prepared them well, and they responded by outclassing a quality fi eld to win by nearly three seconds, from the Americans and East Germans. This was a signifi cant victory for the “amateur” New Zealanders over the “professional” northern hemisphere crews. “The medals were presented by Avery Brundage, the IOC chief,” said Joyce. “I think he was delighted with our victory because he was a staunch advocate of amateur sport.”

New Zealand’s rowing stocks were never higher than that emotional day at Feldmoching when the eight – Tony Hurt, Wybo Weldman, Joyce, John Hunter, Lindsay Wilson, Athol Earl, Trevor Coker, Gary Robertson and, again, cox Dickie – stood on the dais, gold medals around their necks, listening to God Defend New Zealand while they shed tears of joy.

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STORY BY + JOSEPH ROMANOS
PHOTOS COURTESY + JOSEPH ROMANOS