Nicholas Clack

Educated at Wycliffe College in Gloucestershire, Nicholas Clack joined the Royal Navy in 1948 and in a long career reached the rank of commodore. Initially he spent two terms at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth before going to St. John’s College, Cambridge to take an engineering degree. At university he was a member of the Lady Margaret Boat Club and in 1952 became the first Old Wycliffian to compete in the Boat Race.

Clack won the Grad Challenge Cup at Henley with Lady Margaret in 1951. Later that year he was part of the last British eight to win an international title prior to the 2000 Olympics, when they beat Denmark by just three feet (0,91m) to win the European Championships at Mâcon, France. Clack then ended the year by helping Lady Margaret win the Cambridge University Fours. He won the Grand again in 1952 when he was a member of the Leander eight that established a record time for the Henley course. The same crew then went to the Helsinki Olympics and finished fourth.

In 1953 Clack was given permission from the Admiralty to be one of the coaches of the Cambridge crew for the 100th Boat Race in 1954. Sadly, Oxford won the race. Later that year, Clack and Tom Christie competed in the pairs at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games at Vancouver but were beaten in the final by the New Zealand pair Bob Parker and Reginald Douglas.