Philip Arthur Cayzer OAM, (13 May 1922 – 15 July 2015) was an Australian national champion

rower Rowing, sometimes called crew in the United States, is the sport of racing boats using oars. It differs from paddling sports in that rowing oars are attached to the boat using oarlocks, while paddles are not connected to the boat. Rowing is ...

who won medals in the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad ( fi, XV olympiadin kisat; sv, Den XV olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952 ( sv, Helsin ...

and the

1950 British Empire Games The 1950 British Empire Games was the fourth staging of what is now called the Commonwealth Games. It was held in Auckland, New Zealand between 4 and 11 February 1950, after a 12-year gap from the third edition of the games. The main venue was ...

. He coached at state and national representative level taking Australian Olympic crews to success in the 1960s.

Rowing career

Cayzer was schooled at St Joseph's College, Hunters Hill and his senior rowing was done with the

Sydney Rowing Club Sydney Rowing Club is the oldest rowing club in New South Wales, Australia formed in 1870. It has occupied its current site on Port Jackson's Parramatta River at Abbotsford Point since 1874. The club has a focus on its high performance and elite ...

with whom Cayzer would have a lifelong association. During the 1970s in Melbourne he would be a senior clubman at the Mercantile club. He stroked the New South Wales representative eight in the King's Cup at the Interstate Regatta within the

Australian Rowing Championships Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

on five occasions from 1948 to 1954. Those crews won the national championship in 1949, 1950 and 1951. Following New South Wales' 1949 win in the King's Cup, the crew was selected in toto to represent Australia in the eights competition at the

Empire Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

at Lake Karapiro in February 1950, where Cayzer stroked the crew to victory over New Zealand by just a foot. The New South Wales 1950 Kings Cup win also resulted in the opportunity to represent Australia and the crew travelled to the Canterbury Centennial Games and 1951 New Zealand Championships, defeating the University of California by a canvas in both races. An all-New South Wales crew was selected to represent Australia at the 1952 Henley Royal Regatta and

1952 Helsinki Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad ( fi, XV olympiadin kisat; sv, Den XV olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952 ( sv, Helsin ...

. At Henley in the final for the

Grand Challenge Cup The Grand Challenge Cup is a rowing competition for men's eights. It is the oldest and best-known event at the annual Henley Royal Regatta on the River Thames at Henley-on-Thames in England. It is open to male crews from all eligible rowing ...

the crew, again stroked by Cayzer, placed second to Leander by 0.8 seconds. The same crew then competed in the Olympic eights in Helsinki, winning a bronze medal behind USA and Russia.

Coaching career

After retiring from rowing Cayzer took up coaching. He was the Senior Coach at the

for most for the sixties while also coaching numerous New South Wales representative Kings Cup crews. He coached the coxed four of Alf Duval,

Alan Grover Alan Geoffrey Grover (24 September 1944 – 12 May 2019) was an Australian representative rowing coxswain. He was a six-time national champion and triple Olympian who steered Australian crews at the 1964, 1968 and 1972 Summer Olympics. Gro ...

, Mick Allan, John Campbell and Gary Herford selected to compete at Tokyo 1964. He drove

's association with Olympic representative crews recruiting a number of national senior rowers to join Duval, Grover and Joe Fazio at Sydney to create the men's eight for the

1968 Summer Olympics The 1968 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1968), officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XIX Olimpiada) and commonly known as Mexico 1968 ( es, México 1968), were an international multi-sport eve ...

. He coached the crew both in Australia and in Mexico. In the 1970s Cayzer relocated to Melbourne for business and became actively involved at the Mercantile club, rowing in social crews and becoming one of the club's most senior coaches. He returned to Sydney in the 1980s and continued to coach club, state and national crews till the early 2000s. SRC Cayzer biog 1952 Aust RowingSquad

References

External links

Phil Cayzer's profile at Sports Reference.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cayzer, Phil 1922 births 2015 deaths Australian male rowers Olympic rowers for Australia Rowers at the 1952 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for Australia Rowers at the 1950 British Empire Games Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Australia Olympic medalists in rowing People educated at St Joseph's College, Hunters Hill Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games medallists in rowing Australian rowing coaches Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia 20th-century Australian people Medallists at the 1950 British Empire Games Rowers from Sydney Sportsmen from New South Wales