Clive Marshall

Nottingham Britannia Boat Club members Clive Marshall and Dick Nicholson only started racing together in 1959 and won the senior pairs at the Molesey Regatta that year by beating the more experienced Michael Beresford and Colin Porter. The following year the Nottingham duo were runners-up in the 1960 Silver Goblets at Henley. They were beaten in the final by the Oxford University pair of Ian Elliott and D. C. Rutherford, the first winners of the coveted in under eight minutes.

Marshall and Nicholson teamed up again for the coxless pairs at the Roma Olympics the month after Henley, but were eliminated in their repêchage, due to an error of their own making. When they heard the bell to signify the Austrian pair had crossed the finish line, Marshall and Nicholson inadvertently thought it was to signify they had finished the race and they stopped rowing. At the time of the incident, they were in the second place that guaranteed them a place in the semi-final, but Australia continued rowing and overtook the British pair to finish second.

By profession, 21-year-old Marshall was a plumber at the time of the Roma Games. Shortly after the Olympics he started his two-years’ National Service and Nicholson formed a new pairs partnership with Keith Symons. Although he continued rowing after completing his National Service, Marshall eventually retired from competitive racing in 1968 but joined the Nottingham Britannia coaching staff in 1975, when he also rowed with the Britannia’s Veterans’ Four.