Gig rowers put their oar in with Robin Hood

THE HISTORY books might not have mentioned this but, apparently, a group of Cornish oarsmen played a crucial role in the tale of Robin Hood.

Instead of riding through the forest it was riding through the surf.

Rowers Andy Bray, Chris Ballinger, John Richards, Dan Berriman, John Teeboon, Pete Postle and Nick Beringer. 1005GH05201rowers
Row your boat – Porthtowan sweep John Richards waits for instructions.
Star turns on the oars – some of the Cornwall oarsmen who appear in the film.
The French Army is rowed ashore by Cornish oarsmen.
Russell Crowe and director Ridley Scott get ready for the Robin Hood finale.
Some of the conditions that the Cornish oarsmen had to tackle.
Horsemen gallop past the beached boats.

At least they do in the latest film version, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchet.

Four surf boat sweeps and three rowers spent a month on the film set, bringing a French army ashore to be slaughtered.

Wonders

The production crew built four wooden boats, although through the wonders of computers on screen it looks to be 100, but needed sweeps and rowers.

They were thinking of shipping them in from Australia until they heard about Cornwall's surf boat crews.

Gig club sweeps Nick Beringer (Perranporth), John Richards (Porthtowan), Dan Berriman (Perranporth) and Andy Bray (Saunton Sands) were recruited along with rowers Chris Ballinger, Pete Postle and John Teeboon (all Perranporth). The £11 million finale scene is supposed to be the English south coast, though in reality it was west Wales.

Mr Richards said: "We spent a month there last summer. It was pretty amazing and very interesting to see the whole process.

"The four boats they built were very fragile and had to be repaired every time they were taken out of the water.

"They were difficult to sweep and, at times, there was quite a large surf running but that didn't matter.

"What they wanted was mayhem and carnage and for the French army to look incompetent.

"After running the boats on to the sand, we all had to dash up the beach. We were killed ten or 12 times every day."

The producers initially approached Mr Beringer, who is president of the UK Surf Rowers' League.

"Ours are the only coastal rowing craft that use a sweep oar, which is what they wanted.

"We had to be careful with the boats and at times I had to say it was too dangerous.

Enthusiastic

"At first everyone was pretty enthusiastic in the way they died.

"People were throwing themselves off the boats and dying in the most spectacular fashion.

"As you ran up the beach, 150 horsemen galloped towards you. The sound of so many horses as you lie on wet sand is quite terrifying and I did get kicked once."

None of the rowers knew much more about the film until Friday, when they all went to the Regal cinema in Redruth.

● To see a trailer go to www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/videomediaplayer.html?vid=6801