He rowed in the handicap single-scull race and won the first heat, defeating Cobbett, to whom he conceded five and a half lengths; but in the second series J. Anderson, of Hammersmith, beat him easily.
In March 1877, Elliott had displayed such form and made such fast rowing on the Tyne that he was entered to compete for the championship cup and £250, open to all comers.
with having rowed from Putney aqueduct to the Ship at Mortlake in the fastest time on record, his friends became jubilant, consequently they soon cast about for a fresh opponent, and on the Tyne, Robert Bagnall, of the Ouseburn, and William Nicholson went down before him.
These successes led the Newcastle people to think that they had another champion at hand ready to do battle for the championship, which had vanished from their sight by the last defeat of Boyd by Higgins, and there is little doubt at that time they really had got the best man in the north.
For this most recent event Elliott, after beating Thomas, went home to James Taylor's, at Newcastle, when he was sent to Whitley, journeying to the Tyne each day for his rowing exercise.
Immense interest was manifested in the struggle by the inhabitants of the metropolis of the north, and at 3 o'clock on Monday afternoon there could not have been less than 5,000 persons assembled in front of the offices of the Newcastle Chronicle to learn the result.
When the telegram, "Higgins won easily," was exhibited, therefore, the people were perfectly paralysed, and for a long time they treated the thing as a practical joke.
Elliott was a well formed, muscular athlete, and the fastest oarsman in Great Britain, and boating men both on the Thames and Tyne were confident lie could outrow any one.