Between today and April 19 when the crew season starts, Coach Tom Bolles will have to find the right assortment of eight oarsmen out of a choice of 735,471 possible combinations. It will, of course, be impossible for Bolles to test even a fraction of this number of alignments, but the figure indicates the puzzle that confronts a crew coach.

The problem of finding the RIGHT crew looked like it might be a relative cinch earlier this year. Bolles got his men out on the river February 27 as against March 16 last spring. Since the training edge of a crew is roughly proportional to the mileage it gets in on open water, the early start was a big break.

Nor was there any shortage of competent personnel. Only one man, Ted Reynolds, had graduated from among the men who rowed on the 1950 varsity, a boat that lost one race all season, and that by a tenth of a second. The only manpower problem, everybody thought, was to find a replacement for Reynolds' number four spot, and three men, sophomore Phil Dubois and seniors Ted Anderson and "Buffy" Bohlen seemed like able substitutes.

Three men were also available to replace 1950's graduated captain-coxswain Bill Leavitt. Except for the annoying vicissitudes of weather and water conditions, crew practice during March and early April should have been a matter of polishing and physical training rather than selection.

But things didn't work out that way. During the very first weeks of practice the first boat, with pretty much the same lineup as last year except for Reynolds, was property superior. But starting around a week ago, the J.V. shell began to come close in practice races and early this week it began winning. Apparently, sophomores, up from last season's excellent freshman crew, were learning fast and showing their elders they were at Newell to compete. Bolles began to have to look for a combination that was clearly superior and that's why he's now troubled with the figure 735,471. Fortunately, the engaging crew coach has an uncanny instinct for the right eight.

The oarsmen this morning will launch a rigorous spring vacation practice program that starts at around 7:30 a.m. "No more breakfast than a glass of juice and a cup of coffee," the wily coach warned them yesterday. "There's already enough sediment in the river."