West Norfolk Rowing Club crews and supporters enjoyed a winning and exciting day at St Neots Regatta.
Two WNRC crews raced through to their event finals and successfully brought home trophies.
St Neots hosts a massive annual two-day summer racing event at the town’s Regatta Meadow for all rowing categories, with a 500m side-by-side sprint course on the River Ouse on the Sunday.
The racing was continuous throughout the day from 08:30 until 17:00, with matched pairs of crews racing back towards the clubhouse while others were making their way up the side of the river to the stake-boat start.
Women’s Masters F double scull crew of Liz Palmer and Helen Pryer were competing in a combined Masters E/F/G event, where start time handicaps were used to compensate for age categories.
The West Norfolk crew beat a MasE Peterborough City Boat Club crew by 3.5 lengths in their semi-final and then a MasG Peterborough crew by 1.5 lengths in a thrilling final.
West Norfolk members Owen Lewis and Matty Parle were competing as an RAF/WNRC crew in the Masters B/C/D double sculls event.
They beat a London Otters Rowing Club MasB double by five lengths in their first round, another London Otters double by a verdict of ‘easily’ in their semi-final, and a Bedford Rowing Club MasC double ‘easily’ in the final.
This validated the crew’s consistent training, which had been hindered by circumstances at previous events this summer.
Thomas Williamson also represented the club in the Open single sculls and by Alistair Mackie in a Masters G single scull. Both had good races but narrowly lost.
Additionally, a WNRC Women’s Masters D quad crew and a Women’s Masters E double raced but did not have fortune on their side this time.
A large group of West Norfolk supporters cheered on their clubmates from a riverside spot, and stepped up to help with launching, landing, de-rigging and towing the boat trailer back to the club at Denver Sluice.
There was much celebration as the two winning crews collected their prize engraved glass tankards.
