Crews out in force at the Peterborough Regatta

LOUISE Shorten and Laura Baird were victorious at the Peterborough Regatta over the weekend as the St Neots’ J13 crew won the higher category J14 doubles event.

The pair beat three home crews in a multi-lane race in far from ideal conditions, as high winds made the 500m course in Peterborough challenging to row in.

Alongside the winning J13 double, 11 other crews from St Neots raced on both Saturday and Sunday.

Ethan Page and Nick Shorten raced on both days in the J15 double sculls category, winning their first heat on Saturday and coming third in the final.

They went on to better this on Sunday, coming joint second overall in the final of the event over 500m.

Page also raced in a single scull, coming in a close second in the J15 singles also.

Things didn’t go quite so smoothly for the boys in the J15 quad, with the crew of Adam Williams, James Moir, Nick Shorten and Page – coxed by Louise Shorten – coming fourth in their event.

Sam Winter and Kyle Morrison raced on Sunday in a double scull senior IM3 category and put in a solid performance against stiff competition, finishing fourth in their final.

The men’s IM3 4+ of Kevin Sadler, Alistair Mackie, Alex Davies and Mick Staddon raced both days of the event.

After a disastrous race on Saturday, the crew reformed in a new combination and took on the competition afresh on Sunday.

In the first heat, the crew cruised to the finish although were beaten in the final.

Staddon and Mackie competed in single sculls on the Sunday. Minutes after racing in the four, Staddon was in a single racing again, finishing fourth in the men’s final of IM3 sculls.

After placing in the first heat, Mackie won the repechage of his event, but was also beaten in the final.

St Neots ladies were represented by three crews on Sunday, two fours racing in the IM34+ and Master’s C 4+ categories respectively and putting in strong performances.

In the Master’s C event, Sarah Porteus coxed Sarah Davies, Lynne Taylor, Vanessa Ponter and Dionne Page – although they lost in the face of strong competition.

The other crew of Alison Brown, Sam Lawrence, Natasha Wilson and Mia Hartwell managed to beat opposition from Peterborough in their heat to make it through to the final.

Coxed by Jemma Phillips, the four went on to finish second in the final, beaten only by a crew from Newark.

The day then ended with both ladies fours combining to form an eight.

And, despite being a scratch crew, the ladies had a good race, keeping the pace up in their final, coming home in fourth.

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ST IVES Rowing Club were back out on the water at the Peterborough Regatta and Sprint over the weekend.

On Saturday, several crews from the club battled the windy conditions, including Mark Watson and Pete Woodford in a Masters double, Gary Gilbey dusting off his single for a race at IM3, then Woodford joining up with Jon Dolby, Chris Newland and Mike Kilby in a Masters quad scull.

Juniors racing were Frances Enticknap in WJ15 1x, and Stefan Gawin in J14 1x.

The club also put out a Masters eight and, despite several good rows, the only win in the tough conditions was Gawin in his single.

Then on Sunday the club again put out a strong field in tough winds, making finals in several events.

The quad of Woodford, Newland, Kilby and Dolby won their Masters event.

Woodford also raced in the Masters single sculls. Rebecca Williams won the women’s Elite single sculls and Sean Bulstrode braved the windy conditions in only his second regatta, racing in the Novice 1x.

Frances Enticknap reached the final in the WJ15 1x and came third overall, Gawin made it a clean sweep with a second win in the J14 1x and Luke Watson and Gawin also reached the final in the J14 2x, having to settle for second place on this occasion.

In other recent club action, Frances Enticknap, Luke Watson and Gawin also raced at the National Schools Regatta.

Enticknap fought hard against strong winds in WJ15 1x but had to settle for reaching the semi final.

Watson and Gawin competed in the J14 2x, and kept their heads in the final to come from behind and take the silver medal position.