WHEN the Boston Rowing Marathon was cancelled, St Ives sculler Pete Woodford decided he wasn’t going to give up all the money he was due to collect for Cystic Fibrosis.
So instead of rowing in Lincolnshire, where excessive river weed had forced the cancellation of the 50km race, he got a team of friends together and all four of them completed the distance on the Great Ooze instead.
Joined by Oliver Robinson, Sean Bulstrode and Gary Gilbey – with Dave Ash adjudicating and timing – Woodford and co paddled up and down the river between St Ives Rowing Club and Hemingford Lock ten times in five hours – and raised more than �700.
The only hiccup came in the last 100 metres when Bulsroke, the least experienced of the scullers, took a dip after a collision with a barge.
On finishing the four were awarded hand drawn ‘St Ives Rowing Marathon’ paper plates made by junior sculler Francis Enticknap as she watched them plod up and down.
There is has been tentative talk of the row becoming an annual event.
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