Rowing: Medal magic for Chester clubs at Dee Autumn Head

ROYAL Chester Rowing Club swept the board at Saturday’s Dee Autumn Head.

Crews from across the country descended on the River Dee but it was Royals who topped both the morning and afternoon divisions.

The club’s IM1 quad scull won Division One in a time 12 minutes and 42 seconds before its senior eight took the Division Two honours in 11:46.

Royals also boasted the fastest female crew of the day as its women’s IM2 eight won their category in 13:21.

The club’s women’s masters D eight had an outstanding row. They were way ahead of the opposition by the last 200 metres when their steering broke. Cox Jo Hinnigan managed to avoid disaster however, and she rallied the girls to a narrow win.

Royals also enjoyed success in the masters C double scull, masters D coxless four, masters E coxed four and women’s J17 double scull.

Hosts Grosvenor Rowing Club were also well represented in the medals.

The club’s masters D quad scull (Nick McDonald, John McMahon, Mike Allwood, Tim Howe), women’s masters B double scull (Rachel Jones, Jo Jones), women’s novice coxed four (Pippa Buist, Becky Read, Lucinda Roberts, Annika Corbijn van Willenswaard, cox Helen Reid) and novice eight (Mitch Hawkins, Steve McBride, Stuart Daulby, Taj Nathan, Mike Leeds, Robert Lawrence, Darren Griffiths, Dominic May, cox Adrian Mullen) stormed to victories in the morning.

Debris and a high tide meant the afternoon proceedings were delayed by nearly an hour. Once the action resumed Grosvenor made use of the fast conditions to take two more medals in the women’s IM3 eight (Margaret Ugbo, Claire Anderson, Roxi Parkinson, Goranka Bosanac, Cath Antrobus, Anna Davies, Yvonne Warburton, Helen Reid, cox Sue Bein) and, in thrilling fashion, the IM3 coxed four (Chris Townsend, John Pearson, James Graves, Gary Graham, cox Sarah Armstrong).

Queen’s Park High School were victorious in J16 quad scull (Joel Langmead, Leon Langmead Ben Archer, James McDermott) and J15 double scull (Joel Langmead, Chris McCartney) as were The King’s School Chester in novice single scull, women’s J15 double scull, IM1 eight, women’s J15 coxed quad, women’s IM3 double scull and women’s J14 coxed quad.

Grosvenor chairman Chris Fawcett said: “Today has been a success thanks to the volunteers from the club. We’re also very grateful to our sponsors including the Good Cheese Company, Hickory’s Smokehouse and Matthew Clark.”