ROWING: NORTHWICH is the first rowing club in the North West to receive the Sport England Clubmark award.

It is another Clubmark first for Mid Cheshire.

Northwich Rugby Club was the first sports club of any kind in the county and seventh in the country to win the award, while Oulton Park and Northwich cricket clubs led their sport in Cheshire, too.

Clubmark is the development and accreditation scheme created by Sport England and national bodies of sport for clubs committed to providing a 'safe, effective and child-friendly' environment and high standards of coaching and equipment.

All sports clubs open to juniors will have to qualify under the Clubmark scheme.

Northwich has an enviable reputation for its junior development and in 1999 the club was chosen by the Amateur Rowing Association to be included in Project Oar-some, with St Nicholas RC High School.

The scheme has given hundreds of youngsters a taste of the sport and North-wich have enjoyed huge success at junior, national and international level. Matthew Langridge's World Junior Sculling Championship victory in 2001 was the finest achievement of the lot and he is now heading for the Athens Olympics in a double scull, having won a World Cup bronze in Poland.

Current rising star is 16-year-old William Laughton who is in the British Junior squad and has sights set on the World Junior Championships in August.

The club will be competing in regattas across the regions over the summer months and will be hosting its own traditional regatta on the River Weaver on

Sunday (sprints) and Monday. Best viewing is now a short walk upstream from the boathouse on the Davenham bank.

Northwich contested the Shrewsbury Regatta in force.

Juniors, seniors and veterans were represented over both the 1,000m and 500m courses, and they returned several winning boats.

Junior double scullers Pete Wood and Scott Alder saw off rivals Runcorn in the final, and the women's senior four coxed four of Lucy Ryder, Esme Taylor, Rachel Law, Kate Agnew, and cox Laura Forrest, over 1,000m.

The same four, who are in training for the National Championships this summer, also won on the sprint course the following day, despite competing in the tougher senior three category.

The men's J16 coxless quad of Stephen Lawton, Kester Reid, Ronan Lomas and Kristian Ormund also won, as did the men's senior three eight of Doug Pickup, Jamie Leighton, Matt Jump, Tom Carter, Nathan Kindley, Tom Green, Neil McKay, Nick Emmett and cox Helen Ferber.