Bewdley Regatta weekend was yet another great success for Loughborough Boat Club, especially for the ladies of the club who managed to take home a good collection of pots.

With the 800m regatta race on the Saturday and the 600m sprint on Sunday we had a number of crews hoping to take home some wins.

Saturday however was a relatively quiet day for wins in spite of some tremendous racing and close finishes. However our one win of the day was by Isabelle Senior who had a very close final in her WJ14 single against A B Severn and managed to take the pot by just a quarter of a length in a great battle to the finish. Other crews in the finals that didn’t quite make it this time were Andy Martin and Nick Maker in their MasE.2x who were taken by Hollingworth Lake, Alex Henry and Isabelle Senior in their J14 2x who were pipped at the post by Avon County and Alex Henry in his J14 single racing against Bewdley. Unfortunately we also had a near sinking with Quasi being holed in numerous places having been accidentally steered onto some shallow rocks on the inside of a bend which leant to an exciting disembarking on the landing stage where bizarrely everyone wanted to take photos of the unfortunate event!

Sunday began in a truly typical British fashion with torrential downpours which only got worse as the day progressed with temperatures much below that of Saturday. The crews however were not daunted by the endless hours in the rain, and the wins started to come in. Firstly the W.IM2.4x- which comprised of Libby Gray, Cathy and Annie Beaumont and Zoe Hudson took the final by winning with two and a half lengths lead against Avon County. The WMasC/D 2- of Vicky Haines and Heidi Janicke had a great final beating Upton R C by one length and then went on to win in the W.MasB4+ with Zoe H and Erica Gummery coxed by Bethan Henry against Worcester R C winning by a substantial two and a third lengths. Hannah Ferris also had a good day winning in her WJ14 single against Worcester by one and a third lengths. She also picked up a pot coxing the winning ladies W.IM3 4+ with Bethan, Lucy Agar, Erica and Libby in the crew beating Bridgnorth R C by three lengths. Cathy and Annie picked up a further win in their WIM2.2x against Hereford R C by one and a third lengths.

All in all a fabulous day for the ladies, but yet again we had other crews in the finals which didn’t quite make it. Alex Henry in his J14 1x battled it out yet again against Bewdley, as did Mike Targett in his MasC.1x. Kate Henry and Jen Smith in their handicapped MasC/D 2x and first race together were up against Upton R C and both together with their other halves of Charles Henry and Mike in their Mixed MasC/D 4x- took on Stourport B C in a borrowed boat from Bewdley (having sunk Quasi the day before….). Mike was up again with Scott Ferris in their Mas.C2x against Worcester R C and finally Ruaraidh Little took on another Worcester crew in his Nov1x.