Winners’ trophies in the form of engraved pewter tankards came pouring in for crews from the Loughborough Boat Club in a wide range of rowing events at the recent Stourport Regatta.

The end of the main weekend racing season over distances of 600 and 1100 metres saw wins for crews aged 17 to 60 in almost every classification of boat from Junior Single Scull to Veteran Mens’ Eight.

Large and vociferous crowds on the banks of the River Severn witnessed some dramatic side-by side racing including a dead heat between the Loughborough and Bewdley Masters Eights, followed by a re-match the following day in which Loughborough triumphed by just a few feet.

Junior Under 17 Sculler Tom Scholefield continued his winning form thus confirming his status as one of the Midlands’ most promising young rowers, whilst the Club’s Intermediate 3 Coxed Four achieved a convincing victory in their final against Runcorn thereby gaining well-earned promotion up to the next classification level of IM2 .

Victories also came to the men’s Quadruple Scull against home team Stourport, and to the Novice Double Sculls, who beat Burton Leander and Bewdley with Simon Gee now achieving the Intermediate 3 status which his son Tom had already reached much earlier in the season.

Other notable performances came from the Club’s Under 15 scullers who have made excellent progress throughout the season, and from the highly determined Ladies Coxed Four who fought through to silver medal position by beating a Bradford on Avon crew many years their junior!

The widespread success has not come by chance, but is a well-earned reward for two years of restructuring and hard training at the Club. This has stemmed from development plans instigated and supervised by Club Captain Keith Hudson and Ladies’ Captain Zoë Poyner, who themselves also formed part of the weekend’s winning crews.