Strong Season finish for Royal Chester

The Royal Chester Masters and Juniors squads finished the regatta season on a high with the Masters undefeated at both Stourport and Gloucester and Ross regattas, a clean sweep bringing home a total of 8 category wins.

At Stourport the men’s Masters F eight defeated a strong Nottingham crew by one and a half lengths in the final. The eight then split into two fours which both went on to win their categories, beating Worcester and again Nottingham. The successful day was wrapped up with a win in the mixed Masters F fours against Ironbridge.

The Junior wins started on the Saturday at Gloucester Regatta with the Women’s Junior 16 quadruple scull of Lorna Cowdell, Paige Cox, Amy Morris and Jess Twigg. Oliver Smith then went on to win the J16 single competition after making a thrilling recovery to beat a sculler from the City of Bristol rowing club.

The winning pattern was continued at Ross on Sunday with finals wins in a further four Masters categories. The Masters F four prevailed by just a canvas from the hosts Ross after a very hard race, the Masters E four won by 1.5 lengths from Worcester and the F eight by a convincing 4 lengths from Monmouth/Ross. To cap the day the women’s Masters D coxed four, rowing in the younger Masters C category, beat a strong Evesham crew by one and a half lengths.

The winning women’s/mixed combinations were crewed by Jane Sweeney, Helen, Tweed, Nikki Miller and Irene Adams whilst the men’s squad included John Boothman, Peter English, John Hinnigan, Jack McGarva, Michal Palamarczuk, Nigel Price, Michael Stephens and Adam Wilson. Anna McGarva and Jo Hinnigan provided coxing skills for the masters, which proved decisive in a number of races.

More Junior wins came from the J18 double scull of Jake Freer-Smith and Ben Newell beating Evesham in a very close race and then the J18 quadruple scull of Jake and Ben joined by crew mates Oliver Smith and Gregory Jones to beat local rivals Runcorn - a great weekend for the boys and Jake's last event as a junior.

A further win was gained for Harry and Jack McGarva in the Eights events with the brothers competed in the Nottingham University boat to win the weight of the heaviest crew member in cider and weighed in at 97kg.