STRATFORD-upon-Avon Boat Club’s masters rowers enjoyed a fruitful outing in splendid conditions at the Nottingham Masters’ Regatta.
The double scull pair of Amanda Bowden and Suzie Radley raced in ‘The Tempest’ and quickly moved into the lead where they stayed until the finish.
And the pair came home in a time of 4 minutes 7 seconds over the 1km race and received bespoke coronation medals for their efforts.
Bowden said: “The women’s masters double will return to the course for the British Masters’ Championship in June.”
Shortly after, Stratford’s Ed Lewry and Nick Sartain took to the water in the open senior men’s doubles and recovered from a slow start to push through the field and finish third in a close race.
Next up were Heather Hatton and Tom Doherty racing in a combined age group mixed doubles event against two Masters’ C crews average age 43 years, two Masters’ D crews average age 50 years and two Masters’ E crews average age 55 years.
A staggered timed start saw the Stratford Masters E crew chase down the other Masters’ E crew and national champions and race favourites Lakeland out to the 250m mark.
A concerted push saw Stratford manage to stay with Lakeland at the halfway 500m mark as the younger crews began to close on the leading crews which lead to a hard third quarter of the race.
By the 750m mark, Lakeland had moved further ahead with a length of clear water and Stratford were level pegging with Warwick and Nottingham Masters’ C crews.
Big pushes from all three crews saw an exciting finish for second place with Warwick edging in by three seconds and Stratford and Upton being split by half a second with Sudbury and the RAF well beaten in fifth and sixth.
Later in the day, Hayton and Doherty took to the water again in their mixed masters quad with Julian and Tabatha Scrivener from Upton Club to take on a Bentham/Maidstone composite crew in a head-to-head clash.
A fast start saw the Stratford/Upton quad move quickly out of the blocks at a rate of 45 strokes per minute to establish a half length lead by the 250m mark.
And a high tempo push out to the 500-metre mark enabled the Stratford/Upton crew to establish a length of clear water which they built on to win by a comfortable margin.
