STRATFORD-upon-Avon Boat Club’s masters and adaptive squads impressed competing at the Oxford City Royal Regatta and Oxford Sprint Regatta respectively.
The women’s coxed four of Rebecca England, Adrianna Abreu, Lucy Scarlett and Fiona Schulz, ably coxed by Debs Thompson, enjoyed a solid row in their first heat at Oxford City Royal Regatta.
Racing at senior level against a much younger crew from the City of Bristol Rowing Club, Stratford’s quartet maintained composure off the start and began to pull away.
The crew led by just over a length in the final stages and held off a fast finish from their opponents to take the win.
In the semi-final, Stratford took on Wolfson College Oxford’s first four who won their heat by more than five lengths.
Stratford made another strong start and pushed their opponents all the away as Wolfson eventually won by two lengths.
Schulz said: “We had a good row pushing the eventual winners to their closest finish of the day.”
The masters D composite quad of Gina Fusco, Naomi Holland (UTRC), Ellie Davis and Christine Goodwin started well in their first race against a strong crew from Henley Rowing Club.
Fusco at bow steered a clean course and Davies set a great race rhythm allowing the crew to settle in quickly to their race plan and pull away from their opponents.
The crew powered through the rest of the course successfully and saw off a late push from Henley to win the semi-final by a length and a half.
In the final, the crew took on Falcon Rowing Club – a masters E crew who had a seven second head start off the stakeboat due to the age handicapping system.
Despite another good start and two strong pushes during the race, the crew could not claw back the deficit and crossed the line in second place.
Stratford’s adaptive squad raced in the Oxford Sprint Regatta in their last outing of a successful regatta season.
And Stratford won three out of five events entered, suffering narrow defeats in the final of the other two races.
The performance of the day saw James Bastin win the doubles event. Bastin is registered blind and has other impairments.
Racing with one of his occupational therapists, he consistently moved away from his opponents down the 500m course, winning by a comfortable five or six lengths.
He was cheered on by his clubmates, friends and family.
Stratford’s head adaptive coach, Mark Dewdney, said: “It’s always a great day when James wins. He overcomes his disabilities with a smile on his face.”
Mother and son combination, Paola and Ian Ward, dominated their mixed doubles event beating Marlow by four lengths.
Gillian Middleton and racing partner Neville Hand also took on a Marlow crew in their final and won by three lengths.
However, 14-year-old Isaac Clarkson lost his final against an 18-year-old by just two lengths.
He then teamed up with 78-year-old Hand for a thrilling doubles final with the crews never more than a few feet apart as City of Oxford came out on top by around a foot.
Dewdney added: “It’s been an odd season, in the spring events were lost due to flooding and next week’s Ross regatta has been cancelled due to too little water. We would have liked more opportunities to race but when we got the chance, we had about an 80 per cent win rate, we must be happy with that.”
