WYE rowers made a big splash with a dozen wins at their two-day Monmouth Regatta. Dreadful Sunday weather failed to dampen the rowers' racing spirit as 1,000 competitors launched out in 373 boats at the Monmouthshire Building Society-sponsored event. And rowers from Monmouth RC and the three school clubs had plenty to celebrate with victories in three eights events, three in fours, two in quad sculls and four in doubles. Monmouth RC started with a splash of the wrong sort though when Louise Hart and Sally Evans clipped their Bewdley opponents in a tight race for the line and tipped into the river on the finish line. But Brockweir duo Gina Butler and Gill Stott got the ball rolling on the trophy front in Monmouth Rowing Club colours, taking the veteran sprint doubles by a length and a third from their Llandaff final opponents. It was the first of four wins for the town club, followed by Eric Froggatt, Paul Downie, Simon Lee, Paul Carpenter, John Owen, Nick Hartland, James Allison, Andrew Barnett amd cox Dan Rosser beating Llandaff and Belfast over Sunday's 1500m distance to keep the veteran eights pots at home. Chepstow juniors Sam Jump and Patrick Kennealy landed their debut win in U16 double sculls, going head-to-head with their Monmouth Comprehensive School opponents over the metric mile and overhauling them just yards from the line to win by two lengths. And Jackie Fennell, Gina Butler, Jill Judd, Louise Hart and cox Gill Stott also made the podium, racing home for a comfortable win from Belfast in the Senior 4 women's fours event. With the British National School Championships cancelled because of high winds and sinking conditions in Nottingham, Monmouth School landed five wins on Sunday - two of them in eights. James Wragg-Smith, Rodrigo Pearse, Calum Kinloch, Sam Dukinfield, Josh Doyle, David Green, Sam Benson, Tim Battersby and cox Harry Davies landed the Senior 4 title beating Dart-Totnes in their final. And not to be outdone, Matthew Turner, Rhydian Harris, Will Hughes, Alistair Lee, Mark Lewis, Matthew Dryburgh, Ethan Clayton, Daniel Comber and cox Sam Bolingbroke landed the novice crown with a 2 1/2L win over Bristol Ariel, followed by a 2L victory from Reading University. Turner, Harris, Hughes and Comber had double delight by winning novice fours as well, with Matthew Gray steering them to victories over Birmingham and De Montfort universities before seeing off City of Oxford by 4L in the final. Dryburgh was another two-time winner with Battersby, teaming up with James Robinson, Jake Clayton and Matthew Amos to win Senior 4 fours by some 3L from Bridgnorth. And Dukinfield also doubled up with Rob Tod in men's novice doubles, beating City of Oxford in their final. Monmouth Comprehensive's scullers landed two wins, with Hannah James, fresh from singles victory at Shrewsbury Regatta, and Jo Clarke on song in the 1500m women's Senior 4 doubles to beat Monmouth RC and Gloucester, and Rhys Powell, Dan James, Richard Russell-Broome, Ed Stitt and cox Sam Perkins seeing off Monmouth School in their final to land the U14 quad sculls crown. Haberdashers' women's novice four were among the unluckiest, losing an epic final battle with Birmingham University by just six feet over Sunday's metric mile final after wins over City of Oxford and Birmingham University. But their U14 girls quad roared home to beat Monmouth CS and their own B crew to land their event, Emily Allison matching Monmouth RC dad James by picking up silverware alongside crewmates Lizzie Grant, Saskia Breet, Ellie Dimitria- Rich and cox Georgia Davis. It was a long hard build-up and weekend for the regatta organisers, but spokesman John Griffiths said: "We pretty much ran to time with 277 races in 20 hours over the whole weekend, and it was an outstanding achievement considering the weather. "We had a difficult gusting tailwind on Saturday and heavy rain on Sunday - the third year running we've been soaked - but the way the whole club and our volunteer helpers like Monmouth Rotary Club pulled together was very impressive. It was truly a team effort that got us through very trying conditions. " Clubs among the 42 entered included both Belfast rowing and boat clubs, City of Oxford, Thames Tradesmen, Wallingford and Reading University from the Thames, Huntingdon from Cambridgeshire and Exeter and Dartmouth from the West Country. Monmouth School product James Knight helped his Maidstone club return home with a hatful of posts, including a win in Saturday's top men's eights race. But Reading University took the honours in Sunday's event after an epic tussle with City of Oxford that saw them
