MONMOUTH'S veteran oarsmen and women pulled their way to a giant haul of medals at the British Rowing Masters Championships in Nottingham.

The Monmouth Rowing Club's (RC) medals included three championship golds and five silvers in its 11-medal success at the National Water Sports Centre, with Mark Stewart-Woods taking six medals from his six events at the two-day 1,000m regatta.  

His two golds and four silvers included victory in the C eight (average age over-42) as he and James Allison, Eric Froggatt, Nick Hartland, Lenny Colling, Simon Lee, Steve Randall, Laurence Morgan and cox Lizzie Grose dominated their four-boat final from the off, winning by two and a half lengths from Upper Thames.

Nearly 800 boats from 124 clubs entered the championships, with Monmouth RC's scullers involved in the two closest races of the regatta on day one.

Former Australian state singles champion Stewart-Woods, 51, showed his class by dropping down two age groups and coming within a whisker of taking the B singles (over-36) title.

The C quadruple scull of Stewart-Woods, Colling, Allison and Morgan shipwrecked after 300m and were trailing in third at halfway.

But they powered right back to take silver in a blanket finish by just 0.13secs from Ardingley, with Bewl Bridge just hanging on for gold by six feet.

Stewart-Woods made no mistake in the C singles final (over-42) though, as he cruised to gold by more than two lengths from his nearest St Ives opponent.

But with only gold and silver on offer in the B doubles final, Colling and Morgan were squeezed out of the medals in third when they clipped a buoy just metres from the line to lose out by 0.21secs.

On day two, Colling, Randall, Lee, Stewart-Woods and cox Grose had another gut-busting tussle in the C coxed fours final after having to borrow a replacement boat at the last minute.

They went through half-way four feet down on York, and looked as though they might get their bows in front at any second before running out of water, taking silver.

It was silver again for Lee and Stewart-Woods in the over-36 pair final, forced to do the B event because of race schedule clashes, in a time that would have won their normal older age-group event.

Allison, Hartland, Randall and Colling took silver in the over-36 coxless fours, half a length down on Agecroft, in the regatta's fastest fours race.

The C eight then struck gold half an hour later before Allison, Hartland, Morgan and Froggatt were out there again in the last race of the regatta, seizing the initiative from the off in the over-42 coxless fours final to come home two thirds of a length clear of Ardingly.

Earlier, John Benson held on to his handicap by four seconds to win gold in the over-60s intermediate singles, while Gabby Miles, Helen Tilley, Helen Campion and Theresa McCarthy beat Norwich to land the women's over-50s novice quads gold.

McCarthy then doubled up by also grabbing over-55 novice singles gold from Dart Totnes. 

In the mixed over-50s eights final Monmouth were squeezed into second by half a length by Wallingford, while in other finals, the women's over-42 finished second, the women's over-50s eight finished fifth and the over-60s eight and four both placed fourth.