THE festive Plum Pudding rowing races is the ideal opportunity to dust off the cobwebs and enjoy one last splash of the year, at an event that features some unique elements, such as a dinosaur for a cox.

Three crews of fancy dress-costumed rowers from Monmouth School battled it out on a windy River Wye for the honour of claiming the plum puddings.

The first race saw ’Jingle my Bells’ and the ‘Here come the Ho Ho Hos’ take to the water with a narrow win for the Jingle team. Then the ‘Santa’s Submarines’ knocked out the ‘Here come’ team despite a near boat collision to leave a gripping final between Jingle and Santa. 

The Santa’s Submarines finally conquered by less than a boat’s length to take first place overall.

The winning Santas were Tomos, Phil, Ollie, James, Ben, George, Patrick Alex and Alec. 

John Griffiths, GB cap and former Master in charge of  rowing said :”It was a great day to finally wrap up some loose ends from my tenure as Master i/c Rowing at Monmouth School.