2015 South Coast Championships 4 Wins!

Bexhill RC capped off a remarkable 2015 season picking up four wins at the South Coast Championship last weekend at Wimbleball lake in Somerset, which was one more than in 2014 and also included retaining the Bideford Bowl for the first time in the clubs history.
The South Coast Championships is the last regatta in the season where clubs from CARA (Kent & Sussex) complete against our neighbours in Hants and Dorset and crews in the west of England with the top two crews from each area in respective categories racing off against each other in a winner being crowned South Coast Champions. There are also a number of ‘Open’ races for other crews to enter that are not in the top 2.
The first win came from the CARA Vet 50 Championship crew of Dave Jones, Clive Bingham, Marc Cowling, Andy Wilson (pictured) looking to improve on their 2nd place finish last year the crew lead from start to finish winning the Vet 50 Open for the first time in the clubs history. The crew also came 3rd in the Veteran 40 open.
The second win came from Ashley Cahill and Doug holdaway, picking up the Mens Open Senior Pairs title, also for the first time in the clubs history. Pulling through the field after a fast start the pair extended their lead winning by a comfortable 4 lengths.
Win number three came in the Ladies J18 4+, with the crew of Charlie Copper, Laura Quinn, Georgina Pepper and Abbie Little (pictured), showing their determination to overall the Shankin crew at the 1000m meter mark to then push on and win the title by 2 lengths. The crew will now be looking to commit to the winter training for the 2016 season.
The J/S crew picked up a hard fought 2nd place, with the junior men narrowly missing out on the final by 1 foot with the mens senior open crew coming 5th in the Senior Open Final. Ladies years South Coast Ladies Champions, had a last minute crew change and picked up 6th in the final. In the junior events Toby Golledge picked up 6th in the J14 single sculls with Abbie Little and Charlie Copper coming 3rd in the Ladies J16 double sculls.
The premier event of the day was Mens Senior Fours, with the crew of Mark Mitchell, Greg Anderson, Matt Hellier, Kieran Cahill and cox Rachel Holdaway going into the Bowl Race as one of the favourites alongside last season’s runners up Itchen Imperial from Southampton. It was the Itchen crew that got the better start taking a length from Bexhill in the first 200 meters. Bexhill then had to work hard to get back onto level terms which they did by the half way mark. Coming around the bend in the lake at Wimbleball with some excellent coxing the crew then took advantage of their lane draw, taking the lead where they then pushed on to win by 1 ½ lengths to the cheers of the crowd and retain the Bideford Bowl.
The regatta caps of a remarkable season for the club where they have once again won the League Title for a record 15th consecutive time.