Southsea Regatta Report

Heading into round seven of the regatta season, Bexhill could only manage to take 18 rowers to the last regatta at Southsea last weekend. With Deal RC closing in fast on the league title, the depleted Bexhill squad needed to put in some of their best performances to not give away too many points. Setting the tone for the day, was a win in the Vet 50’s with the crew of Clive Bingham, Dave Jones, Marc Cowling and Andy Wilson returning from their summer holidays to pick up where they left off and lead from start to finish. The crew then took part in the tougher Vet 40’s coming home in 6th place but as the first CARA club they secured a vital championship point. Moving onto the Men’s Novice Sculls saw Martyn Keown finally get his second win and is now promoted to Junior Status, with Josh Green picking up 6th place and the last league point. The Ladies Junior Pair of Charlie Cooper and Abbie little also achieved a 6th place it what was quite a rough sea at this point. The Mens Senior A pair of Matt Hellier and Doug Holdaway came home in 2ndplace and in doing so have now secured enough points to retain the Pairs Championship for the club, a fantastic achievement for the mens squad that have all contributed to this. The B pair of Greg Anderson and Phil McCorry put recent disappointments behind them to come home in 3rd place.

The mens Novice crew of Toby, Kieran, Tim and Tom continue to go from strength to strength rowing from 8th into 5th place on the return leg from the turns.

The final race of the before deteriorating sea conditions forced the regatta to be cancelled with two races remaining was the Mens Senior Fours racing for the pompy grand. Draw lane two the scratch crew of Clive Bingham, Doug holdaway, Matt Hellier and Greg Anderson were bidding to retain the trophy. Unfortunately despite leading the race, a re-row was declared due to other crews sinking. When the race finally restarted the crew could not get back into a rhythm and they themselves started to fill up but completed the race to secure a respectable 4th place.

The club now travel to a double weekend of Hern Bay and Deal, where it is hoped they can take a larger squad of rowers in purist of the elusive 15th league title. For more information about joining and sponsoring the club please visit www.bexhillrowingclu.co.uk