Rowing

Most of the rest of Yorkshire may well have been on flood warning last weekend but the River Don at Sprotborough near Doncaster seemed to have received divine exemption.

While the Ouse at York was so high that rowers from the city could not even get to their boathouses to bring their boats to the South Yorkshire Head of the River race, an attractive section of the Don which provided excellent if somewhat chilly conditions for the annual early season three mile rowing time trial.

The event attracted 130 entries from all over the north of England and turned out to be another successful day out for crews from Tees Rowing Club.

It was their Veterans who led the way, competing in the Over-55s Coxed Fours category, defeating opposition from Durham and Sheffield with a winning time of 14min. 14 sec. The crew of Chris Kenyon, Alan Parsons, John Green, Philip Stephenson and cox Sarah Smith also scored three other firsts - their first win in a long distance race, the first win for their new boat (appropriately named "Last of the Summer Wine") and the first time that Sarah had coxed in a race of this type.

Not to be outdone, David Cooper and Paul Buckworth carried on where they had left off at the previous week's Durham event by winning Open category double sculls in a time of 12min 58sec.

The Tees club's coxless pair of Stuart Taylor and Martin Leach made it a hat-trick when they won the Senior II coxless pairs taking 13min 32sec to cover the course.

In the women's junior double sculls for Under-16 Helena Malcolm and Thirzah Francis continued the promising start made by the club's juniors by producing the fourth Tees win of the day,their time 15min. 35sec.

The excellent results mean that Tees Rowing Club continue to head the Women's Northern Rowing League table and their men hold on to second place in the Men's League.

River Tees crews will have a busy time at the weekend racing at Newcastle tomorrow and Nottingham on Sunday.