The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Dave’s last race
Peterborough City Rowing Club certainly made home advantage count when hosting their annual Spring Regatta at Thorpe Meadows at the weekend.
They acheieved an impressive 17 wins over the two days of competition, which saw hundreds of rowers from all over the country take part in 130 events.
For Tom Dolby and Tim Halliday it was a hugely successful weekend. The Peterborough pair notched up four wins to secure an entry to the prestigious Henley Regatta late this month.
On Saturday they took the honours in the IM2 doubles before joining a Leicester crew to win the IM1 quads.
Then on Sunday they won the Elite double sculls andthe IM1 doubles as well.
City gained four other wins on Saturday through Archie Sootheran in the J15 single sculls, Ben Mackenzie and Harry Masterson in the J15 doubles, Camilla Plumb in the Women’s IM1 single sculls and Chris Elder in the Novice B single sculls event.
Elder saw off 11 crews to win his heat and final with a time faster than the winner of the Novice A event. The customary dunking followed shortly afterwards!
Sunday saw Peterborough step up a gear as a wider variety of events led to 11 wins.
And it was great to see two of the club’s novice crews win their first points.
First Alex Roberts and Jordan Beale managed to win their heat, semi-final and final in the Novice double sculls, then Sara Basuc won the Women’s Novice Masters B singles by a convincing margin despite only having learned to row last year.
Damen Sanderson, another new rower, joined men’s squad captain Jordan Finding in the IM3 pair to win their final and to give Sanderson his first point.
Two more wins came from the club’s senior squad with James Plumb claiming the IM1 singles title, and Han- nah Chatfield, Megan Stoker, Aimee Parker, Emma Richardson, Caroline Dormor, Bethan Murphy, Laura Désert, Ilektra Apostolidou and cox Hannah Parker winning the Women’s IM3 eights at Peterborough.
The remaining Peterborough wins were provided by the Masters squad.
Tim Ellis had a substantial winning margin in the Masters D single sculls, finishing more than half a minute ahead of his nearest rival.
Ian Davis and Pete Dolby won the Masters D/E pairs in their first event since Ian’s return from injury.
Joan Heat hand Anita Carter took the Women’ s Masters E double sculls with a solid 15-second lead, and finally Jo Canton, Hayley Marsters, Bridge Lloyd and Tina Allen coxed by York University’ s Serena Ward won the Women’ s Masters D coxed fours.