A small team from Ryde Rowing Club competed in the Southampton Coastal Head of the River Race on Saturday – a time trial staged over two divisions, over four and a half miles on the River Itchen.
The race was the final warm-up event before the start of the Hants & Dorset ARA Championship Regatta season.
In the first division, a Coastal Junior Four of James Smith; Will Ford; Joe Groves; Jacob Redstone and cox Austin Smith did well to finish in 7th place in their status in a strong and very competitive field.
In the 2nd division, the Men’s Novice Four of Tom Kearney; Joel Smith; Dom Douglas and Ben Toms with Austin coxing once again also did well in an equally strong field finishing in 11th place.
The Ryde Club would like to put on record its thanks to Newport Rowing Club for taking their boat for them.
Four of these oarsman, Joe Groves; Jacob Redstone; Joel Smith and Dom Douglas with cox Austin Smith and reserve Ben Toms – who are all J16 oarsman – travel to Nottingham this weekend (25th April) where they have been selected to represent the Wessex Region in the J16 Boys Coxed Fours event at the GB Junior Inter-regional regatta, maintaining the Clubs long tradition of having crews selected to represent the region.
