Great news! Our men's 8 put on two fantastic races at Bedford yesterday and have come away with their first regatta win, in their first regatta race!

First up in the semi-final was a race against Norwich School; quite a young crew but probably still with more race experience than some of our guys, for a couple of whom it was their first ever regatta race! Nerves did show and the start was a bit panicky, but fortunately they were still more than fast enough and won by 3 lengths.

In the final they came up against Bedford Rowing Club itself! It was fair to say this was a pretty hotly anticipated race given that it was a 'local derby' and given the history of some of the people in both boats ;-) While the Bedford Crew was more experienced, they hadn't been rowing together as a crew for very long at all, and in the end that is what mattered. Our crew had the advantage of the staggered start, and new they could be in for a tough race, but they had got their nerves out of the way and put in a much more controlled race, never letting Bedford catch up round the inside of the bend and staying calmly out in front, responding to pushes with pushes of their own, winning in the end by 1 3/4 lengths.