The developing women’s squad at Bridgnorth Rowing Club made great progress when they competed in Bewdley Regatta at the weekend. The club has a number of new women members, some of whom were representing Bridgnorth for the first time.
The women’s intermediate 3 coxed four of Liz Coalter, Lucy Wilson, Rhiannon Jones and Anna Gosney competed as a crew for the first time on Saturday and looked very tidy as they beat Worcester by two lengths in the first heat and Bewdley by two and a half lengths in the second, before narrowly losing to Minerva Bath in the semi-final.
Selina Green, Gemma Becke and Leonie Hudson won their first ever rowing races when, along with Rhiannon Jones, they beat Bewdley in the first heat of the women’s novice coxed fours over 800m on Saturday. Unfortunately, they did not progress beyond this. The same crew again won their first heat over 600m on Sunday, this time beating Evesham, before losing to a strong Worcester crew in the next round.
Liz Coalter, Lucy Wilson, Anna Gosney, Gemma Becke, Leonie Hudson , Selina Green, Sophie Wright and Lucy Wycherley competed in the women’s intermediate 3 coxed eight over 800m on Saturday and over 600m on Sunday. Only two members of this crew are intermediate 3 standard; the other crew members are all novices who rowed up a category. The crew took a while to settle into their stride and were comfortably beaten by Worcester in their first race on Saturday but put in an impressive effort on Sunday as they lost by only a third of a length to an established Warwick crew.
The women’s squad were ably coxed by Joe Bytheway and Richard Mottram throughout their events.
The club entered fewer men’s crews than usual but their intermediate 3 eight raced well to beat Stourport in the semi-final over 600m on Sunday before losing in the final. Their crew were John Allen, Jamie Manning, Martin Brown, Phil Wood, Matt Pilsbury, Matt Nobbs, Richard Mottram and Pat Brown.
Greg Mitchell and Joe Bytheway represented the club’s junior section well by reaching Sunday’s final of the junior 15 double, where they lost by only a length. Greg Mitchell also reached the semi-final of the junior 15 sculls.
The club, who welcome new members, are now preparing to compete at Stourport Regatta on 15th & 16th August.
