ROWERS in Hexham followed up their success at their home regatta with further glory at the Henley of the North.

Heading into Durham Regatta full of confidence after triumphing at Hexham the week before, crews from both the town’s Queen Elizabeth High School Rowing Club and Hexham Rowing Club tasted glory.

The high school rowers again showed their class with a number of gold medals, as their members made a total of seven finals.

The WJ18 coxless quad of Fran Harrison, Bethany Hickling, Chloe SMith and Lexie Howard contolled their final to beat City of Sunderland in a time of two minutes and 38.4 seconds.

This was swiftly followed by success for the WJ16 double of India Berry and Alex Lea, defeating Durham School in the semi-finals before crossing the line two lengths ahead of finalists Doncaster School.

After an early exit in the coxed four event, Tom Archer, Harry Andersen, Tom Smith and Christian Chomse were determined to make up for the disappointment in the J16 coxless quad races. And they did just that, matching Durham stroke for stroke in a nail-biting final before being declared the winning crew by just half-a-length.

QE’s W16 coxless quad of Alice Hearn, Ellie Dodd, Olivia Graham and Alex Lea were celebrating success when they defeated St Leonard’s School in the final, Alice’s steering at bow complimented by the commentators.

However, there was disappointment when they found out later in the day that the win had been withdrawn for a technical infringement, to the complete surprise of all including the Leonard’s crew and coach.

The Hexham school’s women’s intermediate three coxed four of Becca Binks, Rosie Dawson, Sophie Manns, Hannah McGoldrick and Andrew Watson, faced the toughest challenge of all as they faced 11 university and senior women’s crews. They were on course to cause a huge shock as they met Collingwood College, of Durham University, in the final and took an early lead but were just denied a famous victory by a length.

It was the first time Hexham had entered juniors in Durham, and it proved worthwhile as the WJ13 coxed quad of Toni-Louise Brown, Ciara Duncan, Lucy Thorpe, Hayley Hannant and cox Owen Slipman followed up their great victory at Hexham.

Hayley and Owen joined Tyne United to make up a composite WJ14 coxed quad, and they just missed out in the final. But Hayley enjoyed better success as part of Tyne’s WJ14 coxed eight. Elsewhere, Chloe Slipman, Tabitha Barrass-Barker and Jack Curtis joined mates from Durham to make other crews.