Sunshine and spring-like temperatures greeted Hexham rowers when they competed in the annual Tyne Head at Newburn on Saturday.

This was in stark contrast to their previous outing at Durham two weeks earlier, when they had battled snow, ice and sub-zero conditions.

Seven crews from Hexham Rowing Club made the short journey to Newburn, and their first win came in the women’s 4x- Band 1 class in the morning’s first division.

Catherine Bowman, Jo Lewis and Anna Johnson were joined by Berwick’s Hilary Cairns and they tore up the 4.5k course to post a time of 18:02:4.

They defeated their closest rivals by over a minute in the contest, and it proved to be the fastest Hexham time of the division.

The Open Masters E/F 4x- crew of Bruce Howorth, John Young, Graham Marples and Rob Patterson were beaten into second place by accomplished rivals from Durham ARC, but only after an epic battle.

Durham surged ahead at about the 1km mark, but Hexham settled into a steady pace and were then gaining on their opposition throughout, leaving it just too late to make a comeback.

The Hexham crew’s time of 19:00:9, age adjusted to 17:26:6, put them a full 50 seconds ahead of third place Tyne United.

The J18 double of Justin Cronk and Max Golightly finished third with a time of 19:57:9, behind crews from Tyne ARC and Tees.

Claire Rowlson and Elizabeth Waterman finished second in actual time in the women’s masters ABCD doubles, but the handicap system put them into third place by a few seconds when the adjustment was made.

However, Waterman did win a ‘pot’ later in the day when she joined her Hexham crewmate Catherine Bowman in a composite Hexham/Cambois/Berwick women’s eight, which triumphed in the Division Two Band 2 competition.

The Open 4x- crew of Andrew Bainbridge, Stuart Heslop, Sam Earnshaw and Chris Burn were just beaten into second place in their class by York, but they did post the fastest Hexham time of the division with 19:00:7.

The J15 4x+ boys’ crew of James Turnbull, Archie Stuart, Ben Watts and Gabriel Wells-Johnson, coxed by Tom Shovlin, posted a great time in freshening conditions but could not quite make it into contention.

Nevertheless, it was an impressive outing for Hexham.