YOUNGSTERS from Hexham’s Queen Elizabeth High School Rowing Club excelled at the Northern Regional Junior Trials at Cambois.

Their impressive performances saw three QEHS crews selected to represent the North-East in the regional championships at Peterborough on April 27.

The QEHS J15 boys crew of Lewis Blair, Oscar Knapp, Ryan Walton, Ridley Mitchell and cox Ciaran Ball, were the only entry for the sweep oared event, but had to record a time which would justify their selection, and they did so in style, posting a time of just 10s behind that of the J16 boys crew.

The J15 quad sculls event was a close affair, with QEHS finishing fourth.

The girls four of Nicole Manning, Harriet Hobrough, Katie Chomse, Grace Manning and cox Aimee Mather produced a good performance to finish ahead of the rest of the field to gain selection.

There was disappointment for Dan Jones in the J16 single scull. He finished in second place, just three seconds behind Ben Norman of Talkin Tarn, and therefore missed out on automatic selection. However, Jones put himself in a good position to be considered for the composite J16 eight.

Eve Tancsik and Tasha Szweda joined two Chester-le-Street girls in the WJ16 coxless four. Despite limited training time together, they found the Cambois course challenging, but recorded a time suitable to gain them selection.

For members of the QEHS boys and girls J14 coxed quad crews, this was only their second event.

However, the hard work in training and enthusiasm for a new sport can often bring a few surprises, and this was the case for the J14 boys quad of Christian Ryan, Ben Archer, Robert Collen, Will Dyer and cox Egil Rogstad.

They put an outstanding technical performance together to finish in second place, just 0.9s behind a Durham School and a Chester-le-Street composite crew.

In the J14 girls, coaches were impressed with all three crew performances, and were delighted for the crew of Daisy Christopher, Hannah Bowman, Violet Barrass, Zara Holtham and cox Ellen Siddle, who came in second place behind a very strong Durham crew.