HEXHAM’S Queen Elizabeth High School’s Rowing Club impressed at the Wansbeck Regatta.

QEHS Rowing Club put out a strong squad of 58 for the competition on May 23, despite it taking place in the middle of exam season.

The team pulled off eight event wins and proved competitive in all their races, winning 22 in total.

In fact, they’d already secured three wins bv the end of the morning’s racing, with two events ending with finals between clubmates.

The final of the J18 double sculls saw James Brown and Ben Wilkinson take on Tom Mawson and Tom Archer, with the greater power of the two Toms winning the day.

The strength in depth of the QEHS J14 and WJ14 shone through too, with five crews fielded and QEHS winning both event categories.

The J14 crew of Robert Collen, Ben Archer, Will Dyer, Joseph Taylor coxed by Egil Rogstad beat St Leonard’s School in the final by a comfortable three lengths.

The final of the WJ14 was contested by two QEHS crews - Violet Barrass, Sophie Beattie, Stephanie Ellison, Esme Russell coxed by Ciaran Ball took on Freya McDermott, Hannah Bowman, Daisy Christopher, Millie Yorke coxed by Yana Farley.

The crew coxed by Ball felt the effect of having to re-run their semi-final after it ended in a dead heat, and lost by a single length.

After lunch, the single scullers took centre stage. Ben Wilkinson won the final of the J18 single sculls, while Dan Jones won the J16 single sculls, before moving up to senior level and taking the senior single sculls title.

Elsewhere there was a good win for QEHS pair Hannah Bowman and Stephanie Ellison in the final of the WJ14 double sculls, recording the first small boat win of the year at this age group for QEHS.

And the successful day was rounded off in the women’s senior coxed eight’s final, where a QEHS crew of Katie Chomse, Rebecca Read, Nicole Manning, Grace Manning, Liv Milburn, Aimee Mather, Freya Powell, Eve Smith and cox Andrew Smith defeated a crew from Durham University Butler college.