Bexhill Rowing Club report for the 67th South Coast Rowing Championships

Clubs from Kent in the east all the way to Cornwall in the west come together to compete against each other to decide the fastest crews in each category. Races are split across championship and open events, the championship races consisting of the top two crews from each rowing association. Bexhill were represented by seven crews including their winning junior men's four who were selected for the junior championship race. Bexhill also had the distinction of being one of only two races won by their association.

Bexhill’s win came in the Masters over 40 fours where despite a late crew change the crew of James Mouland, Nick McCorry, Clive Bingham, Keiran Cahill, cox Charlie Cooper pulled ahead of the competition, dominating their race to win by over four boat lengths.

Bexhill’s men’s junior four of Seb Ward, Herbie Molton, Chris Botha, Byron Cramp, cox Taya Hutton-Mitchell were in the championship race against all the other associations winning crews. They were up against some stiff opposition including from Shanklin who had two national level rowers within their crew. They battled hard and came home third but did manage to beat their close local rivals from Folkestone.

Two Novice ladies crews were entered but had to row in heats to get qualification to the final. These consisted of six crews all vying for three qualification places. The A crew of Emily Singh, Tiannah Macey, Lizzie Pannell, Amberley Conner, cox Andy Bickers held second during the early stages then had a thousand metre fight with a crew from Herne Bay with the crews separated by two feet as they crossed the line, unfortunately in fourth place. The B crew of Catherine Richard, Anna-Marie Cowling, Ceri Wilkinson, Sarah Reader, cox Darren Mitchell also had a race long battle trying to get on terms with the third place crew but also finished closely in fourth. This bodes well for next year and can only get better with more new members joining.

The men’s senior four also had a last minute crew change. Despite this the crew of Phil McCorry, Nick McCorry, Clive Bingham, Kieran Cahill and cox Charlie Cooper finished in a creditable fourth place.

Bexhill’s Ladies Senior four of Gabby Ward, Taya Hutton-Mitchell, Abi Little, Vinny Miles, cox Emily Singh came home in fifth place which was a good result considering the crew was put together at short notice.

Bexhill entered a Men's junior four in the open race. Three of the crew were still novice status and with ages ranging from twelve to seventeen this was going to be a tall order to be in the mix. Eventually they finished in sixth place in their first ever race together.