A WINTER of hard training finally paid off for Bewdley Rowing Club's Masters E coxed four as they bagged their first win of the regatta season in Shrewsbury at the weekend.

The quartet of Tony Clay, John Fazakerley, Chris Kowalik and Tony Raybould saw off Ironbridge by a length.

Competing a year above their own category, the J18 coxless quad of John Keen-Tomlinson, Oli Bushnell, Tim Hopkins and James Alexander defeated Kings School Worcester and Hereford Cathedral School by a length.

The WJ14 coxed foursome of Beth Chase, Sian Hinton, Emma Connor Laura Saich and cox Rhianna Hinton continued their great start to the season with another emphatic win at Shrewsbury.

They beat a Pengwern crew in the semi-final, before seeing off the North West Inter-Regional Champions Runcorn in the final.

In the WJ14 two event Hatty Blackmore and Georgina Kelly opened up their account for the season with a good win over Hereford Rowing Club.

In the senior events, Jenny Merchant and Laura Ray continued up their winning ways.

On Saturday, they comfortably saw off Royal Grammer School Worcester in the IM2 final. While on Sunday, they had tougher races against Guildford and Pengwern to clinch the IM1 2x title.

Veterans and juniors dominated the Worcester Regatta. The women’s Masters C coxed foursome of Alice Demuth, Laura Hewit, Kim Martyn-Smith and Sally Gittins, coxed by Kat Carlyle, had a convincing win tree-length win over Ross.

There were also impressive victories for four of Bewdley’s five junior crews.