CREWS from Bewdley Rowing Club didn’t let an accident on the motorway throw their efforts to compete in the prestigious World Rowing Masters tournament in Vienna off course.

The club had to borrow boats off other clubs in order to compete in the tournament when boats were left unusable after a trailer carrying them overturned on the M25.

Despite the setback, they were able to borrow ones from Reading and Nottingham rowing clubs which enabled them to compete.

The World Rowing Masters is an annual event for veteran rowers and was held this year on a 1,000 metre long eight lane course on the New Danube in Austria’s capital.

Bewdley’s hopes lay with the veterans E coxless four crew of John Fazakerley, Ed Mol, Paul Warnett and Mik Edmonds, who won a national veterans gold earlier in the year.

The crew, whose averaged age is 55-years-old, were pipped into third by one tenth of a second. The race was won by a composite crew from the Netherlands.

There were also respectable performances from a scratch veteran E coxed eight, who came fifth, while the veterans D crew of Tony Clay, Dave Morton, Chris Kowalik, Tony Raybould and cox Yvonne Ogilvie-Hardy came sixth in a close race, which was won by Dynamo Moscow B.