Inverness Rowing Club achieved success and many good performances at the two day Strathclyde Park Regatta in Hamilton last weekend in variable weather conditions in winning four events, - Womens Veteran Coxed Fours, Womens Veteran Double Sculls, Mens Veteran Coxed Fours and Mens Veteran Single Sculls.
In the difficult windy conditions on Saturday, a number of fine performances were achieved by Inverness crews in both mens and womens events. Although not achieving first places, Ken Sinclair and Ken Andrews sculled well in their veteran sculling events as did Colin Sinclair in his junior 16 and junior 18 single sculling events. Hazel Geddes and Carole Wells qualified in third place in their semi-final in novice double sculls and went on to achieve a fine third place in the final of this event. The composite womens restricted 2 eights Inverness/Strathclyde Park RC crew had a fine row in the final of this event to be narrowly beaten into third place by two university crews. The Inverness/St Andrew BC composite crew of Carolyn Ward, Hazel Smith, Mandy Towrie and Alison Hulme (St Andrew BC) was just pipped on the line by a Strathclyde Park RC crew in the veteran quad sculls final.

Inverness wins were achieved in the fairer conditions on the Sunday when the womens veteran coxed four of Carolyn Ward, Hazel Smith, Susanne Standish-Hunter, Mandy Towrie and Laurence Edwards (cox) had a fine one length win over a Strathclyde Park RC crew. Hazel Smith and Ailie Ord (Strathclyde Park RC) combined strongly to win the womens veteran double sculls by half a length from an experienced Durham ARC combination.
The Inverness mens veteran crews also performed well on the Sunday with the veteran coxed four of Alastair Duff, Neil Wallace, Ken Sinclair, Tom Baker and Adam Geddes (cox) winning this event by almost three lengths from crews representing Aberdeen BC and St Leonards.
In Single sculls, Tom Baker went on to win the veteran E event. Alastair Duff and Ken Sinclair came second and third respsectively in the veteran C event and Ken Andrews achieved third place in the Veteran F category.
Duff and Sinclair later combined to achieve a satisfactory third place in the final of the veteran double sculls event.
Inverness women scullers took part in a variety of sculling events on Sunday with the Hazel Geddes / Carole Wells and Carolyn Ward/ Bridget Senior combinations qualifying for the final of the restricted 2 double sculls in which the Geddes/Wells crew finished just ahead of the Ward/Senior crew but just outside the medal positions. Geddes, Senior and Mary Clouston also took part in novice and veteran single sculls events achieving fourth, third and second places respectively.
The Inverness younger junior squad members Meghan Hunter, Rachael Wells, Adam Geddes and Shaun Hunter excelled in an extremely close race in the final of the junior 12 coxed quad sculls just losing out by three feet to an all male crew from Stirling RC.
Meghan and Rachael also took part in junior 12 single and double sculling events with commendable performances in both events.
Inverness member Alan Sinclair (now rowing for Aberdeen University and Aberdeen Boat Club) won Scottish Universities Championship Single Sculls and was a member of the Aberdeen BC crew which achieved wins in mens restricted 1 and open coxed fours and open coxless fours.

The next main season regatta at which Inverness athletes will be competing will be the Clydesdale ARC regatta in Glasgow on 6th May followed by the North Eastern Regatta which takes place on the River Dee in Aberdeen on 13th and 14th May.