Next Saturday on 29th March, 390 crews will tackle the annual challenge of the Tideway Eights Head of the River Race which will be rowed over a four and a quarter mile course on the River Thames in London from Mortlake to Putney.

Over twenty five years ago, nine intrepid athletes from Inverness took part in this event after starting to row only three months before the event in 1988. These nine were part of a group which purchased a boat with the prime object of competing in this event and achieved significant success in doing so, calling themselves the Rogie Falls Boat Club.

Their achievement was recorded recently when the same nine crew members rowed together in an eight for the first time in over 25 years to mark their efforts in 1988 by having an anniversary row on the Caledonian Canal.

Crew members Iain Leighton (bow), David Finlayson, Jonathan Wotherspoon, Alex McIvor, Jamie MacLean, Bruce Murdoch, Mark Wilson, Iain Morton (stroke) and Gay Faulkner (cox) showed remarkable skill after all those years to demonstrate that they had lost none of their rowing abilities by rowing well for a distance of over 3 miles before joining with friends and families for a celebratory lunch and recall happy times past.

Following their epic effort over 25 years ago, many of those athletes became founder members of Inverness Rowing Club and in doing so formed the catalyst for continued success on the water and at the Head of the River Race in the years following the club's formation.

In this year's Head of the River event at the end of March, one of the Inverness club's and GB team's members Alan Sinclair will race in the Leander Club's crew which is the lead boat in the starting line up.