Tim Booth and Keith Lawton first and second at the South Yorkshire Head

Keith Lawton and Tim Booth - Winners of the Masters C Doubles

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Tim Booth and Keith Lawton first and second at the South Yorkshire Head at Doncaster Rowing Club on Saturday 7 February.

The 4000m course on the meandering River Don was a tough test.

Tim Booth, Keith Lawton and Dave Sykes all competed in the Masters D single sculls. The three seniors are experienced competitors who have raced all over the country and tasted success many times.

Booth won the event with a time of 18 minutes 22 seconds, with Lawton second and Sykes fourth. With an excellent time of 17:06, Booth and Lawton also won the Masters C double sculls beating crews from York and Bradford.

Junior single sculler was Morris Barber, racing in the J15 category, his first Head race, achieved a creditable second place.

There were several double sculls crews who all put in supreme effort on a demanding course. The WJ14 doubles of Molly Archbold and Hannah Lowe won Gold, with their WJ14 team mates, Sally Tisdall and Maggie Page coming in an excellent third place with Page rowing up one year and also taking part in her first doubles race.

The WJ15 double of Sophie Webb and Lucy Lonergan rowed hard to achieve a creditable time of 22:02, this being Lonergan’s first race, and only the second time they had rowed together.

Amy Bullock and Laura Aspinall put up a good fight to come second in the Women’s Novice double behind a very strong York Crew.

The two junior quads both came second in their respective races. Sally Tisdall, Maggie Page, Hannah Lowe and Molly Archbold, coxed by Rosie Pickles, put in a strong performance. Maggie was again rowing up a year and it was her first race in a quad. Pickles was experiencing her first time as a cox under race conditions. Both ‘novices’ did a fantastic job and the whole crew were proud of their achievement.

Harriet Jackson, Jess Pilkington, Lucy Lonergan and Amy Aspinall, coxed by Sophie Webb, had the most frustrating race of the day in the WJ15 quad. It was Lonergan’s first race in a quad but her strength and determination along with the rest of the crew’s was reflected in a time of 18:58, just 8 seconds behind the winners.

The team were all pleased with their performances and, despite being tired and cold, at the end of a long day everyone went home proud of their achievements. Ian John, HLRC Club Captain, was delighted with an excellent performance from everyone.