There were short trips to the Gloucester-Sharpness Canal and then upriver to Ross-on-Wye for some 30 Monmouth Rowing Club members over the Bank Holiday weekend.

At Gloucester Masters and Juniors Regatta over 800m on the Saturday, the mixed ME (over-55) eight of Colin Lewis, Tim Male, Toby Harding, Paul Bezani, Sara Part, Liz Newman, Louise Tanner, Bonita Burkett and cox Taryn Birkett won their final by 3/4L from Avon County.

Harding and Male then doubled up with victory in the MC (over-42) doubles by 2L from hosts Gloucester.

There were some near misses as well, the MD (over-50) men’s four beating York’s Black Sheep by 2L in their semi-final, but then losing out to another Sheep boat by 1L in the final.

Theresa McCarthy had a fantastic race in the women’s MG (over-65) singles, neck and neck all the way down the course before just being pipped at the post by 1/4L by her Exeter opposition.

And the mixed Masters quadruple scull beat Bristol Ariel by 4L before missing out to another Ariel crew by 3.5L.

Sunday racing at Ross Masters and Juniors Regatta over some 500m saw Archie Cowton win the U16 singles with a 3L win over Liverpool Victoria followed by an epic 2ft win over his Stratford-upon-Avon final opponent.

Theresa McCarthy lost out to Upton in singles, while some steering issues off the blocks cost Ewart Birkett and Mark Leaming in their first ever doubles race against the same Severn club.

The women’s MD four also missed out by 2.5L to Worcester, while Bonita Birkett had a great first ever singles race before losing by just under 2L to her Staines opponent.

On Monday at Ross Regatta over 750m, the Monmouth contingent were busy competing in 15 events, three of whom won their events.

Archie beat his Evesham opponent in open singles before losing by just 1L to Dart, while the WME quad scull beat Evesham by 5L before losing out to Ross by 2L.

Athens Olympian Tim Male teamed up with former British quads champion Alex Butler to win their MC (over-42) pairs final by 2L from the host club, before Mel Brown won her women’s ME final by 2.5L from Evesham.

The women’s open pair missed out to City of Bristol, while Theresa McCarthy lost another tight battle with Exeter (1 1/2L) in WMG singles and Julia Cowton also missed out to the Devon club by 4L in WMD (over-50) singles.

The women’s MG double lost out to Greenbank Falmouth, and the women’s ME double and men’s open four both went down to Evesham and Hereford respectively by 3L.

Pippa Stewart-Woods lost to former Monmouth member Chloe White in Carmarthen colours by just 1/2L in women’s open singles, while Monmouth’s open double were 2.5L shy of City of Bristol.

But Archie Cowton took the U16 singles with wins over Evesham opponents, both by 3L.