Stourport Boat Club Successes ... 1979

After hard training throughout the winter, Stourport Boat Club Veteran B crew ventured forth over the Boat Race course in the Head of the River Race in London, when there was a record entry of 420 eights from all over Europe including, of course, the National Squads. Rowing on very tough water, the Stourport crew caught up with a German crew who had started 20 places ahead of them and after an exciting battle through high waves left the German crew and subsequently overtook a London Senior ‘A’ crew at the end of the four and a half mile row. No other crew passed the Stourport Veteran B crew who moved up no fewer than 56 places from their last position and beat over 150 crews on the day. The crew consisted of: D. Pearson (stroke); G. Wheatley (7); G. F. Davies (6); S. Mountford (5); C. Lloyd (4); T. Cherry (3); C. Woodstock (2); B. Eaton (Bow); A. Reeley (cox).
Cheered by a successful row against the young crews, the Veteran B eight entered Royal Chester Boat Club Regatta at Chester. Here there were two replacements in the Tideway eight, namely B. Griffin and J. Leavesley. The crew had a magnificent row in the first race of the day being defeated by one third of a length by Grosvenor Rowing Club in one of the fastest times of the day. The Stourport Veteran C crew of B. Griffin, G. F. Davies, T. Cherry joined on this occasion by D. Pearson and coxed by A. Reeley then joined Stratford-upon-Avon Boat Club for a Stratford/Stourport eight.
Near the starty the boat unfortunately hit an iron stake which ripped a hole at the bottom of the boat but fortunately G. F. Davies had a handkerchief available which usefully filled the gap and prevented the boat from sinking. The boat then returned to the start for temporary repair and returned over the 750 metre course to take on Worcester Rowing Club - World Veteran Champions of 1978. The crew quickly established a lead over Worcester of about two lengths and increased this for a thrilling win achieved when their was every danger of temporary repair collapsing in the winning boat.
Further enlivened by this success, the Veteran C four of Griffin, Davies and Cherry then substituted R. Eaton for D. Pearson and proceeded up the course to take on Royal Chester on their home water and defeated them in a fine row by two lengths.
Stourport Veteran B crew consisting of Pearson, Mountford, Leavesley and Woodcock also had a good row against the Worcester World Medal B crew and lost by the small margin of one and a half lengths although three of the crew had not previously rowed in the Mary Maiden racing four.
At the end of the day Geoff Davies sat on the start in the Veteran C single sculling event awaiting the arrival of A. D. Clark of Severn Scullers Club and although frozen after a half hour wait in pouring rain completed the course on level terms with the highly experienced Clark and only lost by one third of a length, narrowly missing hid third trophy of the day.
After a record season last year Stourport Boat Club now already have ten wins in open regattas for this rowing season.
A further quite exceptional success was achieved when N. J. Birkmyre of Stourport won Veteran B sculls in the Scullers Head in London achieving 29th place out of some 500 entries from all classes. Steve Downes won the Novice Restricted class in the same event finishing in position 148. For two Stourport scullers to win in the London Head against the best single scullers of not only the British Isles but of Europe is quite a unique achievement and probably rarely achieved by any provincial rowing club.
Stourport News 13/4/79