SAILING at the Common Road club has enjoyed excellent winds and some very strong competition this year and last Sunday was no exception.

With a very variable breeze from the south west, that did eventually hold up all afternoon, racing couldn't have been closer.

The first race was part of the Small Craft series and the start saw all boats heading downstream to turn at two tightly spaced buoys set just above the weir with a great deal of close tactical manoeuvring to gain the best position.

This situation repeated itself for the fair part of the race but eventually John Pickford managed to pull out a short lead to put clear water between himself and Ian Haywood at the head of the field.

The second race saw Pickford, Haywood, Green and the Styles family pull away from the remainder of the fleet.

For the rest of the hour-long event, this quartet took it in turns to lead without any one being able to make a clean break. The rest of the chasing boats tried hard but couldn't close the gap.

It was at the last buoy of the course that Pickford again managed to claw his way into the lead and, with a short beat to the finish, claimed first place with Green narrowly beating Hay-wood to finish second.