Royal Grammar School Worcester's Boat Club ended the season on a high with gold and bronze medals at the National Rowing Championships in Nottingham.

Six crews from the J14, J15 and J16 squads, and one sculler from the senior group, competed in excellent conditions.

The gold came in the J15 Quads, where two RGS crews made it to the six-lane final.

The RGS boats contained all four members of last year's winning crew and they were not going to give up their title without a struggle.

After 500m, the A crew (Charlie Fisher, Alex Stone, Tom Crawford-Clarke and Edd Wilson, coxed by Joe Meredith) were second with the B crew (Mark Walker, Marcus Bufton, Marcus Gorman and Nic Palmer, cox Abhigit Mohite) fourth, just one length behind.

The B crew dropped back to sixth, but the A crew gradually ground down Kingston Grammar School, launching their final charge with 250m to go to bring them level while a Hereford/Evesham/St Neots composite crew had fought from sixth to third, and were closing even faster.

On the line the coaches could see that RGS had pipped KGS by about a foot, but they had to wait an agonising 10 minutes for official confirmation of their victory in a record time of six minutes 59 seconds!

The bronze came from the J16 coxed four of Rob Trevett, Richard Tippett, Sam Smallwood and Chris Bowen. They came from last at halfway to take third behind St George's College and Maidenhead RC, adding to the gold they won in the eights at the National Schools Regatta in May.

In the J16 coxless pair, Tom Walder and Rob Simmons struggled with steering and finished a respectable sixth behind a strong field.

The J16 Coxless Four of Walder, Simmons, Trevett and Tippett, finished fifth against strong opposition.

The J14 Quad (Mark Wilson, Nick Ramsden, Nick Fenton and Nick Szmigin, coxed by Alasdair Rosie) finished a respectable fourth in their repechage.

Captain of Boats Tom Meredith sculled bravely in the Junior Sculls, but was unlucky to be in the toughest of six heats and just missed a place in the repechage, despite being ninth fastest of 26 competitors.

n Worcester Rowing Club had their most successful haul of medals at the National Championships, winning two silvers and three bronzes against national squads and top class opposition.

In the Coxless Four Chris Chilton, Chris Farr, Jem Richardson and Peter Crozier won a silver, only just being beaten by a national squad crew.

In the Coxed Four the same crew with Rachel Roberts as cox completed a unique double in winning a bronze in a strongly contested field.

In the Open Coxless Pairs Ross Barnes and Phil Whiteley won silver, only just losing to a London pair who had previously won three golds at World Championships.

Further success came in the Junior 18 Sculls where Phil Vincent competing against a quality field won a bronze to add to the success already enjoyed this season.

Jane Fisher with her Warwick partner won a silver in the Open Womens Double Sculls having been strongly fancied for gold.

As a result her success throughout the season Fisher has been selected to represent England at the Commonwealth Games, and Barnes and Whiteley have been selected for England in the Home Counties International at Strathclyde this weekend.

The club's junior section also competed at Nottingham comprising Nicki Trevitt, Alice Hassell, Laura Androlia, Genni Hinchcliffe, Laura Garrad, Faye Hughes and Emily Stenson.

The crews entered a number of Double and Quad Four events putting up a strong performance. Although failing to emulate the success of the senior section they gained valuable experience.