UPTON Rowing Club held their annual Scratch races recently where the names of al attendees are put into a hat and crews are then selected by chance, except that the ratio of men to women is the same in each boat.

There were three competitions on this occasion: fours, eights and a special foundation class for newly trained rowers who had never raced before.

The club's headquarters for the day was the Castaways Clubroom at the Swan, just next to the winning post. The fours were whittled down to two crews in four hard fought heats, including a re-row after a dead heat. The final winners were Kirby Phillips, pat Cox, Debbie Thompson, Peter Barker and Carol Barkley (cox).

The performance of the two foundation crews showed that their training by Freya Biggs and Pat Cox was beginning to bear fruit. The winners were Karen Lani, Maria Corfield, Sarah Higgings, Jamie Shouler and Pat Cox (cox).

The Magnificent Eights rowed over a longer distance and had a close finish. The winning crew were Jeff Radnor, Deirdre Thompson, Freya Biggs, Steve Corcoran, Zac Purchase, Jane Herbert, Pat Cox, Kirby Philips and John Dean (cox).

Upton's next outing will be on the Bank Holiday weekend in the two-day regatta at Ross on Wye, where 300 or so crews will gather from all over England and Wales to row the 750 metre course.

Upton will finish off their regatta season, in September, with a trip to their old friends at Mumbles Rowing Club. The Mumbles Club, on the edge of Swansea Bay, is one of the few places where rowing takes place on the sea (wind and tide permitting).