The North of England's first regatta of the season was held on the Ouse at York on Saturday with 174 crews competing in the Spring Regatta.

FLYING THE FLAG: Chairlady of the York City Rowing Club, Caroline Sherlock shakes hands with John Hargreaves after the flag presentation at the clubhouse

They battled it out over the 1,000 metre course, finishing near Lendal Bridge.Crews from the Tyne to Peterborough took part with many close races including a dead heat.

Among the York-area crews who were successful were D Clarke, M Harland, P White, D Gillard and cox V Keeble, who won the Senior Class Two Coxed Fours. P Tyler, A Thompson, G Dalgleish, M Homa won the Elite Quadruple Sculls.

In Mens Single Sculls, the home club, York City RC, had four wins with Tom Jones succeeding at Senior class one, Hugh Taylor at Senior class two, Tom Flemming at Novice and Jamie McLeod at Veteran, McLeod was also in the wining Veteran Four with P Jones, P DeBoer, and C Jones coxed by S Woodfine.

The Women Juniors took a share in the wins with Clair Broadbridge succeeding at Junior under 18 and Senior class two. Caroline Jones won Junior under 15 Sculls and Womens Novice Double Sculls with partner Lydia Bielby.

The three juniors were joined by Senior Sculler Steph Gant who steered them to victory in Quadruple Sculls.

St Peters School won Junior under 18 Eights and Womens Junior under 16 Sculls. York University took Womens Novice Eights.

The unlucky York Junior Double Scull of M Seymour and D Tinkler, racing St Peters in the final, had a canvas lead with 100 metres to go when the York double veered off course to collide with another boat, giving St Peters a win by a metre.

The regatta also proved a red-letter day for YCRC, who were presented with a flag for their clubhouse by John Hargreaves, of York-based plumbing contractors W E Hargreaves Ltd.

It is the first flag the club have had since 1863.

Emily Grabham, a YCRC member of York City Rowing Club, is an example of the triumph of determination over adversity.

While managing her studies at the Law College she has been training intensively for rowing and sculling competitions.

She has been competing in a borrowed boat with borrowed sculling oars, using a borrowed rowing ergometer and begging lifts off fellow oarsmen to compete at the highest level with some of the best oarswomen in the country.

Grabham was in the winning Cambridge Blue Boat in 1998. When she came to York she started rowing in a YCRC crew boat but earlier this year moved into a single sculling boat.

Her dedication to training two to three times a day was rewarded by an invitation to join the Great Britain under 23 squad where she won the lightweight single sculling race over 2000 metres at the National Water Sports Centre at Nottingham.

Two weeks later she left her sculling boat behind and moved back into crew rowing for the second set of trails which again were held at Nottingham.

Trails consisted of seat racing, in which squad members swap positions and crews in designated boats in order to determine the fastest oarswomen.

Eighteen races were held over 1,250 metres during the two days of trials, and Grabham was always in the winning boat.

Now she is back in York, picking up her studies once more, while maintaining her demanding training schedule in preparation for final selection for international competition.

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