The Lucas Fettes Peterborough Regatta

The Lucas Fettes Peterborough Regatta was a massive success this year, with around 900 athletes competing each day, travelling from as far as Swansea and County Durham. This is the first Peterborough Regatta to have a headline sponser for the event – Lucas Fettes Financial Planning – and City scullers took home an impressive 8 wins and 6 second places.

Saturday was an incredible day of racing for everyone but especially the women’s J14 scullers Lydia Hilton and Grace Niklasson. They achieved a promising time of 03:54 over the 1k course in their double to win the J14 final 20 seconds ahead of their opposition. They then repeated their success in the J14 quad when they joined Lily-Mae Allen, Esme Mcintyre and cox Emma Calver to win their final 20 seconds ahead of their opposition form Becket Rowing Club.

Another successful junior quad was the J15 girls Freya Woodall, Nell Papworth, Charlotte Martin and Natalie Bicknell who had a close final but managed to push that bit extra to cross the line 2 seconds ahead of Becket and Isle of Ely.

The women’s quad victories kept coming, with the Women’s band 2 quad of Kate Read, Helen Griffiths, Emma Richardson and Rebecca Konijneberg winning their final by 7 seconds, being the only crew in their category to achieve a time sub 4 minutes.

Camilla Plumb faced a tough final in the Women’s band 1 event but just managed to stay ahead of Newark Rowing Club to win by 0.7 seconds.

After all-women’s wins on the Saturday, it was then the men’s turn to take home the tankards on the Sunday.

Starting the Sunday streak was the Masters E eight of Keith Blackman, Jack Ward, Jaish Mahan, Bruce Magretts (Lincoln), Jim Burt, Alasdair Ryder, Paul Shepherd, Steve Tuck and cox Ericha K-Pardoe, who achieved an amazing time setting a new Masters E course record.

There were also victories for the juniors, racing up to compete in the senior events, with Callum Gilbey, Thomas Bodily, Thomas Jackson and super sub Jordan Beale winning the Band 1 quad, and George Woodall, Connor Ribbons, Finlay Ribbons and Ethan Malcolm winning the Band 2 quad with a fantastic time of 3:13, edging ahead of second by just 0.8 seconds.

Those that achieved second places over the weekend were Chris Elder and Damen Sanderson (Band 1 double); Daniel Richardson and James Marshall (Band 2 double); Denise Parker, Julie Barrett, Caroline Graham and Helen Mosley (Women’s Masters C/D coxed four) Sarah Smith and Carole Hook (Women’s Masters B double); Chloe Reed and Milly Hilton (Women’s J16 double) and lastly Connor Mumford, Sam Bates, Damen Sanderson, Liam Bellamy, Marcus Harrison, George Wilson, Stuart Holmes, Chris Elder and Tom Calver, who were just 0.8 seconds from winning in the Band 1 Eight.

A few Peterborough crews also raced over a longer 2 kilometre course at the Metropolitan regatta on Saturday, which was held at the Olympic lake in Eton Dorney.

The J16 boys of Callum Gilbey, Thomas Bodily, Thomas Jackson and Ted Smith raced up two age groups to compete in the Open J18 coxless quads, achieving the second fastest qualifying time in their heat, giving them a place in the final. Unfortunately due to a back injury they were unable to race the final, but left happy with the amazing time they had achieved earlier in the day.

Also competing on the day was Hayley Shipton, Ilektra Apostoidou, Sarah Watson and last minute sub Ana Shreeves (Bedford) who came 5th in the Women’s coxless quads, and Ian Palmer and Steve Cranfield Palmer joined Leicester and Star rowers Chris Callow and David Smith to finish 7th in the Open coxless quads event.