Nine Nottingham Rowing Club Junior Squad members set off at the crack of dawn to race at Ironbridge Regatta on a blazing hot day.

Five of the Junior rowers went home with the coveted green pottery winners’ cups. Lily Aspley and Emilia Foot comfortably won their Junior 16 double sculls and Hannah Williams won the Junior 17 singles race. Hannah’s win was memorable on two counts: it was her first ever competition; and it was a nail bitingly close finish between two NRC racers, with team mate Pria McGuire coming second by a whisker.

There was a well-deserved win for Phoebe Smith in the Junior 15 single sculls. In all her heats Phoebe put an impressively large stretch of water between her’and her competitors.

The other squad members raced very well in their individual races but had setbacks either with riverbank foliage or the challenges of a quick 500m course on a narrow single-bend river. Some of those who did not take home any of the winners’ pottery ware lost their heats by less than half a boat length, which they probably found encouraging but disappointing in equal measure!

The Junior squad are very supportive of each other, helping with the boats before and after each race and easily out-cheering any other club on the riverbank when one of the squad is racing.

The fun day’s rowing was rounded off with a hearty eat-your-own-weight-in-sausages barbecued on the riverbank, provided courtesy of the squad’s parents.