A great day for Lincoln Novices; 8 crews from Lincoln entered events at Leicester with a mix of University and community crews racing the canalised ½ mile course.

The men’s novice coxed 4s were taking part in their first ever Regatta races; the first (Veneeeare) disappointingly ended their challenge in the wall just after the start, but the second boat (Flint) gave the eventual runners up, a well-drilled Leicester crew, a real test.

The Masters B/C pairs event saw Chris M & Bruce pull back a 4 second handicap to beat their Peterborough rivals by less than a canvas; unfortunately they couldn’t repeat this against Express in the final an hour later.

The IM3 pairs was a straight Lincoln v Lincoln University final in what was essentially a Novice Pairs event. A good clean row from Rich & Joe saw off the challenge from Connor & Elliot whose attempts to clear vegetation down the side of the course didn’t help their race plan. Rich & Joe lose their Novice sweep oar status.

The women’s University Novice 4 of Amy, Georgina, Jenny & Sara, coxed by Chris, beat their rivals from Derby University in the first round with a very competent display and carried on improving as the day went on to see off two Burton crews in the semi-final and then the final. A great win - congratulations to the girls for winning their Novice pots.

The men’s Novice single sculls also had 2 Lincoln entrants in a field of 9. Both Rich & Jonny saw off Northampton opposition in their heats before facing the Appletree father & son respectively in the semi-finals and setting up an all-Lincoln final. A great race with Jonny getting ahead off the start, plenty of vocal support all along the bank. Rich put in a valiant spurt as they came under the bridges with 150m to go, but Jonny held his nerve and pace to claim the honours and his Novice prize and trophy. A fantastic set of Novice wins.

It all started many months ago when Chris Morrill took up the baton and ran with the idea of preparing 3 crews for Tideway 2010; a novice crew, a veteran crew and a mixed veteran crew. The mixed vet crew would feature Anna and myself along with Chris, Jimmy and Bruce from Lincoln, and Zoe and Dave Cox along with Jane McIntosh from Newark, all coxed by Sue.

Work began in earnest during the winter months with land training. Who could forget all those "gun drills", "bastardos" and squats to improve the leg drive; loads of press-ups, dips and planks to improve the other bits - all performed to the specially compiled circuit CD! The crews began to take shape with many outings in 4+s to achieve water time. For me there was even the odd pair outing with Jimmy to practice bow side rowing!

The Saturday of the Tideway weekend saw the Novice crew take to the water with the heaviest cox in the history of the races! Then on the Sunday it was the Veterans' turn.

The weather and water conditions were pretty reasonable and the boat ran very well, even though it was the first outing we had managed as an entire crew! Jimmy set a good pace and rhythm, which was easy to follow and the whole race was extremely enjoyable, In fact it seemed to end all too soon. We managed to clock up a very good time and came in 2nd in our group.

With everything packed away and loaded up, Anna and I made our way to St Pancras Champagne bar for a well deserved bottle which we drank wearing our splash tops and wellies! Is that a first maybe?

For me the most enjoyable part of the weekend was the time spent with the other crew members on the river. It was an honour and a pleasure to have rowed and competed with such a wonderful group of people and it`ll always be one of my most treasured and thrilling rowing memories. The Champagne bit ranks pretty high too!! Thank you Chris for giving me the opportunity to be a part of it.

Lou