With their meteoric rise up seven places through Division 2 and well into Division 1, the Rob Roy BC W2 crew was not only the most successful crew on the river in this year’s Town Bumps but also probably the youngest. With three fifteen-year olds and a sixteen-year old all just back from competing at the Junior National Rowing Championships plus another sixteen-year old and three seventeen year olds, the girls showed that youth can triumph over experience.

Their young counterparts in the Rob Roy M4 crew had an unluckier run, after a first night triumph bumping one of their coaches in the Xpress M3 crew. Again, everyone in the Rob Roy crew was under 18, with three fifteen-year-old scullers competing having had just 3 outings using sweep blades before racing.

All of the Rob Roy crews included members of their junior squad; M2 working hard (and pretty successfully) to protect M1 from attack from behind; and the W1 and W3 crews enjoying a mixed bag of bumping up, bumping down and rowing over. The only crew without juniors in the boat was M3, who attracted fines on Day 3 for a hugely enthusiastic but under-age bank party of their children – Rob Roy juniors in the making –  who helped M3 maintain position by bumping Peterborough back.