THE Isle of Ely Rowing Club started the New Year in fighting form, scoring some decent finishes at the first of the Winter League Head races on Sunday. The Winter League is a series of three races, held in January, February and March each year over a dist

THE Isle of Ely Rowing Club started the New Year in fighting form, scoring some decent finishes at the first of the Winter League Head races on Sunday.

The Winter League is a series of three races, held in January, February and March each year over a distance of 2,800m between the A14 road bridge and just past the Penny Ferry public house on the River Cam in Cambridge.

The Isle of Ely Rowing Club fielded a record seventeen crews in this gruelling winter race, ranging from a men's veteran eight crew through to a junior 14 girls' quad sculling crew. The Ely club were facing competition not only from local Cambridge crews but from clubs from all over the Region.

Fastest of all the Ely crews was the Veteran Eight, recording a time of 12.51. Club newly weds Ella and Andrew Turton raced together in a double scull, completing the course in a time of 13.42, making them the second fastest Ely crew, just one second ahead of the men's quad scull.

The Ely club was represented by three different girls quad crews, in Junior 14, junior 15 and Junior 17 categories. To their credit it was the youngest of these crews that recorded the best time, with the Junior 14 quad crossing the line in a time of 13.56, four seconds ahead of the Junior 17 crew.

Stroked by Libby Milne, the Junior 14 crew included Phoebe Bradbury in the three seat, who had already raced in an earlier division in a single scull. Laura Sibson in the two seat and Nell Freeman at bow, completed the crew. Milne and Freeman, who attend Soham Village College are an established double sculling partnership and Bradbury and Sibson, who attend King's School Ely, were racing a full year above their actual Junior 13 age.

Club captain Jo Cotgrove, said: "It was great to see so many of our club crews competing. This event gives us the opportunity to benchmark ourselves and these results give us something to work on for next time.