Southampton Coastal Head of the River Race, Saturday, 15th March 2025.

Wightlink sponsored Ryde Rowing Club competed in the first Hants & Dorset ARA Fixture of the season on Saturday (March 15th) – the Southampton Head of the River Race, a processional race, in two divisions, over approx. 4,300m on the River Itchen in Southampton.

In Division One the Clubs Junior-Senior Four of Isaac Gibson, Paddy Kearney, Joe Roberts, Charlie Watts and Mai Read coxing rowed well  to finish 2nd in their section. There was disappointment for the Clubs Coastal Junior A Crew of Lucas Georgiou, Ben Robotham, Yogi Ashworth, Lars Groothuis with Ruby Read coxing who suffered from a broken seat and did not finish the race but the Coastal Junior B Crew of Joe Bird, Cameron D’Arcy, Ruben Rook, Max Locke and  Harry Watts coxing finished 9th in this section. The final crew from Ryde racing in Division one as a women’s double scull Emily Kellerman and Alexia Owen who raced really well to finish 3rd in their section against older and more experienced competition.

In the second division a mixed coxed four of Eva Gordon, Isaac Gibson, Camern Darcy and , Fiona Owen with Harry Watts coxing again finished 1st in their section. The Club had two open coxless pairs racing in this division – the A Crew of Paddy Kearney and Joe Roberts finishing in 5th place and the B Crew of Lars Groothuis and Yogi Ashworth finishing in 7th place. The final Ryde “crew” in the division was Charlie Watts a J16 sculler who finished 3rd in the section behind two Senior Oarsman from the Coast Amateur Rowing Association.