CHESTER’S Deputy Lord Mayor, Cllr Sheila Little, welcomed over 900 competitors and their supporters to Chester for the 83rd North of England Head of the River Race on the Dee on Sunday.

This is the premier race for eights and quads in the North West and this year attracted nearly 130 entries including clubs travelling from Stockton on Tees, York, Derby, Oxford, Bradford and Lancaster, as well as local crews.

Hosted by Royal Chester Rowing Club, the race is in two divisions over 5,000 lung-bursting metres from Eccleston ferry to the finish at Dee Lane, starting at 10-second intervals with frequent enthusiastic overtaking.

The prize for the fastest crew is a spectacular antique silver trophy first awarded in 1937 with medals for the crew members and status winners.

The Deputy Lord Mayor was joined by Rebecca Romero MBE, to present the prizes. Rebecca, who lives locally, was the first British woman to compete in two different sports at the Olympic Games, winning a silver medal for rowing at Athens and a gold for cycling in Beijing.

Royal Chester, last year’s winners, led off the race, followed by Agecroft, previous winners four times, St Edward’s School, Derby, University of Liverpool and University of York.

Royal Chester forged ahead of the field to win in 15min 9.1sec, the fastest time on the day and 4.1sec ahead of St Edward’s School who overtook Agecroft. Royal Chester retained their ‘Head of the River’ status in what is the club’s 185th anniversary year. Grosvenor, Warrington and University of York also won medals in their status events.

In the afternoon race, Royal Chester, Grosvenor, Agecroft and Pengwern from Shrewsbury were all medal winners.

There was a strong junior entry of 80 boats with rowers aged 14-18. Local clubs, Queen’s Park High School, The King’s School and a little further away, The Grange School, all collected medals.

The best afternoon time of 17min 12.8sec was posted by the women’s junior 18 crew from Shrewsbury School. They won the fastest women’s crew trophy together with medals and special new junior prizes, smart unique water bottles signed by Rebecca Romero. Rebecca added words of encouragement and advice at both presentation ceremonies about improving performance, even for the winners.

Graham Miller, chair of the event committee, said, “We are grateful to the Deputy Lord Mayor and Rebecca Romero for giving their time to support and celebrate this big event for Chester. Rebecca is an inspirational role model and we hope she will visit us again to encourage our junior rowers in particular.”

Andrew Firman, chair of Royals, said “This successful and enjoyable day’s racing could not happen without the detailed planning and organization of our Open Events Committee and the volunteers who filled 274 roles across the day.

"Thank you to all of them, to our guests of honour, local businesses Chester Boat, Snugbury’s, Hickory’s Smokehouse and The Moorings and of course to all our competitors and supporters for being here.”

Full results from the day are available at https://www.royalchester.org/north-of-england-head

For further information about rowing with Royals or learning to row, visit www.royalchester.org or contact club captain Chloe Sheward via email at rcrcclubcaptain@gmail.com.