Torquay crews shine in championship waters

Torquay Regatta attracted 92 entries from around the region for the penultimate regatta in the West of England Amateur Rowing Association’s 2025 nine regatta Championship series as part of Torbay Royal Regatta.

Scheduled to be held over a 1000-metre course in Tor Bay from Livermead Head to the knuckle of Princess Pier with the entries necessitated 33 events.

Conditions were ideal on a sunny warm day with calm water at the start of the regatta but as the day progressed the sea roughened resulting in the unfortunate decision to abandon racing after event 18.

The two Bay clubs, Torquay and Paignton, had some success on the day with their youngsters providing some fine results.

In the Championship events for Torquay, Will Jackson-Heritage won the Open under 16 single sculls and by so doing has secured the West of England ARA Championship.

Sophie Evans also won her Women’s Under 16 single sculls and Barbara Mears was third in the Women’s Novice single sculls. In the supporting events Ollie Payne and Will Jackson-Heritage won the Open under 15 double sculls. The club also took third place in the Women’s Novice coxed quadruple sculls.

Paignton also had some success in the Championship events with third in the Open Novice coxed fours and third in the Women’s Senior C coxed fours. In the supporting events the club took second in Open under 15 double sculls.

The two clubs formed a combined crew for the Championship Open under 16 coxed quadruple sculls with the crew of Ollie Higgs, Ollie Payne, Will Jackson-Heritage, Oscar Chambers and cox, James Tookey, winning from Wimbleball.

The final regatta of the Championship series is to be held at Dartmouth on Thursday, August 27.

Torquay Regatta results:

Open Senior A coxed fours 1 Bideford Reds 2 Wimbleball 3 Exeter

Open Senior C coxed fours 1 Plymouth 2 Bideford Reds 3 Dart Totnes

Open Novice coxed fours 1 Dartmouth 2 Dart Totnes 3 Paignton

Open under 16 coxed quadruple sculls 1 Paignton/Torquay 2 Wimbleball

Open under 16 single sculls 1 Will Jackson-Heritage – Torquay 2 Isaac Hattersley – Dart Totnes 3 Sebastian Taylor – Plymouth

Women’s Senior C coxed fours 1 Dart Totnes 2 Exeter 3 Paignton

Women’s Novice coxed fours 1 Bideford Reds 2 Dart Totnes 3 Exeter

Women’s under 18 coxed fours 1 Dart Totnes 2 Dartmouth

Women’s Senior C single sculls 1 Paige Darnley – Dart Totnes 2 Laura Cresser – Exeter 3 Esther Cope – Dart Totnes

Women’s Novice single sculls 1 Jess Fraser – Exeter 2 Heather Yeomans – Exeter 3 Barbara Mears - Torquay

Women’s under 16 single sculls 1 Sophie Evans – Torquay 2 Millie Colwill – Bideford Reds

Supporting events:

Open Novice double sculls 1 Dartmouth A 2 Dart Totnes 3 Plymouth

Open under 15 double sculls 1 Torquay 2 Paignton

Open Masters Handicapped single sculls 1 Adrian Theed – Wimbleball 2 Andy Cox – Bideford Reds

Women’s Masters Handicapped coxed fours 1 Dart Totnes A 2 Dart Totnes B

Women’s Novice coxed quadruple sculls 1 Dartmouth 2 Wimbleball 3 Torquay

Women’s Senior C double sculls 1 Dartmouth

Women’s under 14 double sculls 1 Dart Totnes A 2 Dart Totnes B