Rowing: Pinsent and Cracknell give master class

Britain's Olympic and double world champions Matthew Pinsent and James Cracknell made short work of their opponents in their opening heat at the Royal Regatta here yesterday. Defending the Goblets title, the pair were two lengths ahead at the first signal and cruised home. They looked in dominant form.

They left in their wake the Westminster School veterans David Riches, a teacher and previous winner of the event, and the boatman-coach Ian Watson, a former international who had already raced and won his heat of the Diamond sculls earlier in the day. They could offer little resistance but were delighted to have raced against the world's most celebrated crew. "It was a pleasure to be in the same race," said Watson. "They could go far," added Riches wryly.

The weather turned warm but remained blustery after the wet, cold conditions of the first day. London Rowing Club's fortunes changed too as the pace quickened in the second round of the competition. Their Australian coach, Paul Reedy, so harrassed on the opening day, saw his second-string crews begin to falter: three out of ten went out in the first hour and a half. But their seeded crews in the Thames Cup for eights and the Britannia for fours restored morale as they moved comfortably through to the quarter-finals.

In the men's quadruple sculls, the Molesey veterans Jonny Searle, who won Olympic gold in 1992, and Richard Stanhope (silver in 1980), both recently elected Stewards of the Regatta, combined with the former Cambridge Boat Race competitors Guy Pooley and Dirk Bangert to win a tough race from their lightweight London rivals.

Experience counts, but at an average age of 37 and with just three weeks together they may find Leander's B crew, who outsculled their own A quad, more of a handful today.

In the other half of the draw, Australia's University of Technology had the misfortune to meet their local Melbourne University rivals in the first race with the legendary Olympic medallist Peter Antonie in the bow seat. "It's a long way to come to lose to a crew we could have raced by driving up the motorway to Sydney," said Stuart Grieve, who rowed for Oxford University's reserves, Isis, last year.

The nine-year-old cox Henry Lawrence and his 19st 3lb crewmate Craig Burrow's great adventure in the Lea club's Thames Cup eight was ended yesterday by Homberger Ruderklub. After hitting the headlines the day before for setting minimum age and maximum weight records, reality brought them back to earth with a jolt as the Germans overpowered them from the first stroke. "Racing here and seeing Pinsent and Cracknell, has really made me want to row seriously when I grow up," said the London schoolboy.

Henley Royal Regatta Results

Thames: Thames RC 'A' bt Auriol Kensington, 2¹/² lengths, 6 min 50 sec; Neptune RC (Irl) bt London RC 'B', 3l, 6m48s; Leander Club bt Nottingham Britannia RC, 1l, 6m47s; Nottinghamshire County RA 'A' bt Thames Tradesmen's RC, 2¹/²l, 6m50s; Quintin BC bt Reading RC, 2¹/²l, 6m53s; Curlew RC bt London RC 'A' 4l, 6m54s; Christiania Roklub (Nor) bt Nottinghamshire County RA 'B' 2l, 7m1s; Hamberger Ruderklub (Ger) bt Lea RC, easily, 7m1s.

Temple: Imperial College, London 'A' bt Wadham College and St Anne's College, 2¹/² l, 7m8s; Harvard Univ, (US) bt University College Dublin (Irl), 1l, 6m54s; Marist College, (US) bt Reading University, ³/⁴l, 6m58s; Oxford Brookes University 'A' bt Colgate University (US), 1¹/² l, 6m50s; ASR Nereus (Neth) bt St Paul's School, 4l, 7m3s; Queen's Univ, Belfast bt Orange Coast College (US) 2³/⁴l, 6m51s; Univ of London bt Yale Univ (US) ¹/²l, 6m49s; Durham Univ bt Williams College (US) 1³/⁴l, 6m52s.

Princess Elizabeth: St Andrew's School (US) bt The King's School, Canterbury, 3¹/²l, 7m7s; Canford School bt Eton College, ¹/⁴l, 7m2s; St Paul's School bt Bedford School 2m¹/²l, 7m14s; Groton School (US) bt Shrewsbury School 4¹/²l, 7m2s; Radley College bt Middlesex School (US) 4³/⁴l, 7m11s; Abingdon School bt Hampton School, easily, 6m59s; Monmouth School bt Coleraine Academical Institute 2¹/⁴l, 7m30s; Tabor Academy (US) bt Kings School, Chester 1l, 7m19s.

Visitors: Northumbria Univ, bye, 8m21s; Imperial College, London 'B' bt The Canterbury Pilgrims BC, easily, 7m34s; Oxford Brookes and IC bt Upper Thames RC, 1¹/²l, 7m47s; Imperial College, London 'A' bt Warwick BC, easily, 7m47s; ASR Nereus (Neth) bt Upper Thames RC and Royal Navy 2¹/²l, 7m38s; Nottingham Britannia and NCRA bt London RC and Crabtree BC, ³/⁴l, 7m16s; Cambridge Univ bt Nottinghamshire County RA 1¹/²l, 7m30s.

M.Quad: Tideway Scullers and Northampton bt Bath Univ and Marlow RC, 2¹/²l, 7m20s; Tideway Scullers School bt Black Sheep RC and Rob Roy BC, ¹/²l, 7m18s; Molesey BC and Crabtree BC bt London RC, 1l, 7m7s; Leander Club 'B' bt Leander Club 'A', 2¹/⁴l, 7m5s; Tideway Scullers' School bt Lady Victoria and Queen's Univ, easily, 7m17s; Melbourne Univ (Aus) bt UT Sydney and Drummoyne RC (Aus) 2¹/²l, 7m18s; Union BC (US) bt Marlow RC and George Watson's 2¹/⁴l, 7m19s; Mercantile RC (Aus) bt Univ College, Dublin (Irl) 2¹/²l, 7m10s.

Diamonds: P J C Wells bt R G Shirley, easily, 8m30s; D J Watson bt A R Sutherland, easily, 8m44s; D W Crawshay bt P Buckworth, 3¹/³l, 8m37s; T L Edwards bt G C Monnickendam, 4¹/²l, 8m26s; M K Langridge bt M L Duffy, easily, 8m46s; A J S McAllister bt M I McLeod-Jones 2¹/²l, 9m6s; S A Casey bt R G Ockendon 4l, 8m35s; T F Middleton bt G B Blanchard, easily, 8m50s.

Britannia: Colgate Univ, (US) bt London RC 'B', ¹/³l, 7m44s; London RC 'A' bt ASR Nereus (Neth), 2l, 7m35s; Isis BC bt Norwich RC, 1¹/⁴l, 7m41s; Harvard Univ 'B', (US) bt Kingston RC, 2l, 7m33s; NUI Galway 'A' (Irl) bt Garda Siochana BC (Irl) ¹/³l, 7m28s; Univ of London bt Nottingham and Union BC, ³/⁴l, 7m48s; Harvard Univ 'A' bt Univ of Warwick 1¹/⁴l, 7m43s; Ravens BC (Rus) bt Loughborough Students RC 1¹/²l, 7m45s.

Wyfold: Galway RC bt Nottingham BC, 1³/⁴ l, 7m23s; Thames RC bt Lady Elizabeth BC (Irl), 1³/⁴l, 7m23s; Nottinghamshire County RA bt Lea RC 4l, 7m35s; Leander Club bt Belfast RC 1¹/⁴l, 7m41s; Nottinghamshire County RA bt Lea RC 4l, 7m35s; Staines BC bt Eton Excelsior RC, disq; Crabtree BC bt London RC 'C' 3¹/⁴l, 7m34s; Aberdeen BC bt North Country RC (US) 4¹/²l, 7m24s; London RC 'A' bt London RC 'B' 2l, 7m32s.

Doubles: N V Byrne and O K Byrne bt M J Edge and O J Warner, 3l, 7m49s; N C West and R A Hosking bt A T M Rennie and J P Wood, 3¹/²l, 7m45s; A Haller and T Peto bt K G van der Krooij and E H J Landman (Neth) 2¹/²l, 7m44s; E F Demetriou and D B Kitchel bt W J Wadsworth and P J Darvill 3¹/⁴l, 8m6s; A Haller and T Peto bt K G van der Krooij and E H J Landman (Neth) 2¹/²l, 7m44s; E C Wilhelm and M A Beaton bt J K A McDonald and P J Dostal, 4³/⁴l, 7m57s; T D A C Male and T D Kay bt S F Dance and W P J Hoodless, easily, 7m59s; S Vielledent and A Hardy bt T L Edwards and D W Crawshay, easily, 7m35s; H F W Worden and P J Turner bt R G Shirley and P Savage 1³/⁴l, 8m5s.

Goblets: M W Harris and P M Haining bt T P Dorrell and M B Partridge, 1¹/⁴l, 8m7s; R Cummings and R D Newland bt T N Fleming and J A Fricker, 1³/⁴l, 8m34s; X G Rojas and R Rubio bt P J Press and P Richardson, easily, 8m10s; R P Di Clement and D Dech (Rus) bt N A Ablitt and E J Finlay, easily, 8m24s; J E Cracknell and M C Pinsent bt I D J Watson and DM Riches, easily, 7m58s; E W M Kittoe and N C English bt D J Bushnell and E A M Vazquez 4³/⁴l, 8m29s; A R Dunn and S G Hogsbjerg bt J W Knapp and D G Kilpatrick 1¹/⁴l, 8m47s.

PRCC: H C Mangan bt R M Quinn, 2 ft, 9m28s.