Across The Line: Big days out at Peterborough and Maidenhead
Find out what’s been going on across the UK, including the action from Peterborough Summer Regatta and Maidenhead Regatta
In the zone at Peterborough Regatta, (c) LovelyLight Images
We’re Across The Line! Join us to look back on a brilliant weekend of racing from across the UK.
Leeds RC win Victor Ludorum at Peterborough
Across two days of racing, Peterborough City RC welcomed clubs from across the UK and Ireland to their course for the annual PCRC Summer Regatta. Across 66 events, more than 700 athletes participated with competitors travelling from as far a field as Exeter, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Dublin.
After more than 300 races, Leeds RC were crowned winners of the 2025 Victor Ludorum. The club left Peterborough with the trailer laden with silverware as they were awarded 13 gold, nine silver and 18 bronze medals.
The gold-rush began after just a few hours of racing on Saturday. Following a flurry of success in some of the early heats, the women of Leeds set the standard for the club, taking gold in the Women’s Band 2 Pairs. Leeds RC needed to wait just 30 minutes for their next gold medal of the regatta, which was won by ‘Evans’ in the Open band 1 Single Scull. The club travelled en masse with strong representation across the age categories and one of the great examples of this was the Women’s J14 Double Sculls. Leeds won the gold and bronze medals, sandwiching the the Beckett RC duo on the medal podium.
The Women’s squad would be vital to the club in their hunt for the VL. This was evident during some of the eights racing, most notably in the Band 1 Women’s Eights. With two boats racing in the final, their top boat ended up in a thrilling contest against York City RC. Across the line it was Leeds who got the better of their northern rivals by just 0.5s.
The Women of Leeds were dominant across the boat classes, just like their men, they picked up the win in the Band 1 Single Sculls. It was a race won by ‘Baker’ winning by clear water against Hollingworth Lake RC and Windermere RC. They also picked up the Band 2 Women’s Quadruple Sculls title. The Band 1 equivalent was the final race of day on Saturday. while Leeds RC were fourth, there would be some northern happiness. The winning crew, a composite of Glasgow University BC and Strathclyde Park RC, were also joined by Leeds University BC and stormed to victory by more than six seconds.
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Sunday’s racing over 500m kicked off with heats of the Open Band 2 Single Sculls. After a tremendous performance in his heat, Nottingham RC’s ‘Hartley’ took victory in the final. He beat ‘Soupe’ of Leeds RC who himself navigated the repechage and bounced back to claim the silver medal. Racing on home water, there was a huge amount of success for Peterborough City RC. One of their standout performances came in the final of Open Eights. The home favourites stormed to vcitory beating both Leeds RC crews as well as City of Cambridge. However, the honours of the fastest crew of the day would go to Leeds RC. In one of the races of the weekend, the final of Mixed Eights saw three crews finished within 1.2 seconds of each. Unfortunately for Peterborough City RC, both of their boats fell to Leeds RC, who clocked a 1:27.6 beating the best that Peterborough had to offer by just 0.1s!
View all the results here.
Maidenhead Regatta puts on a show
The Maidenhead Summer Regatta is the club’s highlight event each year, drawing rowers from across the region for a day of exhilarating competition and festive celebration on their scenic stretch of the River Thames. The event features a variety of boat classes catering to both junior and senior rowers, ensuring exciting races for all skill levels.
The first race of the day was for the Open Explore Coxed Quads. The explorer event had 9 entries and was split into two groups of five and four with separate paths and finals. Maidenhead RC provided the wide boats and blades. Throughout the morning block, these races were running every 30 minutes and to the delighted of supporters from the SL6, Maidenhead ‘Boeg’ won the opening race. This theme would continue throughout the morning and in the final race at 11:11 spectators would be treated to an awesome finale which saw the ‘Boeg’ crew beat Broxbourne RC by just three feet.
Throughout the day’s day’s 500m racing upstream, nail-biting finishes were a running theme. The standard was set at 08:42 as ‘Mullins’ of Burway RC beat his Marlow RC opposition by just one foot in the opening heat of Open Band 3 Single Sculls. It was an event that would ultimately be won by the home club, Maidenhead RC in a final that ‘Karlson’ dominated much like his earlier heat.
Speaking of one foot margins, how about the final of Open Band 1 Eights. One of the final races of the day was an absolute peach as two Maidenhead RC composite crews went toe for toe the entire way down the course with the London RC, Molesey BC, and Northwich RC composite sneaking their bow ball ahead across the line.
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View the full results here.
Check out last week’s results
“To finally get the gold was so overwhelming,” Liv Cheesmur reflects on an outstanding season for club and country
On The End of The Island Podcast, Fergus Mainland spoke with the U23 World Champion about racing the U23 Championships and her years at Molesey BC
Social Spotlight: GBR for gold in the U19 Women’s Eights!
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That’s all from Across The Line this week!
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