COALPORTERS celebrated their first Hants and Dorset Ladies' Senior Championship with champagne and kisses after their win at Itchen Imperials Regatta.

And BTC' s Senior Four celebrated their qualification for this week's Royal Henley Regatta's Britannia Challenge Cup by clinching the club's seventh Hants and Dorset Men's Senior Championship in the past ten years.

With the Hants and Dorset Championship in the bag Coalporters Senior Ladies Sil Wallach, Fiona Scrimgeour, Cathy Paget, Caroline Munday (stroke) and Viv Chmarny (cox) will be stepping up their training programme to be ready to match the best the Coast Rowing Association can set against them at Southsea Regatta in two weeks.

More local success saw Itchen Imperial's Smith, Aaron, Hindmarsh, Taylor (stk) and M Wardell (cox) win their first Ladies' Novice final by three lengths against BTC and Coalporters' Jessica Hayes, Kate Hadfield, Antonia Maunder, Becky Henderson (stk) and Penny Glazzard (cox) with a length to spare.

For the Men BTC added to their points total with another win in the Veteran Fours and a first win for Steve Maxwell, Duncan Bradbury, Scott Weaver, Jason Puckett (stk) with Catherine Hume cox in the Novice Fours.

In the Senior Sculls it was another epic struggle between Malcolm Hume of BTC and Nick Pike of Ryde. Dead heating their first round clash they then had to return to the start line for an immediate re-row which saw Hume get his final stroke of the race in just ahead of Pike to win by a foot.

The final was no pushover either with Pike's clubmate, last season's junior sculling champion Ashley Maitland, matching Hume stroke for stroke for all but the last 50 metres when Hume managed to summon enough courage to pull half a length clear to take him within one point of Championship leader Pike.

RESULTS:

Men - Senior fours: 1 BTC B, 2 Itchen Imperial A. Veteran Fours: 1 BTC A, 2 Southampton A. Junior Senior Fours: 1 Ryde 2 Christchurch. Junior Fours: 1 Christchurch A, 2 Itchen Imperial A. Novice Fours: 1 BTC A, 2 Poole A, 3 Itchen Imperial B. Senior Pairs: 1 Lymington A, 2 Itchen Imperial A.

Junior Pairs: 1 Coalporters A, 2 Christchurch A, 3 Coalporters B.

Senior Sculls: 1 BTC (Hume), 2 Ryde (Maitland), 3 Southsea (Watling). Junior Sculls: 1 Itchen Imperial (Foad), 2 Ryde (Allsopp), 3 Westover (Cure).

Ladies - Senior Fours: 1 Coalporters A, 2 Christchurch A. Junior Fours: 1 Coalporters A, 2 Christchurch A, 3 Southsea A. Novice Fours: 1 Itchen Imperial, BTC A. Senior Pairs: 1 Southsea A, 2 Coalporters A. Junior Pairs: 1 Coalporters A, 2 Coalporters B, 3 Christchurch A. Senior Sculls: 1 Christchurch (Bagnell), 2 Christchurch (Cresswell). Junior Sculls: 1 Southsea (Mynhardt), 2 Christchurch (Crockett)

Novice Sculls: 1 Lymington (Macnamara), 2 Coalporters (Glazzard), 3 Itchen Imperial (Wardell).

Junior Events

Men's J16 Sculls: 1 Ryde (Churchill), 2 Itchen Imperial (Kelly).

Women's J16 Sculls: 1 Poole (David), 2 Poole (Frampton), 3 Itchen Imperial (Wardell)

Mixed J16Fours 1 Itchen Imperial A, 2 Poole A.