Ryde's Ben Ade, Ian Hadden, Matt Allsop, Nick Pike (stroke) and Claire Salter (cox) made it a senior fours win double for the second year running, taking both the Coastal and River Fours pennants in style in the Head of the Stour race at Christchurch on Sunday.

Rowed in brilliant sunshine, with the wind behind the crews as they came off the start, fast times were to be expected from 100 crews entered with the fastest, Lymington's winning eight, covering the 3,200-metre course in just eight minutes 43 seconds.

Southampton were the most successful club, with five wins, including both the ladies' senior fours and men's veteran coastal four, the men's river and coastal pairs and the ladies' coastal pairs.

Coalporters must have been more than happy with the early-season form of junior coastal sculler Andrew Martin, who took the title from last season's championship contender, Mark Jenner of Ryde by four seconds, in a time of 10.42.

The outstanding performance of the day, however, came from Christchurch's men's coastal novice four winners (10.39) Samuel Batchelor, Daniel Ryan, Mitchell Powers (stroke) and Michelle Chilcott (cox), who recorded a faster time than both the men's coastal junior winners Coalporters (10.52) and the Coastal junior/senior winners Westover (10.59), giving coach Chris Ryan every expectation of a tilt at this year's Hants and Dorset junior championship title.