LYME Gig Club showed the depth of its competitive membership by attending two regattas with almost entirely separate squads, and achieved well in both.

Cattewater Regatta is set on Plymouth sound.

Rowing in Tempest, Lyme ladies’ B crew led the field of 10 from the start, however, a strong easterly wind pushed against their racing line, and despite some excellent coxing from Jeff Legge they were pushed back to fourth, still a solid result.

The Lyme crew for the men’s B race was a mixture of rowers from various crews, some out of their usual seat positions.

Through their race there were close battles with Templer of Teignmouth and Smudger of Dartmouth, holding off repeated attacks they finally came in sixth.

The Ladies’ C race saw an epic battle, where the wise head of cox David Clayton kept Lyme in the lead until in the end where they could not hold off Rame, finishing a close second.

A similar race took place for the men’s C, who also finished second.

In ever worsening conditions, the vets and mixed racing saw more close battles and rougher seas.

Rame Regatta, is one of the highlights of the rowing season, set on the Cornish Rame Peninsula, many of the best clubs in the wold of gig racing take part, including world champions Falmouth.

Despite the quality of the field the start line can be somewhat haphazard.

This was the case for the men’s A where Lyme selected their strongest crew.

With a start position of three/four lengths down on most and despite hauling in a few crews, Lyme could not catch their usual rivals, finishing 10th in a field of 19.

However, the men’s B crew battled with some first rate gigs coming home sixth of a 20 strong quality field.

The ladies’ A crew, missing a couple of the normal team members performed well coming in 15th.

The ladies’ B were 16th and the C 10th.

The highlight of the racing was a second place for the men’s vets.

This crew is making further headway in the elite of this category, in this race only beaten by the world champions from Caradon.

As the race progressed they saw off the chasing group by a huge margin, and with cox Nigel Le Gassick blasting out instruction they at times started to haul in Caradon, ultimately losing out by just a few seconds.

Next stop Lyme’s own home regattas on August 13, racing from 11am off the Cobb.