Henley proves tough for Scottish crews

ALL three home-based Scottish crews racing yesterday at Henley Royal Regatta rowed strongly but crashed out to top-class international-standard opposition.

Clyde's James Murphy briefly led New Zealand's lightweight world champion Duncan Grant off the start in his heat of Diamond Single Sculls and put up a good fight for the first half-mile, but eventually, the New Zealander's superior technique brought him through to win by three and three-quarter lengths.

Making their club's debut at this level, Colin Wallace and Scott Purdie of Aberdeen's Deeside Scullers were racing against Canada's international lightweight pair in the Silver Goblets but, once again, despite taking an early lead, were overwhelmed, to eventually go down to an "easily" verdict.

Later in the day, and also in the Goblets, Glasgow's Jonny and Chris Logan were up against a pair from the Greek national squad. With the Glasgow pair in the lead at the time, the Greeks were warned following bad steering, however they eventually got their act together to lead the Glasgow duo over the line by three and a quarter lengths.

Scottish interest now turns to the Princess Grace Cup for international women's quadruple scullers, which gets underway today.

Katherine Grainger, Scotland's three-times Olympic silver medallist and four-times world champion, leads her international crew into action in this event today, and should make short work of an Irish composite from Belfast and Carrick-on-Shannon.

Clyde's Imogen Walsh, along with three London crew-mates, is also in this event, as her crew hopes to make an impression in their quest to be selected as Britain's lightweight representatives at this year's World Rowing Championships. They open their campaign against the Dutch national squad.