THERE was festive cheer and two early Christmas presents for Ross RC rowers a few miles down the Wye at the Monmouth Winter Head on Sunday.

The club landed two quadruple scull titles in the 1.5-mile 87-boat time-trial, which hasn’t been held for several years owing to lockdown, flooding and snow.

Ross rowers sported Santa hats and got into the spirit, despite the wintry breeze making it somewhat chilly.

The open quad scull of Karen Thorpe Williams, Tim Ball, Sam Boon and Matt Griffiths won their class in seven minutes 26.9 seconds, beating a crew of clubmates by six seconds and a Cheltenham College boat by 20 seconds to land the medals.

And the mixed masters quad of Julian Shaw, Nicky Wild, Sheron Dean Lucas and Mike Jones, matched them winning the most tightly contested event of the day.

Their time of 6.52.9 gave them victory from City of Bristol by just 3.2secs, with only two-tenths of a second covering second to fourth, with Minerva next followed by Upton.

Their women’s masters quads also went close missing out by just 10 and 13 seconds to winners Upton who crossed in 7.30, while a mixed open quad also finished second to Cardiff University.

The club posted pictures of themselves enjoying the event, saying: "A good day racing at Monmouth Winter Head.

"Many thanks to everyone at Monmouth Rowing Club for running it and to everyone who came to support the crews.

"It’s five years since we headed down the A40 in winter thanks to floods, snow and Covid. Chilly day but good wins."

For full results, go to www.monmouthrc.org.uk