Garda crew advance to semi-final

On a day which saw all the other competing Irish crews meeting their match, Garda's eight kept the Irish flag flying by progressing to today's semi-final of the Thames Challenge Cup yesterday.

Garda and the Irish lightweight four, who meet the Australian heavyweight four in their first race, the Stewards' semi-finals, will be Ireland's only representatives in today's penultimate session at the regatta.

Garda's opponents have been in ascending orders of difficulty in the three days so far, and the Irish crew which missed their intended challenge at Athlone regatta because of equipment problems would seem to be improving with each race. Yesterday they gained the lead against American opponents Cascade Rowing Club and held it comfortably as Cascade made their final push at the enclosures; the verdict was one length.

However today's race could be the crunch one - Garda face reigning champions Molesey, who knocked them out in the second round last year. Both crews were seeded to meet at this stage, and Garda have targeted this race for a while. "They are very capable of doing it, but we have to pull out a big one," says team manager Willie Ryan.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment yesterday was the defeat for the Irish lightweight eight, rowing as Tara, in the Ladies Plate. The crew fell to strong American crew Brown University by 2 3/4 lengths after a good race.

The Tara quadruple scull, made up with some of the members of the eight, had decided not to compete in the Queen Mother.

The challenge of NUIG's eight also ended, with their defeat in the Temple by Nottingham University A by one length. Trinity's B four, who had made it further than the college's A crew in the Visitors', exited yesterday by the same margin to Oxford Brookes' A crew.

Neptune's Sean Jacob and Albert Maher were beaten in the Double Sculls late in the day having tasted defeat earlier when teamed up with club-mate Ciaran Lewis and Belfast's Paul Savage in the Prince Philip. The margin of defeat in both races was two lengths. UCC's Serryth Colbert also exited in the Diamond Sculls.