Senior eight best of Irish

A win for the senior men's eight was the highlight for Ireland at the Home International rowing championships at Strathclyde in Scotland on Saturday. The crew, with three oarsmen and a cox from national champions Neptune, beat Scotland and Wales into second and third places.

Ireland also won the senior coxed four with a crew again built on Neptune men Ciaran Lewis, Brendan Duke, Sean Jacob and cox Brendan O'Farrell (joined this time by Trinity's Kevin Boyle). But the Irish failed to win the senior men's team category, losing out to Scotland. England, whose representation would not be the very best available at this level, were third.

In fact Ireland failed to win any of the team categories on offer. The senior women's team could only take third behind England and Scotland, despite a relatively good showing in the sculling events. The four Commercial scullers notched up a win in the quadruple scull, a second in the single and a third in the double.

In the junior men's events a win in the coxless four and four second places was not enough for the Irish to make it into the top two, with a strong England team and Scotland filling these places. In the junior women's category the Shandon coxless pair of Claire Rose and Stephanie Kolle provided the sole win to add to two second places, which gained only third place behind the hosts and Engand.