Sudbury Rowing Club put up a spirited fight in their defeat to Molesey at the Henley Royal Regatta last week.

The Sundbury eight were determined to prove themselves against one of the best teams in the country.

Starting on the Berkshire bank, the Sudbury boat had the same average crew weight as Molesey, who began the race on the Buckinghamshire bank.

Cox Ella Hysom called the crew’s first strokes and with both boats pulling away quickly, they got into a stroke rate of about 40 per minute.

Molesey were about three-quarters ahead when disaster struck for the Suffolk crew, who came too close to the solid booms down the edge of the course which briefly, but sharply, slowed the boat down.

Sponsored by Specflue, Sudbury got back into their rhythm but Molesey now had clear water ahead of them and eventually finished winners in a time of 6m 55s.

Molesey went on to lose in the quarter-finals to German crew Frankfurter Rudergesellschaft Germania von 1869, the eventual winners of the whole event.