Racing in quads and fours, Wallingford RC’s lightweights and masters crews came away with winners' pennants from a wet and windy weekend on the London Tideway, writes John Wiggins.

Saturday’s Head of the River Fours saw Wallingford’s elite lightweight quad of Mimi Carlton, Gemma Hall, Lisa Owen and Ellie Piggott retain their title with half a minute to spare over chasing crews.

The event also provided first sight of the University Boat Race squads.

The Oxford women avoided direct comparison with Cambridge by racing in different boat types in which the OUWBC just missed out on the IM1 quad title by 0.2secs and the IM1 coxed four by just two seconds.

The Cambridge men might take confidence from a clear victory over three of Oxford’s Elite coxed fours placed third, fourth and fifth.

But Dark Blues coach Sean Bowden had spread his experienced men throughout these boats which all finished ahead of the Light Blues’ next and sixth-placed boat.

The following day, in no better conditions, the Masters took to the water in the Veteran Fours Head with another half-minute winning margin for a Wallingford RC quad.

Mike Edge, Dan Harvey, Pete King and Andy Hull captured the Masters C title for the third successive year and finished second overall.

The margin was much the same for Wallingford’s women’s C coxed four of Laura Forrest, Karen Walker, Katie Kapernaros, Becky Waller with cox Rachael Haycock, while their Women’s D quad finished in second place by less than three seconds.

Abingdon RC took third places in both the men’s D and women’s B quads but had a winning combination in the Mixed IM3 quad with Helen Grey, Simon Dawes, John Fass and Elly Kilsby.

St Edward's School's Charlie Gosling, Felix Obholzer, David Willcox and Hugh Reilly won Saturday's Pangbourne Junior quad event, and Charlie Smith and Rupert Singfield took the boys' coxless pairs.

Headington School’s quad of Rachel Grainger, Jasmine Barker, Emily Waldron, Charlotte Barker, and cox Isabelle Rooney, were clear victors of the J15 category.