Falcon fared best of the Oxfordshire clubs, who competed in the Marlow Long Distance Sculls, writes John Wiggins.

Racing over 4,500m from Cookham to Marlow, Falcon recorded three victories.

Both their J16 boys’ and Masters C women’s quads were again victorious.

The junior quarter of Josh Simmons, Martin Benfeghoul, Rory Pearce and Joel Garden impressively finished with the fourth fastest time of all.

The Masters crew of Lil Cochrane, Alison Grunewald, Alison Salvesen and Cam Scarf proved to be the fastest women’s boat of the day.

Falcon’s third success came for the women’s novice double of Stef Barz and Heather Crowther.

Abingdon RC found themselves unopposed in the Masters D double scull and second of two boats in the IM3 single.

The following day, action moved a few miles upstream to the Henley stretch of the river for the Upper Thames Autumn Head.

At only 3km, this is a shorter course than the Marlow event but is open to all crew boat categories.

Apart from their second placed IM3 double scull, Abingdon were further frustrated by a lack of opposition in their three other chosen categories.

City of Oxford men’s squad, however, suffered from too much opposition.

But they still secured second and third place for their two IM1 coxless fours and third place for both the IM1 and IM2 coxed fours.