A crew of women rowers from Tees Rowing Club are to set off this weekend for the USA where they will be taking part in the world's largest race of its type - The Head of the Charles in Boston.

This event, which attracts 6000 competitors and 300,000 spectators, is run over two days on the "against the clock" format with crews setting off a 10 second intervals, the winners of each class being those who cover the course in the fastest time.

The Tees Women, who will be racing in the Masters Fours (the equivalent to British Veterans), only took up the sport two years ago. Since then, guided by their cox/coach Neil Hindle, they have made significant progress and are now one of the most successful crews in their class in the north of England.

The crew - Deborah Ashurst, Carole Jones, Victoria Laing and Christine Meikle will be steered and encouraged over this challenging three mile course and through its seven bridges by cox Neil Hindle in a boat borrowed from a local college. Spare a thought for regular crew member Diana Ramsden who, had it not been for a niggling injury, would have been making the trip. It says a great deal for the strength in depth of women's rowing at the Tees Club that Carole Jones has been able to step in and take Diana's place.

The six race autumn series of Long Distance Sculling events run by the Northern Rowing Council got under way at South Hylton last weekend. This against the clock race for single, double and quadruple sculls attracted 90 boats and was sculled over a three mile course on the tidal part of the River Wear just to the west of Sunderland. A higher than average tide gave some cause for concern as it had washed quite a lot of driftwood off the river banks but the turn of the tide and a helpful wind cleared most of it away by the time the race started.

Tees Rowing Club competitors had a successful day winning two of the divisions outright and gaining a class win in a third. David and Jonathan Cooper (National Veteran Champions) were fastest Double Scull in a time of 16 mins 59.3 secs. Paul Buckworth (also a National Veteran gold medallist this year) was the fastest single scull in 17 mins 15.3 secs. The Veteran F (age over 60 class) was won by Chris Kenyon in a time of 19 mins 18.7 secs.

Next weekend the series moves on to the River Wear at Durham.