SUNNY weather greeted the annual Head of the Bridgewater rowing competition on Saturday at Trafford Rowing Club.

The event saw approximately 130 boats from around the North West, including teams from Lancaster, Chester and Liverpool competing on the Bridgewater canal.

The day got off to a chilly start with sections of the canal frozen overnight, but, the sun came out stayed out and the ice disappeared by about 9am, allowing the first division to get on to the water and paddle up to the two start lines on time.

The full course started just before the Seamons Road bridge and raced 3.2km to the finish line just before the Trafford club house at Walton Park, with the shorter course aimed at juniors / novice rowers was a 1km straight section starting at Timperley bridge.

While the sun was out there was a strong head wind from Seamons Road bridge all the way to Timperley meaning that the course records were safe for another year.

The Trafford juniors continued their impressive start to the rowing season with the boys J15 quad and both girls J14 and J15 quads winning their races and two of the J15 boys getting back in a boat and winning the double race an hour later.

All three teams will be heading to the National Sculling Championships at Dorney Lake (home of the London Olympic rowing event) in a couple of weeks feeling confident in their performance so far.

The friendly rivalry between the Trafford men’s squad and the clubs masters squad saw them both send an eight crew down the long course.

Last year the masters squad got within a few seconds (2.2 to be precise!) of the men’s squad but this year that margin was increased to just under 30 seconds.

The performance across all of the Trafford boats was fantastic and all the results are on the Trafford Rowing website.

Simon Reeves, chairman of Trafford Rowing Club said: "It has been a wonderful day of rowing in the sunshine. Thanks to all the competitors and volunteers who made the day run smoothly and also thanks to all the spectators who came and joined us on the canal, hopefully it has sparked an interest in the club. If you are interested in learning more please contact us."

Visit traffordrowing.club or facebook.com/traffordrowing for details.