MORE than 800 rowers made a big splash on the River Wye at the annual two-day Monmouth Regatta as they launched out in 433 boats.

Heavy rain beforehand and on Saturday saw tricky conditions with a rising river and fast stream, and the finish had to be moved 100m upstream for Sunday's 750m sprint to prevent the expensive racing shells getting caught on Wye Bridge.

Competitors from 33 clubs from as far afield as Falmouth, London, Ironbridge and Bournemouth attended the Monmouthshire Building Society-sponsored event, with Old Monmothians successfully defending their Phil Mathews Invitation Eights title, named after their former school teacher and regatta commentator.

Wins over RGS Worcester and Reading University set up a final with Cardiff University over Saturday's 1500m course, and the old boys came home just over a length to the good to take the pots.

Even more vintage former Monmouth School crews also took to the water for a reunion rowpast, in the shape of the 1969 crew featuring 1980 Moscow Olympic medallist Charlie Wiggin, who showed the 1976 'youngsters' the way home in a 500m dash.

Haberdashers' Monmouth's eight beat Hereford by two feet before falling to Reading University in the ladies feature event, the Alec Woods Eights Plate, named after Monmouth RC's former president. But the college students then crabbed in the final to gift victory to City of Oxford.

Monmouth Rc's veterans, fresh from gold and silver successes at the British Masters, also showed Reading's students the way home in the dusk dash mixed eights for a barrel of beer, winning by two feet despite giving them nearly 30 years a man.