WARM Bank Holiday sunshine and a lazy breeze that wandered in from all points of the compass greeted the eager sailors at the Evesham Club last Sunday.

With two long races over it was an afternoon for patience and concentration.

With a massed start, the river was awash with sails as the fleet moved in fits and starts to the first buoy. Several took first place with Norman Drew, John Pickford, Ian Haywood, Simon and Zoe Styles and Peter Green all to the fore.

Paul and Anne Baylis and Alistair and Hamish Gordon caught a blow and sailed through to threaten for a while but it was the British Moth of Haywood that finally established a winning position.

Runner-up spot was a different tale with Pickford missing a mark of the course , while Green drifted backwards.

While the Styles and Baylis's were concentrating on one another, Adam Styles in his Lightening crept through unnoticed to take a well-deserved second place.

The second race - a round of the Pursuit Series - saw Stuart Bonham and John O'Brian go off in front with the rest each starting in turn some way behind.

The Larks of the Styles and Drew were the last away but it was Pickford, looking to make up for his earlier mistake, who fairly galloped away in the fickle airs and quickly closed the early leaders down to sail into an unassailable lead.

Haywood was all over the place with Styles coming through from the back accompanied by the Baylis's but it was the former who went on to claim third by a narrow margin.