STOURPORT Boat Club's men's junior 15 coxed quad struck gold in the National Schools Championships held at the National Water Sports Centre, Holme Pierrepoint, Nottingham.

The crew comprised Mat Brighton (Stourport High School), Nic Danby (Stourport High School), Sam Maher (Hagley RC) and Luke Barnet (King Charles) and was coxed by Becky Perkins (Stourport High School).

They rowed with great maturity through the eliminators and semi-finals to take their place in the final for the Creber Cup alongside the top rowing schools in the country. The quality of the opposition was not an issue for the Stourport quad who led from the start and extended the gap in the middle section.

Even when the Windsor crew pushed back at them in the closing stages they remained composed to take gold, winning in 6-57.44, just 0.64 of a second ahead of Windsor Boys School.

Nicola Price and Rachel Saunders also brought home medals when they collected bronzes in the women's junior double.

Meanwhile, Stourport's juniors travelled to Northwich for a sprint regatta and came away with nine wins.

Honours went to: Beck Saunders, Stacy Gwilliam, Jess Danby (2), Laura Ray (2), Hannah Brighton (2), Rachel Saunders (2), Katie Haywood (2), Nicola Price (3), Harriet Conway (cox), Mat Brighton, Dan Brighton (3), Rupert Conway (2), Alex Gavin and Dan Hastie.

In the senior section, on a difficult course to steer, Stourport had their fair share of spills and thrills at Northwich.

Creditable performances, however, came from the women's senior 2 four losing narrowly to the home crew in the final and the men's senior 2 four losing to a strong Agecroft crew in the final.

There was a win for the Haywood, Danby Senior 2 pair, however, who guided themselves to victory over crews from Bangor University and Agecroft.