Cassidy's eight show their paces

A favourable wind helped the host club's exceptional eight set the fastest time ever for the course in Saturday's Neptune regatta at Islandbridge. The Neptune crew, stroked by Tony O'Connor, beat Trinity by two lengths in the final covering the course of approximately 1,250 metres in two minutes 58 seconds.

It was a day which was particularly noteworthy for the man in the number two seat, Jim Cassidy, and the man scheduled to be in the number six seat according to the programme, Albert Maher. At 40 years of age Cassidy, like another winner on the day, 37-year-old single sculler John Armstrong, is rowing proof that even in a demanding sport talent need not be robbed of its power by years.

Maher's day was also remarkable - but he was competing at the London Scullers head of the river, where he was eventually deemed to have finished second having first been told he won it.

Rowing for the first time at the London head, the man from Douglas in Cork was given the lowly starting position of 115th. But like a top-class time triallist in any sport, he started passing those in front of him: in all he passed 27 other scullers. Then came the elation of being told that provisional results put him first.

But the joy was not to endure for the whole day: first the Neptune competitor was told that he might have tied with Englishman Giles Monnickendam of Notts County. The two agreed that they would be happy to share the glory. But, over four hours after the first provisional results had been publicised, Maher was told he had been classified as second.

He took it well, however: "When I came off the water I was delighted with my row, and thought I might have won it. I'm not going to say now I'm disgusted. In the bigger picture, I'm happy with my row."

Back at the Neptune regatta one of the talking points after Neptune annexed the fours title, by beating their own B crew, was the success of the recent switch of Brendan Dolan into the stroke seat, with Tony O'Connor moving to two. Dolan is certainly an all-rounder - the garda was known for years mostly as a sculler and he won a bronze medal at the World Championships in 1997 in a quadruple scull. He has never stroked a senior sweep boat before.

The depth of sculling talent in the country should be evident to national coach Thor Nilsen next weekend at assessment to determine who will go the World Cup regatta in Hazewinkel in Belgium. While the veteran Armstrong again underlined his credentials as lightweight, the rise of young talent is evident too - young heavyweight Con Collis won the senior three single scull at Neptune, and the agriculture student will be one of a number who will ensure Maher may look to the weekend ahead with less equanimity than he did to the test in London.

Commercial's regattta yesterday added another chapter to the interesting story of the battle between the club's women scullers for the top spots. Debbie Stack, who beat lightweight Ailis Holohan in the final of the senior one sculls at Neptune, was held off in yesterday's final by the foremost Irish oarswoman for a number of years, Mary Hussey. But the summer should certainly bring interesting times in this discipline.

The miserable day certainly did not help yesterday's regatta, and it was for the most part a low-key affair.