Trinity crews haul in leaders

Trinity lived dangerously but survived in both eights and fours races on the second day of the Henley Royal Regatta yesterday. In the Ladies Plate for eights, Trinity beat a Galatasaray from Turkey after a tough battle. The Irish crew trailed for most of the race but, showing typical spirit, they pulled out the stops at the finish and won by two feet.

In the Visitors, Trinity's fours repeated the pattern but the University of Wales, having led virtually all the way, faded fast over the last 50 metres and Trinity won by 1 1/4 lengths.

The day was an exceptional one for Andy Coleman, number two man in the eight, because it was his first win at Henley - although he was brought up there. However, Coleman and James Lindsay-Fynn came up against the might of two heavyweight Argentinian internationals - over 28 stone in combined weight - in the Silver Goblets for pairs and lost by two lengths. The eight are also facing a formidable challenge today: the composite of Nottingham County and Oxford Brookes, effectively the British lightweight crew.

Commercial's Donal Hanrahan had two wins yesterday. In the Diamond singles sculls he beat Simon Pollard comfortably, and he also teamed up with clubmate Mark Kelly for a similarly easy win in the heats of the Double Sculls. The Diamond sculls was a happy hunting ground for the Irish yesterday - Albert Maher (Neptune) and Gearoid Towey (Fermoy) also won. Unfortunately the two are now set to meet today, and in his quarter-final Hanrahan has to take on Greg Searle, a reigning Henley champion.

The good Commercial run continued with another win for their eights in the Thames Cup, and Neptune's coxed fours also won again in the Britannia.