With the sun gracing the occasion for the finals, the atmosphere was correspondingly bright at Saturday's Trinity regatta at Islandbridge . . . but the shadow of next weekend's international event at Ghent hung heavily over events on the water. The lack of some of the top Irish rowers, who instead decided to prepare for the trip to Belgium was particularly evident in the men's senior one eights, where Neptune's no-show was glaringly obvious.

All credit to Garda, who can be well pleased with carrying off the title in their first regatta appearance of the year. They pulled out the stops to beat visiting British crew Queen's Tower in the semi-final, but the fact that the decider against Trinity was effectively over within a few hundred metres, as the host crew were broken and Garda paddled past the boathouses to a facile win, ended the regatta on a downbeat note.

All round it was not a good day for Trinity men: virtually the same crew was beaten by Neptune's junior 18s - and later disqualified - in the senior three heats after a mix-up over transportation provided a poor buildup for them. Neptune went on to lose a very close final to in-form UCD but had the consolation of a win in the junior 18 final.

Trinity's novice women's eight lifted the gloom for the hosts with a terrific victory in their final against Queen's. They trailed for much of the race only to come from behind at the finish. The verdict was one third of a length.

At the other end of the scale in terms of experience, Brendan Dolan (33) and Gary O'Neill (31) teamed up with Frank Sheridan (22) and former Trinity man Andy Coleman (24) to lift the senior men's fours title for Neptune. Dolan beat UCC's Serryth Colbert of UCC to take the men's senior one single sculls title and O'Neill took the senior three version. Coleman and Sheridan took the senior one coxless pairs.

Neptune, who won the women's eight title by beating Trinity, also added the women's single sculls title, Hazel Craigie (ex King's Hospital) beating the considerably younger schoolgirl at King's Hospital, Rebecca Warner (16), in the final.