FALCON Rowing Club’s junior scullers took the Northampton Head of the Nene by storm in winning eleven categories.

Lorna Hermes, their head of juniors, had predicted a minimum of ten wins to match the haul from 2016 as her 46 young charges raced in 36 boats on the 1,800m upstream course.

Granted, in four of the events it was a case of which of the unopposed Falcon crews would beat their clubmates.

But of the other categories, Martin Benfeghoul – a three-time winner last year – was again outstanding in both the J17 single and the senior IM3 category with the fastest time of all scullers by more than 20 seconds.

Alex Morrison won the novice event for Falcon, while Megan Tadesse came first in J13 single and was also in the faster of the two Falcon J13 quads.

Her older sister, Emily, coxed the faster Falcon men’s novice quad, as well as winning the novice double sculls with Cicely Lobreglio,

Their other victory came in the J16 boys double of Lorcan Lee and Joe Mullett.

The boat, in which both the J16 boys and novice girls were victorious, was purchased by the club, following a donation from the National Schools’ Regatta, and named after two of their pioneering juniors, Matt Timms and Aengus Allen.

Named ‘Matt and Aengus’, the boat recognises the achievements of the pair who, before leaving school last year, broke new ground for the club, not least in winning silver in the J16 pairs at the Nationals Schools’ Regatta.

The South of England Indoor Championships returned to the White Horse Leisure & Tennis Centre, Abingdon, with around 750 boys and girls attending.

Hosts Hinksey Sculling School came second in the Victor Ludorum, with 16 medals.

Gold came from the girls J17 and boys J14 relay teams as well as for J16, plus Clarisse Astruc and Beatrice Myers in the J13 category.

City of Oxford took away four medals, including golds for J12 Charlie Shepherd and J16 Jamie Millington.

The Dragon School claimed gold in the J13B event for Leo Rupf.