Christ Church's Head of River rout

Christ Church Grammar master of rowing Stephen Saunders lauded the teamwork of his crew after it claimed a third Head of the River in four years at Champion Lakes on Saturday.

Christ Church went in as favourites in the famous first-eight race after dominating the lead-up regattas and had first choice in the crucial lane draw ahead of Trinity College and Scotch College.

Rowing against a strong easterly, Christ Church established an early lead and were never headed, justifying their pre-race favouritism to record a com- fortable victory ahead of a fast-finishing Guildford Grammar and Scotch.

"They were asked to go out hard and they did and managed to establish a winning lead halfway through the race," Saunders said.

"They were just so consistent.

"They were not a big crew in comparison to some of the others, but they just worked so well together and worked hard all season."

Scotch won the overall points race with 254 to take out the Hamer Cup ahead of Guildford (243) and Trinity (240).

Scotch head of rowing Grant Ford said it augured well for the future that they performed so well across the age groups.

"It's one of the very highly-prized Public Schools Association trophies," he said. "You can't really afford to make too many mistakes and I was really pleased with the way the boys rowed."

Ford said the conditions in the Head of the River had been tough, but praised his Christ Church rivals for their impressive effort.

Trinity went in as one of the frontrunners in the first eight, but faded badly to finish sixth.

Rowing master Phil Jurevich rejected rumours there had been technical difficulties, describing the Christ Church crew as "special".