Peterborough City pair to race for England in Home International Rowing Regatta

Their time trial took place over a 1500 metre course at the London Docklands and they won the women’s doubles event by 9.8 seconds from Nottingham Rowing Club.

That means Drake-Lee and Cooke will contest the Womens Doubles race at the historic annual competition between the home nations at Docklands on July 23.

And the City pair will also compete in the quad event where they will be joining Katie Mole from Leeds Rowing Club, who won the women’s singles time trial, and Gemma King from Cambridge University Boat Club, who won the womens lightweight singles event.

There were also a few crews from City racing at the prestigious Henley Masters Regatta last weekend, which took place over 1000 metres on the famous Henley reach.

Ian Palmer joined Dave Smith from Leicester Rowing Club to win the Masters C doubles event against another composite crew.

In their qualifying round they had a nailbiting race against Putney Town Rowing Club where they won by just 3 feet.

In their semi-final they won by 1 1/4 lengths against Abingdon Rowing Club and then they beat an Abingdon-Warwick composite double in the final by just a boat canvas.

Kate Read raced in the Women’s Masters B singles event, winning her semi final by 2 1/2 lengths ahead of Putney Town Rowing Club, but then unfortunately lost out by just 1/2 length behind Henley Rowing Club in the final.

The Masters E eight of Steve Tuck, Rob Dennis, Jim Bichard, Graham Barks, John Mackay (Reading), Jaish Mahan, Jack Ward, Keith Blackman and cox Ericha Knowles-Pardoe beat Nottingham Rowing Club in their qualifying round by an impressive 2 lengths.

They later raced a French crew in the semi-finals and lost out by just a boat length.

Keely Watson joined Christchurch Rowing Club to race in the Women’s Masters E quads event.

They won the qualifying round by 2 lengths ahead of the Tideway scullers school however they lost out in the semi-final by 1 3/4 lengths.​​​​​​​​​​​​​