Falmouth Men’s A crew scored their seventh successive County Championship title at Newquay’s annual end of season event at the weekend.

In the closest final the championships have ever seen, the Falmouth crew held off strong challenges over the two-lap race from a young Caradon crew as well as from their long-time rivals Looe, while Coverack, Roseland and Appledore completed the final placings.

From the start, Falmouth and Caradon led the field, with Caradon turning the first mark a length ahead of the title-holders. Rowing into the swell and the stiff breeze, Falmouth managed to overhaul them on the second leg to lead at the next mark. Caradon responded with a superb effort down the third leg to almost take the harbour turn, but Falmouth just managed to hold their rivals at bay.

The second lap featured close racing all the way round, Caradon just trailing Falmouth, until the last few hundred metres, when the challengers made a huge effort to try to take the lead and edged ever closer to their goal.

Falmouth responded by raising the stroke rate and just managed to hold on to pip Caradon on the line by an official margin of 0.6 seconds after a 28-minute, lung-busting race.

Supporters on and off the water were privileged to witness this titanic struggle – a fitting finale to the racing season.

The stage is now set for another epic showdown in the Isles of Scilly world championships in May 2018.