Llanion Warriors Rowing Club (based in Pembroke Dock) recently participated in the annual London Thames rowing marathon, or as it is known, The Great River Race. As always, there was a very large entry, with teams representing 32 nations from across the globe, in all manner of rowing craft. The race is held under the auspices of the London Ferryman's Guild, which means all boats have to carry a passenger, in addition to the usual crew. The weather and water conditions were really good again this year.

The two Llanion teams were rowing in their Celtic longboats which are powered by four fixed seat, single-oar rowers, accompanied by the cox and obligatory passenger in the bow.

Essentially, the teams had been separated by age, so the club had senior mixed and mixed vets teams, competing against other Celtic longboats from all over Wales and a wide range of craft from whalers, skiffs, gigs and smaller craft.

The Llanion teams did well, both teams achieving second places in their classes and overall positions of 42nd (2h.31mins) and 121st (2h.45mins) in the field of 332 boats of all shapes and sizes. Look on their website to see the full results.

The icing on the cake for the Llanion teams was to win the overall fancy dress competition, which many teams enter and put a lot of thought and effort into annually. Their costumes can be seen here.