THE ninth race of the series held at Shaldon Regatta marked the end of the River Teign seine boat series, which started back in April.

Following another closely fought leg for the juniors, the season's trophy awards were made after the race.

Crazy Crew won the boys 12 and under section, Four By Foar won the girls 14 and under section, Teign Tearaways were winners and Teign Buoys runners-up in the boys 14 and under section and Scouteign 4 Buoys won the girls 18 and under section.

The race start for the seniors was in between the sailing club and Sprey Point and it was then a straight sprint, parallel with the shoreline, to the green can-buoy in the main channel.

This then left a small circuit around three buoys within the harbour, before a finish at the Shaldon beach - a relatively short race of about 20-25 minutes.

It was the higher placed boats from the previous race who were disadvantaged through a longer distance to travel to the first mark.

However, this resulted in two very closely contested races with the overall first and second places already decided for both the men's and ladies series, it was the third places that were still up for grabs along with the honours for the Plate competition.

The ladies were the first seniors away and it was a much closer race to the first mark due to the short sprint from the start-line.

As the boats turned at the Point, G-Foarce had a narrow lead from Abs Fab with the remainder of the fleet also closely behind these leading boats.

Shaldon Gulls in Mrs B made an excellent start to the race and were involved in a tussle with FEA and Funky Oars for third place. It was the Shaldon Gulls who prevailed and recorded their best finish of the season in third place.

G-Foarce went on to complete their ninth successive win of the season and Abs Fab finished second. FEA finished in fourth place which was enough to secure a third place overall in the Series, behind Abs Fab and G-Foarce.

Four in a Row in Freya finished seventh overall, which also won them the Plate competition, with the Moose Women in Rene Arnott very close runners-up.

The men were the last to race, but in doing so also enjoyed slightly better weather conditions than the ladies.

It was the scratch crew in E.J who started closest to the shore that led the way to the first mark with a small cluster of boats containing Lazy Jacks Men, C'Oar Blimey, Teignaged Rampage and The Big Cox who converged with them from further out at sea. At the Point turn it was the scratch crew in E.J who narrowly led from Lazy Jacks Men and C'Oar Blimey.

However, following a collision at a buoy between these boats within the harbour, it was C'Oar Blimey who emerged the quickest and were able to secure their third win of the season ahead of the Lazy Jacks Men and the scratch crew who finished in third.

A tidy row, keeping out of trouble, from The Big Cox in Shony saw them secure overall third place in only their second season. Power Masters A in Eileen finished in eighth place overall which secured them the Plate competition, with Blade Runners in Mr Christian runners-up.

Anyone interested in taking part in Seine boat rowing can visit the River Teign Rowing Club's website at www.teignrowers.co.uk