Paignton provide helping hand to Tigers charity bid

PAIGNTON Rowing Club transported their wooden gig Top Catch to the recent FISA World Coastal Rowing Championships in Plymouth to give former Leicester Tigers player Matt Poole and his fund-raising crew a trial row in a gig.

The Guinness Premiership side are arranging a charity row from John O'Groats to Land's End for charity during the summer of 2010 in an event organised by one of the Paignton club's sponsors, ocean rowing promoters Woodvale Challenge.

The Tigers intend to row part-way in an ocean rowing boat and part way in a gig.

Paignton's Men's A rower Shaun Pedley approached his club's gig committee to coordinate the row with the Leicester Tigers, and gig captain Jeff Wills was delighted to assist.

Former lock Poole is taking on the charity row with Leicester businessmen Dominic Gomersall, Andy Lyon, Ian Mattioli, and Paul Bassett.

Their target is to raise £150,000 for the Loughborough children's hospice Rainbows, the Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust and the RNLI.

So Shaun and coxswain Simon Pedley took the Tigers afloat within the safety of Plymouth Sound, as the water conditions were extremely choppy.

The final member of the six-man crew will be a Leicester sporting celebrity, while Tigers legends Martin Johnson and Austin Healey will both cox the rowers when they pass through the Leicester leg of the voyage.