PROUD dad Chris Tipney only took up rowing three months ago after seeing the success his two sons were enjoying on the water now he has joined them as winners.

The wannabee oarsman was part of the Marlow novice men's eight crew which landed their first win of the season at the Coate Water Park regatta last Saturday.

Sitting alongside him in the winning boat was his 15-year-old son Dan who joined stroke Jonathan Warne, Bob Thompson, Graham Hyman, Mark Wells, Alex Lovisetto, Ray Swordy and cox Carla Boddy in the victorious boat, which saw off competition from club and university crews.

His other son, Ben, a British junior international, did not enter the race.

In the first round the Marlow boat chased down crews from Hertford College, Oxford and Magdalen College before putting in a big push in the final 250 meters to win by half-a-length to set up a nailbiting final against Exeter.

Both crews gave their all in a close final and it took the adjudicators ten minutes after the race to decide that Marlow had come home first.

Marlow had another win to celebrate in the under-15 single sculls when Helen Brewer beat clubmate Jenny Forrester to win the schools race.

Marlow women's novice four of Maddie Downey, Mell Waterworth, Mandy Parr, Nikki Davies and cox Elaine Caldwell also had an excellent day as they showed a real turn of pace to take second overall in a field of 20 boats.

They dominated their first round and held off the strong challenge of Reading in the semi-final as well.

The final was also a close affair although a mistake on the start allowed local rivals Maidenhead to slip clear and Marlow could not catch them.

Meanwhile, on the international scene, Marlow's Olympic silver medallist Kath Grainger teamed up with clubmate Cath Bishop to take victory at the Essen international regatta last weekend.

After finishing second to the German Van Daelen twins on Saturday they stepped up a gear 24 hours later to beat a second pair of German twins the Pyritz sisters.

Grainger said after the win: "Yesterday we reminded ourselves how much we hated losing, today we reminded ourselves how much we like winning."

The pair are already established as the British women's squad's top combination under their new Australian coach Marty Aitken.

Bishop went on to stroke the GB women's eight to a silver medal in a close race with Germany.

Bishop and Grainger were Great Britain's only winners over the weekend and are now preparing for August's World Championships.