IT was not a great time for Oxfordshire clubs on the first day of the Reading Regatta.

Regatta organisers celebrated the 170th anniversary with a two-day bonanza – with a 1,500 metre course on Saturday, and 1,100-metre races the following day.

On the opening day, Abingdon School’s first eight defended the elite and senior trophies they won in 2011, but were beaten by an older and bigger Molesey crew in the finals of both.

The only local successes came for Osiris, the women’s Boat Race squad, and the young Hinksey Sculling School crew, with wins in the women’s novice eights and the men’s J16 quads respectively.

A day later, the main regatta produced only one more win, Sholto Carnegie taking the Men’s J 18 singles for the City of Oxford.

Successes were more forthcoming in the popular “mini-regatta” which Reading now stage for young enthusiasts.

There were two all-club finals as two crews from Hinksey, in the J12 quads, and Headington, duly progressed to a showdown.

In the Headington battle, it was the B crew that won.

City of Oxford ruled supreme in the J14 sculls, Will Rogers winning the men’s class and Millie Beaver taking the women’s version.

Things now begin to hot up with Henley Women’s Regatta taking centre stage this weekend.

The event – started in 1988 to counteract the lack of women’s events at the Royal Regatta – has gone from strength to strength and now attracts entries from around the world.