A stiff westerly provided competitors in this year's Barham Cup with a tough race up the River Teign, writes Nigel Canham.

As a result the winning times were a few minutes down on last year, the best of the rowers coming in at around 47 minutes.

The teams had set off from Teignmouth's Fish Quay at 7pm on Friday, a good number of supporters to cheer them on.

Five miles up stream another party was waiting to greet them at Newton Abbot's Town Quay.

On the estuary the competitors were shadowed in a safety boat by Teignmouth mayor Cllr Vince Fusco and his Newton Abbot counterpart Cllr David Howe.

Cllr Howe said the event, which dates back to 1924 and a visit by the battleship HMS Barham to Teignmouth, had been a great success.

'Something new for this year was the involvement of 18 young canoeists who put on a demonstration at Town Quay,' he said.

'I presented medals to those who took part and next year I'm hoping we can make the canoeing an event in its own right.

'The water was a bit choppy for the race but bearing in mind how atrocious the weather was in the morning it was really quite nice by the evening. If memory serves me well last year the race had to be postponed for several weeks because of bad weather so I reckon we did just fine.'

The race heralded the start of the 2009 Teignmouth Carnival and boasted 12 classes.

The Barham Cup itself was awarded to the team of Ben Smith, Chris Connell, James Stoyle and Ed Rawlings. The Newton Town Cup went to Terry and Mike Hudson.