Fingers crossed for jolly boating weather

Thousands of competitors and spectators were today expected to turn out to help make this year's Shrewsbury Regatta a big success.

The annual event, which has been running for more than 150 years, was expected to attract huge crowds to the town and organisers were keeping their fingers crossed for kind weather.

The two-day regatta kicked off in The Quarry at 8.30am today with races on the River Severn expected until about 6pm today and tomorrow.

Today's action was taking place over a 1,000-metre course, while tomorrow's races will be on a shorter 600-metre sprint course.

The blue riband race is expected to be the open eights featuring a crew from Shrewsbury School at about 5pm today. Spectators can watch the races from either side of the river.

Chris Jarrett, chairman of the Pengwern Boat Club which organises the event, said he was hoping for a great weekend and sunny weather.

He said: "The first race began at 8.30am. We usually get about 1,800 competitors and well over a thousand spectators each day.

"If we keep to the timetable we should finish around 6pm each day but there can be extra heats so it might finish later. It's going to be a long day."

The boat club provides refreshments for competitors and spectators, he added.