East End's crew in clean sweep

SLSNZ

FLYING HIGH: East End's Andrew Cronin, right, powers the IRB as crewman James Morwood holds on.

East End's Andrew Cronin and James Morwood totally dominated the North Island Surf Rescue championships at Waihi Beach at the weekend.

The world champion IRB (inflatable rescue boat) crew won every event they entered over the two-day competition.

The East End premier crew won the tube rescue, the assembly rescue, the mass rescue and the teams' race, before finishing their two-day clean-sweep with victory in the single rescue to win the overall premier title.

East End dominated the club competition finishing on 104 points – a massive 53 points clear of second placed Mt Maunganui, with Muriwai third on 37. New Plymouth Old Boys finished ninth on 20 points, with Fitzroy 15th on six points and Opunake 16th equal on five points.

"It's pretty good. We hadn't done a lot and it's nice to be back in the boat," Cronin said after picking up the overall premier champion title with Morwood.

The pair have had two months' break after winning the world championship in Egypt.

"It's a bit of a surprise, but it's a bit like riding a bike ... apart from the little details being a bit rusty. It's good having a crewman like James that you can just trust and everything else seems to fall into place."

It's the third straight win at the North Island event for the East End club.

"We've got good depth right across. We had two premier crews racing, two women's crews and a senior and under-21 crews. They all did really well," he said. "And we've probably got another three crews, that's important for us."

Cronin said the club now had their sights set on a third straight New Zealand club title at the nationals in late March.

East End's other wins at Waihi were in the women's tube rescue with Laura Begg and Kirsty May, and in the senior assembly rescue with Mitchell Gregg and Scott Busing.

East End grabbed silvers in the under-21 tube rescue (Jared Gray and Scott Nelson), the women's assembly rescue (Begg and May), the senior single rescue (Gregg and Busing) and the under-21 single rescue (Gray and Nelson).

Bronze medals came in the women's mass rescue and single rescue.

Mt Maunganui's Lauren Assink and Mare Haitsma were the top women's crew with three golds, their clubmates Kirby and Chad Wheeler dominated the under-21 division and Papamoa's Troy Walsh and Mitch Brady were the best seniors overall.

- © Fairfax NZ News