ANDY Hodge stroked Molesey Boat Club to an impressive third place in the Head of the River Race last Saturday which featured over 400 eight-man teams from across the UK and Europe.

A strong Leander team, featuring Hodge's three Great Britain world championship gold medal-winning team-mates, won the 4.25 mile race on the Thames from Mortlake to Putney in 17 minutes 28:50 seconds.

They finished three seconds clear of Italian team Fiamme Gialle with Molesey a further seven and a half seconds behind.

Hodge, a former Upper Wharfedale School pupil, was well pleased with his London-based club's performance.

"It was really good," said the 26-year-old who originally hails from Hebden.

"If you look at the crews in all their glory, Leander had the strongest squad of the lot which included the three other guys from the British four (Peter Reed, Alex Partridge and Steve Williams) and the best of the rest while the second-placed team were the Italian eights.

"We had a tail wind for two thirds of the race and then a head wind for the last third. It was difficult to maintain rhythm and strength when your rowing on close to empty but the result was very positive."