A team of journalists from the Cornish Guardian swapped the newsroom for the waters of Newquay Harbour to battle it out in a charity gig race.

The courageous crew competed against six other teams to raise money for the paper’s Centenary Appeal.

And despite being the only group to be completely out of time with each other’s rowing, the team strained through the aches and pains to finish fourth – improving on the paper’s wooden spoon result in last year’s competition.

The Guardian’s team included Alan Barber, Ben Glass, Wendy Rizza and Anna Whitney, who were joined by a fireman and a rower.

Reporter Anna said: “It was a brilliant day. Last year was the first event, with only three gigs, but we had so many teams wanting to take part this year we had to have two rounds.

“The paddles are quite heavy and the rowing is a lot harder than it looks from the shore. We all ended up feeling wounded afterwards with aches and blisters.

“Alan said he felt like he’d been beaten up and Ben fell off his seat during the race.”

The Centenary Appeal aims to raise £30,000 for a new children’s sleep monitor at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Treliske.

Anna said: “Hopefully it will become an annual event now for whatever appeal we are raising money for.

“We are getting close to the target now – we are about £5,000 off. We’re still not sure how much we raised from the day but it could be close to £1,000.”

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