But the newly-formed men's eight, strengthened by double Olympic fours champions Andrew Triggs Hodge and Pete Reed, had to draw on all their power and experience to finish a couple of feet clear of the Polish crew which finished seventh in last year's Olympic final.

With two of the traditional men's eight powerhouses missing in this event - neither the German Olympic gold medallists nor Australia were competing - it was a result the home eight would have expected, but which looked in doubt after their below-par performance in Friday's heats, where they were only third, leaving Triggs Hodge to comment: "We've got a lot of work to do to make sure we come away with something."

Under the gimlet eye of men's coach Jurgen Grobler, the work was done, most tellingly with a surge over the final 150m which the Poles could not - quite - match.

Before the final, Reed had underlined the importance of winning at a home regatta, adding: "It makes it much more special, maybe even more than the World Championships."

As during the last, glorious summer, the Eton Dorney course resounded with home celebration - the "Dorney roar", as it has been called.

The roars went up to greet two other home winners.

Helen Glover - who earned the first British gold of the 2012 Olympics with Heather Stanning in the pairs - came home first again, this time with Polly Swann, her partner in the boat while Stanning is away serving in Afghanistan with the Army.


Britain's Olympic champion Helen Glover (right) with her new pairs partner Polly Swann en route to World Cup victory on the London 2012 course at Eton Dorney

Glover, back at the scene of her London 2012 victory, and Swann fought off a late challenge from New Zealand to win by a length, with Germany third.

"It's amazing being back here," said Glover, 27.

"Eton Dorney is the place to be for rowing right now.

"But it was pretty blowy out there and they were challenging conditions."

And there was a hard-won victory in the women's double sculls for former Olympic silver medallist Fran Houghton and Victoria Meyer-Laker, the new pairing filling the place this year of Olympic champions Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins, who pressurised their Chinese rivals Dongxiang Xu and Feihong Pan into catching a crab in the closing stages of a race and then held off the Danish challenge of Mette Petersen and Lisbet Jakobsen.


Home single sculler Alan Campbell, a bronze medallist at the London 2012 Games, had to give best to the Czech Republic's former world champion and London 2012 silver medallist Ondrej Synek, who overhauled the man from Coleraine in the closing 50 metres to earn victory.

New Zealand's peerless world and Olympic pairs champions Eric Murray and Hamish Bond set a World Cup of 6min 16.01sec in finishing well clear of their nearest challengers, Wojciech Gutorski and Jaroslaw Godek of Poland.

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