Hello and welcome to the first race report written by Tom - it’s gonna be a gooden. This week we went to Nottingham which meant an early start for most but for some (Malcolm) it was slightly earlier getting up a 2am in the morning to then go and swim 2112 metres. Crazy.

Anyway back to the dragon boating where we were seeded well because of our success against Teesside but unfortunately we were against Worcester. How very unlucky. We went into the first race wanting to win and found out we only had 19 paddlers meaning there will be a problem with balance and sure enough, off the start line we were leaning into the water most of the way meaning we didn’t quite beat Worcester and our hope was in the balance of times for once.

At this time we were the fastest looser so far; only the two fastest losers went through and there were 3 races left. The next race or the one after didn’t produce any threat at all meaning we were through because only two people in the last race, Batchworth and Bristol. This race decided whether we were fastest looser or second fastest but was more of a shock than that Bristol won beating Batchworth who posted the 11^th fastest time. Ohh dear.

Semi final now we were up against Cool Runnings and Kingston Royals. We didn’t expect to beat Kingston and we didn’t but we did post the second fastest time overall (after Kingston) beating Amathus and Batchworth with a time of 45.69 -  woo us. This meant we went into the minor final because we didn’t win our race. We were up against Cool Runnings again and Bristol. We really wanted 4^th but we would get the points for 3^rd because Worcester aren’t a premier crew. We had an excellent start and held our own to win that race even though it was close.

Now onto the 500’s I mean 450’s. Because we came fourth we got another good seed against Secklow and Typhoon Fury which we won quite comfortably but Batchworth must have eaten something good at lunch because they were back on form to win their race. We skipped the reps as per usual and straight into the cup semis against Amathus and Bristol again. Our aim was to stick with Amathus and leave Bristol behind and our plan worked as we beat Bristol by3 seconds but sadly we didn’t beat Amathus. This yet again meant going into the minor final but this time as the 5^th fastest team meaning we weren’t in the middle lane. We were against Thames and Worcester.

After faffing around at the start again we finally went off and with another awesome start were level with Thames and losing Worcester but then Thames pulled away from us. After seeing this myself and Allie called for extra pressure and there was a great response but sadly the course was only 450m meaning our push at the end was a little too late but finishing 5^th is still a great achievement seeing as the only teams that beat us are top quality; Amathus, Kingston, Batchworth and Thames. This was the final race to a marvellous day for some.

The ladies decided to join Secklow to see if they could challenge Kingston and Worcester. Whilst the boat was being put away the ladies got ready to race. By the time people had walked around the river the ladies just about started and we saw the Secklow/Henley ladies keeping up with Kingston. A few cheers later and the ladies went past level maybe slightly ahead of Kingston. We couldn’t see clearly from where we were so we didn’t know who won, but we heard a lot of cheers. It turns out Secklow and Henley had won the race. Well done to Julia, Arlene, Allie, Tanya, Caralyn, Isobel and Penny. I hope I got that right well done to the girls and for winning the prize.

Thank You for reading.

Tom.


Click here to see photos of the Nottingham event.