Riding high on the crest of a wave from our success at London Henley Dragons were full of confidence. The next BDA league event took us to Nottingham. A day of competition lay ahead on a stretch of the River Trent in the heart of the city. The crew made the journey up the M1 with the aim to meet at the race venue at 9:30 am. A circle of paddles, kit bags and camping chairs formed to mark out Henley's patch on the river bank. Other crews in the competition had the same idea. Notts Anaconda, who had home advantage, were camped just next to us.
 
Rather than take our own race boat Henley had chosen to hire one of the pool boats for the day. Before our first race at 11 am some of our paddlers had treated themselves to an energy boosting bacon roll thanks to the catering team from Notts Anaconda. We loaded up our boat and paddled up to the 200m race start line. Although our captain Caralyn had carefully chosen the boat plan to ensure we were evenly balanced it still felt right heavy. But this was probably due to the over-consumption of bacon rolls a while earlier. Henley's aim was to win this 200m heat race to put us into the semi's. Our competition was Kingston Pretenders and Amathus. Following instructions over a loud-hailer from the start official - down and ready, attention, GO, the race got under way. Henley tore away from Amathus and Kingston Pretenders making our way towards the finish. Kingston Pretenders had no answer to our blistering start. But Amathus clawed their way past us to take first place. Henley crossed the line in 2nd place which put us into a 200m tail race.
 
Our paddlers had a good break until the tail race. Time to relax for a bit while watching other teams in the semi races. To re-energise ourselves for the 200m tail race we had a land-based warm-up followed by a session in the boat of going up the paddling pressures while making our way to the start. Our helm called out light pressure, 50%, 75% and then 100% for 30 strokes. Just the thing to get our hearts racing ready for an explosive start. This tail race was against Seclow and Typhoon Tigers. As soon as the race marshall had got the boats lined up at the start the race got under way. Henley tore its way down the course paddling like crazy. Our boat crossed the finish line in a time of 57.73 seconds to claim 8th place in the 200m event.
 
Following a short paddle back to shore and a warm-down we had some time to enjoy lunch before our first 500m race. Henley's position in the 200m racing put us in a 500m qualifying heat against Tao and Amathus Bees. The race got going and Henley hurtled its way down to the finish. We comfortably beat Amathus Bees but Tao were just a bit too quick to catch. Our time put us into a 500m semi race against Tao and Amathus. It was shortly time to load up the boat again for the semi race. Superb helming by Derek saw our boat take a dead straight line towards the finish. But by about 350m Tao and Amathus had got ahead. Henley could do nothing to climb over the wash from their boats.
 
Henley's last effort was a cup tail race against Worcester and Batchworth. We had been drawn in race lane 3 which was not ideal as it seemed slower than lanes 1 and 2. Our paddlers emptied the tanks to give everything they had. But the slower lane 3 lived up to it's reputation. Worcester and Batchworth crossed the finish ahead of Henley for us to be placed 9th in the 500m competition.
 
The day had been a success as Henley had earned maximum points as a standard division crew. Our aim of promotion back to the premier division was well on track. Brimming with confidence Henley's aim is to have a repeat performance at the next BDA Leage event at Preston. Congratulations to club member Zoe Elgood who made her first appearance at a race event here at Nottingham.
 
Philip Taylor