Henley Dragons excelled themselves finishing 5th in the Open 500m Major Final

Henley Dragons exceeded expectations at the BDA National Championships, finishing 5th in the prestigious 500m event. Both Henley Dragons and Henley Eyot also achieved good results in other events and distances.

The Club was awarded the BDA Presidents award by Andy Trotman for innovation in the sport for it's Henley Winter Series and Henley Junior Regatta initiatives.

BDA National Championships 7^th/8^th October 2006

Day One, Saturday:  Henley Blown Away

For the final time this season, Henley unloaded the boats and prepared for battle. With several paddlers having never raced at the nationals before and a few racing with the Dragons crew for the first time how we would fare against some strong looking crews was anyone’s guess.

There would be 84 races over the course of the weekend, and although thankfully we didn’t race in all of them, there were times when it certainly felt that way.

It was race three before a Henley crew took to the water in the 200m open heats, with Eyot having the honour of leading our charge. Unfortunately even by this early stage the rising wind was playing havoc with the starts and so the race program was behind schedule already. Thus began a day of never quite knowing when we were supposed to be racing.

Eyot posted their fastest time in their first heat, which was enough for third place against some strong teams and placed them into the plate competition.  Henley Dragons were up next for their own first heat in the 200m competition, again posting their best time of the day and coming in third. It’s a mystery how a team that prides itself on good starts always seems to under achieve when it comes to the shortest distance, and so it proved again, with Henley ominously qualifying 11^th fastest out of 12 (if my maths is correct) for the cup competition.

From this point onwards the Dragons and Eyot crews barely saw each other, passing each other in between races, pausing only to force some food and drink down their throats before heading off again for their next race.

Thankfully we’d discovered an oasis of sun out the back of the sports hall where we could warm up in glorious sunshine, out of the chilling headwind that grew stronger, and colder as the day progressed.

The Eyot crew, who at one stage raced with 14 paddlers, came up against the full force of this headwind in their next heat, coming home last, albeit not far at all behind the next boat. Although they managed to improve their time in the rep the result was the same, and so it was into the plate minor final for them.

Into the heats went the Dragons, who managed 4^th place, which wasn’t nearly enough to avoid the reps and last place in their rep was not what the doctor ordered at all, and so into the cup minor final we went.

In their final Eyot finished 4^th, and then began a long, drawn out wait for their next appearance in the 1000m races. The Dragons crew managed a close but frustrating second place behind the Royal Marines, beating Amathus Bees into third by just two hundredths of a second.

And then, after a break shorter than certain team members shorts (but lets not mention the shorts) it was into the mixed 200m competition.

With some of the Eyot crew joining in, Henley suddenly had strength in numbers, and confusion as to who was supposed to be sitting where. When it all got sorted out we were off to do battle again.

In the first heat we again found ourselves in second place, by less than half a second this time, but nevertheless we were off to the reps again. This weekend had a theme developing already. If this was going to be anything like Hollywood we’d need some kind of dramatic twist to save us at the end...

Anyway, into the reps we went, a win would put us in the major final, a second place would probably be as good as useless. Despite giving it everything we had, with Allie shouting ever louder from behind, second was what we got. We missed out on a valuable win by just seven hundredths of a second and into the minor final we went.

By this time the wind was reaching silly proportions, and staying warm was everyone’s priority, especially as we inevitably ended up sat at the top of the course for far too long, heat draining from increasingly tired limbs.

Despite the conditions, this was no time to worry about the cold, we had a minor final to win, featuring a minor grudge match between us and our friends BA Hurricanes, who’d so recently beaten us in the league.

How did we do ?

We came second. Although it was an excellent race, with the first 4 teams crossing the line within around 2 seconds of each other, and we did beat BA, we still came second !

By this time the program was seriously behind, even the use of ropes (but lets not mention the ropes) to hold the boats steady did little to help the start line conditions and we all needed maximum concentration to help Allie manoeuvre the boat and still remain focussed on the start.

It was the 1000m races next and due to the time the decision was taken to give all teams one race and then decide the places on times. The Eyot crew were finally back in action, watched, and cheered onwards by the Dragons as we paddled the impossibly long distance down to the start.

The windblown spray rising from the boats and thrashing paddles was highlighted by the setting sun as Eyot raced their way down the course and the Dragons got in place for their own race.

It was several minutes later that we looked up and realised that we couldn’t start our own race yet as the first race hadn’t finished! The realisation of just how long these 1000m races really are hit home then...

We were confident that we’d put on a good show of ourselves in the longer distance races, however third place, seven seconds behind the winner was not what we’d planned for. If there’s one thing worse than finishing second, it’s finishing third, and we were well beaten by a gutsy BA performance as well. Overall on time Eyot finished 17^th fastest in the 1000m and the Dragons finished 8^th.

That was the last race of the day and so it was time to head for the hotel, rest tired bodies and recharge for the next days racing. Although Eyot’s weekend was over some of their paddlers stayed on to join the Dragons and help out for the Sunday.

Saturday had been tiring, sometimes frustrating, cold, and although there had been some great racing, disappointing in terms of pure results. Would Sunday bring a Hollywood style twist and a happy ending to the good folk of a team called Henley? Only time would tell.....

Day 2, Sunday: How Henley Found Its Roar (and Hollywood got its ending)

Lumbering stiffly from their beds, Henley woke up to the realisation that we had to do it all again. There were tired limbs, tired eyes and full stomachs as we made the most of the breakfast buffet.

There was no time to rest however as we were soon painfully warming up for the first race in the 500m mixed competition. We were confident of doing better today, but had the exertions of the previous day taken their toll ?

In the first race we were up against teams we would traditionally beat, but that was no guarantee of success, and in the end Thames Taniwahs beat us into second and into the reps. Not the start we had wanted at all. We were on course to compete in every race possible, which despite the value for money, was slowly eating away at our reserves of strength.

Again in the rep we were against teams we could beat, but pulling away from the line we were behind already, our previously speedy starts deserting us. But this was a new Henley, and we weren’t going to roll over and get beaten without a fight. Spurred on by Allie’s calls to attack, attack, ATTACK! We chased the surprisingly quick Kingston Pretenders up the course, drawing them back and giving it everything we had. On the line we were shattered, and by 9 hundredths of a second, beaten, but it seemed we’d found something of an inner steel in the process.

Into the minor final we went, determined to take the win, and knowing we had both the will and ability to fight, and that’s what we needed to do as yet again we weren’t off the line first. After two minutes of pain and gutsy racing we crossed the line and all over the boat cries of joy could be heard. We had won a race! YES! It might have been only the minor final, but we finally gained a little belief, and a little swagger in our step, maybe we could do this afterall. We must have done something right as in the warm down Malc described the race as brilliant, surely there’s no higher praise !

After hearing some of the startling, and frankly quite scary, war cries from certain louder teams in the rest area, we decided we needed more attitude, more fire in our bellies, as opposed to more sweet snacks. On the way to the first heat for the blue riband, 500m open championship, Henley could be heard practicing some interesting new calls in the boat. What started off as a very limp shout of grrr, gradually turned into something more menacing, a war cry unheard of down the quiet streets of Henley. There was a new energy in the boat, now would it make the difference ?

In the first heat all that mattered was our time, we simply had to win or be in the 6 fastest loosers, surely we could manage that. Drawn against Amathus the win was unlikely, nevertheless Henley gave it everything, racing down the course as hard as we could.

Yet another second place was the reward, now would the time be fast enough? As the following heats came through the conditions seemed to be improving, and the wind dropping. One team went faster, then another, still Malc was confident until suddenly faster times were coming all over the place, two boats in one race went faster. It was a tense wait, staring up at the timing screen to see if we’d made it. And we had, just, qualifying 12^th fastest out of 12 crews.

After that, expectations were low, realistically we were heading for the minor final. The race committee could be heard discussing how best to maximise our chance of winning that minor final. Looking at the teams against us in the first heat they had a point. The decision was made to rest some paddlers in the heat and rep, and then attack with a vengeance in the final.

Despite it going against our natural racing instinct, and to the disappointment of the rested paddlers that was what we did in the first heat, coming home where we’d expected in last place, but at least saving our strength for when we’d need it later. A bonus of this tactic was that it gave Todd, who up until this stage had kept himself fit by running around being immensely helpful, a chance to race.

After this race again this reporter positioned himself near the committee to find out the tactics, and again we were planning to rest ourselves for the minor final, until the program was produced and other teams in our rep were announced.

A fateful decision was made, we weren’t going to go down without a fight, the other teams, including BA had produced faster times than us, and so we’d need to raise our game just to match them, let alone beat them, but damn it we were going to try.

The decision was announced to the team, we were fighting for this, and the energy level within the crew went up 100%. We had some good words from Malc and Allie to get us going, the new Henley attitude bubbling to the surface.

This is what it’s all about. These are the moments that make all the training worthwhile.

We walked, or ran to the boat with a purpose, we had to win, there was simply no other option. As soon as the boat moved you could feel the difference, everyone locked in like never before, everyone focussed and tight. We were a team, we were Henley Dragons.

We lined up next to the favourites, an ever improving and powerful Brute Force team. In our boat we patted the back of the person in front, connecting with each other. After that, silence, except for the positional calls from Allie, all of which were calmly executed. Beside us Brute force were laughing and joking. We were silent, and for the first time I knew we could do it.

Ready Attention GO!

And we went, behind off the line, we had to attack, we needed to inch back on the first crucial push, and we did, inch by painful inch, BA slowly left behind, just us and Brute Force now, neither team believing in defeat, both giving their all and more. Allie screaming at us by now, and we responded like our lives depended on it.

Over the line, we were shattered, utterly, and we didn’t know if we’d done enough, it was too close to call. We waited for the scoreboard to change. As we turned to go back in I heard a small cry as the first person noticed, and as one the boat erupted, paddles in the air, fists in the air and tears in eyes. YES, YES, YES! We had done it, we had actually done it! Against the odds, after scraping into the cup, we had made the major final. Moments don’t get more magical, we had pulled the rabbit from the hat (but let’s not mention rabbits) and won by a mere 6 hundredths of a second.

Mention must go to Brute Force, it takes two to have a race, and you gave us the race of our lives, cheers guys, we look forward to meeting again, hopefully both in the final next year.

And so we bounced and laughed our way to a warm down, almost a dance down in fact, all aches and pains long gone, adrenaline and joy taking their place, we were in the final. Malcolm, grinning like a loon, described the race as fantastic, this praise was becoming a habit.

News filtered through that shockingly Kingston had failed to make the final, perhaps Henley’s ‘loading the boat first’ tactic had finally paid off.

With our new found spirit, all thoughts of cruising home to an easy 6^th place were gone, we were going to give it all again, and see what we could get, anything more was icing on the cake.

The minor final started just before us, and then it was our turn, the last race of the day, the weekend, the year. After all the jokes, all the toil and hard work, this, at long last, wasn’t just our final. This was the final.

We raced hard down the course, enjoying the pain and enjoying the moment. In the end, we got 5^th, beating Batchworth! (Beasties) and just behind Three River Serpents in a race that will go down as a classic, the top three separated by a tenth of a second, the top two by just one hundredth of a second. Amathus took the spoils, their cries of joy a sweet backdrop as we warmed down, then came together for the last group hug of the year, all smiles, and a round of applause that lasted for ever, just like the memories will too.