On one of the hottest days of the year so far, a bunch of sun lovin’ criminals (erm, paddlers) set off down the M4 for a day of sunbathing and the occasional splash-about in the docks. It’s fair to say that everyone was in a much better mood than at the Exeter event – somehow 4 hours of solid rain can really dampen one’s spirit.

Now there is one thing I would like to get clear from the start. The course at Bristol is a straight line. It just doesn’t look that way. The dock wall curves part way along, which leads some people to think that the course also curves the same way. This will become apparent later. Because the main navigation channel has to remain open to the public, it’s quite narrow for 4 boats racing at full speed. This will also become apparent.

Anyway where was I? Oh yes, Henley arrived in Bristol bright and early ready for a day of racing. Our first race was the 200m heats against Wraysbury, Worcester and Secklow. The heat winners and fastest 3 runners up would make it through to the semis, so the pressure was on. We had to keep our wits about us, as there had already been one paddle clash in the race directly before ours.

Worcester have had a brilliant start to the year, so we knew where the threat was coming from and as we crossed the line, it seemed we were right to be worried. They were a couple of metres ahead of us, followed by a comfortable gap before Secklow and Wraysbury came in. So imagine our surprise when the results were announced and we had won! It turns out the line is really very slanted, and had been in our favour. Henley 1, Worcester 0.

That meant we skipped the reps and had the chance for a sunbathing break, before we took on the semi-finals. In the meantime, some of the other crews were getting more familiar than they had intended with yet more paddle clashes out on the water.

The first semi saw Worcester, Raging Dragons, Kingston R’s and BA take to the water. Now at this point the best thing I can do is direct you towards the video of what happened next:

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After a suitably long break and a detailed reminder of exactly what to do if the same happened to us, we were back on the water for our semi. We had Thames on our left, Bristol and Wraysbury (sneaking through to the semis due to a paddle clash between BA and Notts in their rep) to our right. After so many close finishes with Thames in Exeter, there was no way we were going to let them steal our glory this time.

Tanya had promised us all a beer if we made it into a major final, so we had our eyes firmly on the prize. With the slanted finish line, we knew that relative position on the water didn’t guarantee the placing so it was about pushing as hard as we could. We managed to beat Thames by over 1.5 seconds across the line, but Bristol were 1.3 seconds ahead of us. The time also meant we weren’t going to be getting that vital ‘fastest runner up’ slot.

And so we returned to our usual haunt, the minor final, to thrash it out with Worcester, Cool Runnings and Exe-Calibre. After one of the closest races of the day, we secured ourselves second place to Worcester and 6^th place overall in the 200m. Henley 1, Worcester 1.

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It was straight back on the water for the 500m heats as, guess what, we took on Worcester for the third time in 4 races, accompanied by Secklow and Kingston P’s. Same as before, it was the winner and the 3 fastest runners up that would go through to the semis. This was the first of the 500m heats, and became surrounded in controversy as Secklow, in the furthest lane, couldn’t hear the starter shout ‘Go’ and set off a couple of seconds behind everyone else.

Continuing to show their improvement from last year, Worcester scored the win while we came in 0.3 seconds behind in second place. Henley 1, Worcester 2. Luckily our time of 1.53.92 secured us the spot as fastest runner up, with Worcester going through as fastest heat winner.

By now we were starting to get a little bored of racing Worcester and quite fancied a change of opposition, but it wasn’t to be as we both secured lanes in the third semi, joined by Thames (again) and Exe-Calibre. This time we meant war. Losing wasn’t an option, as we had a score to settle (if you recall, it was 1-2 at this point).

In another incredibly close race, we crossed the line at virtually the same time as Thames and Worcester. Nobody knew which way the result was going to go. Would we finally secure a spot in a major final or was it the usual sting of disappointment to find we were so near and yet so far? The officials really kept us guessing on this one, being very guarded as they slowly wrote up who was going through to which race, keeping us in suspense for as long as possible.

But eventually there it was. Henley were in lane 1 of the MAJOR FINAL! Henley 2, Worcester 2 but we’d won when it really mattered! Time for that crate of beer Tanya…

The major final included the usual suspects Kingston and Amathus, again joined by Bristol who had made their second major final of the day. We needed a plan. It was simple. Go with Kingston. Whatever they did, we would do a little bit faster. They leapt ahead of us on the start and were up by about half a boat length, but we paddled our best and by the end of the race we’d pulled about most of that back.

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With the line slanted against us, we knew we’d not been close enough to win but we were amazed to see Bristol a whole length behind! Henley had secured 3rd place in the 500m, and we have a shiny blue glass trophy to prove it! Thanks to everyone who helped us secure the victory and we look forward to regaining our rightful place near the top of the Premier League!

For more photos of the event in Bristol, click here.