What a
funny day !!!!!!!!
Weather
started really good for us - we were all there nice and early, boat
unloaded and built, a little fall out with the boat marshal because
they hadn't enough space for all the boats.
Emma
wasn't able to make it because the kids had a dose of Exorcist vomit
antics and it would have been unfair to drag them to London - but we
paid a heavy price for that. When we couldn't get John of Typhoons to
helm it would mean losing Alan, Kat or I from the boat.
We were
asked if the race organisers could use Sabrina as a pool boat, we
informed them she had no head, tail, drum or seat and in the end they
decided they could not use her - sorry Severn Warriors, we weren't able
to get you a little bit of income from that.
All sorts
going on - Kingston boat had no seat for there drummer so their drummer
was perched - they locked their seat in the car, then lost the keys
apparently.
We had
noticed when sorting the seating positions that we were going to left
heavy all day - and Dave agreed to be our sacrificial soldier and go
right for us to help balance things up.
We
started in 11th position after the 1st - 200m heat (with only Typhoon
and Thames RD ahead of us in the standard league) in a time of 55.33
seconds.
Into the
reps - no Typhoon John so Alan stepped forward. The race went fairly
normally (our time was only 0.5 seconds slower than the first) and
nothing changed - except my body gave up and my back determined that I
was not to paddle for the rest of the day. For those that have done
their back in during a race before - you know what I mean when I say it
feels like you have been sliced across the lower back with a sharp
knife, after losing a few strokes I was able to complete the race but
using twist only and no lean/sit-up motion which is what we have been
working on all season and which has brought us improved results learning
to use the spacing and ridges in our new boat better.
3rd Race
I helmed and the imbalance left to right was worsened as my bulk was
lost from the right. The race went badly from the start because of the
imbalance and the boat was rolling port to starboard - my weakened back
was not able to allow me to lean sufficiently to try and correct it. In
the last 80m I slipped on the folder holding the seating plan and we
lost around half a boat length there from Bees which pushed us into last
place in our semi final in a time of 57.28 seconds (some 2 seconds
slower than our previous 2 races).
There was
no way back for us from there and we were dumped out of the 200m race
event.
Lessons
learnt from being a spectator is that our stroke was incredible short
and we need to get both power phases working for us.
Typhoon
John was back to helm for the first couple of races and Alan took the
final. Our first heat set our time at 2:31.40 (15th place out of 17) so
I decided that we needed to ring the changes if we were to get close to
being where we wanted to be. Pretty much everyone was moved around to
try and improve the boat balance, change the stroke rate and anything
else I could think of to change.
In the
1st rep we were up against Titans and Pretenders - both Standard crews
and both of whom we had beat in the 200m other than the semi-final where
it all went wrong for us. Titans got a flyer start and easily won and
when the team went past me they were a 1/3rd of a boat up from Kingston.
however when the result was posted they were recorded as being 1/3rd of
a boat up on us. I could understand how we lost that distance over the
last 40m so went to question the result, After being disregarded by
Claire who was recording the scores we sought out Sue the chief official
who looked at the video and confirmed that the times recorded were
assigned to the wrong crews and Kingston pretenders and our time were
switched to correct the inaccuracy.
Into the
semi-final and racing against Kingston Pretenders and Nott's Anaconda.
The race between us and Nott's was really tight and although I had us
marginally ahead from the side the race could have been called either
way with Kingston Pretenders bringing up the rear almost a boat length
behind. The times went up and we were third !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Apparently Kingston Pretenders were first and Nott's Anaconda 2nd.
Before we could object they amended the times put up the board and were
switched with Kingston Pretenders again moving them to last place and us
to our rightful first place.
Into the
plate major final then. Nott's Anaconda, Henley Eyot and Kingston
Pretenders. Strange race - Kingston numbers had grown and they took
and early lead and won the race by half a boat length at least. Another
tight race between us and Nott's Anaconda - one that again I wouldn't be
able to call from my position on the side.
The race
between us and Nott's Anaconda had us in 2nd place with Nott's just 0.5
seconds behind.
The was
something that smelled very Fishy.
Kingston
Pretenders perhaps had pulled one of their strokes and the number
increase they attained was likely to be through breaking the rules of
premier crew paddlers mixing with the standard league paddlers.
Certainly
Nott's Anaconda were bitterly complaining to me about reversal of the
days fortunes for Kingston Pretenders.
The
overall result was not a good one for us, but we had enjoyed the day and
came away thinking we had learnt a lot from the event, Not least the
Royal Albert Docks produces the slowest 500m times of any of the events
this year.
Leigh,
Neil, Anne, Kirsty, Abi, Kat and I stopped for drink in the bar after
before we hit the road, leaving the girls to their Tarts on Tour evening
attending the party organised by Thames.
As Pat
said - hope you took one for the team girls
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
John