15th April 2007 - Tees River, Stockton-on-Tees

Our first racing at Teeside for many years.

Travelling up at various times during Saturday we all met up at the motel had a laugh at the rooms and facilities, some had a shower some just jumped in cars and we all went out for a meal at the Italian Restaurant Sally had booked for us.

For a small restaurant they did excellent to get our meals out so close together so that we were all eating at the same time. How many times in the past has that spoiled my weekend when Restaurants take bookings for 17 adults and 3 children and then get surprised when we all order at the same time.

The food was excellent and although I cant vouch for the alcohol quite a few of the crew seems to be enjoying it.

Back to the motel and those of us with children were straight to bed and some of the reprobates stayed in the lobby after raiding the off licence for cheap booze.

By Sunday morning there were 20 of us. 3 extra blokes (making a total of 8) in the crew of 19 paddlers. We had 3 newbies - congratulations on your first BDA racing event Helen, Heather & Kirsty and special thanks to the Scarlet Pimpernell borrowed from another crew who wishes to remain nameless (Steve).

Our first race was amazing - our best ever time for a 200m race I believe (although the full results have yet to be posted).

We had enough support to mix it up all day, great thanks to John from Typhoon Tigers for helming us whenever he was able, as well as the Scarlet Pimpernel, Kat and Chris who all took turns at helming. Quite a mix of helms using 4 for 9 races.

The warm ups and warm down were really good and amusing - well done Neil and Dave.

Chris was working out the logistics all day as we haven't yet put in place our work rota - but this is going to be more and more important as we go to more race events. The more we all put in the more we all enjoy the days racing.

Alan Blackman who was supposed to be resting after his operation could resist no longer and had to join in when we started going for the 500m distance. Let us hope he got away with it and hasn't any lasting effects or damaged his knee further.

The results all day were close between ourselves, Worcester and Powerhouse which meant that every single race was tight and the crew had to fight hard all day.

The weather was very kind and our main concern was dehydration and sunburn - the children were exceptional (as always) and delighted us and the crews camped around us. We have a real family based crew with 8 couples in our total membership who come and race at events as well as the spouses that turn up and support. This day was like so many others and it really does feel like a family day out with real competitive edge but the support within the crew for each other crew member is fantastic.

2 disasters - immediately before our 500m final our steering oar broke as we moved away from the pontoon. How do these things happen at most critical stages ? Just leaving the pontoon after a serious warm up and the final race which would determine the number of points we could come home with and our concentration and warm up all to nought as we sat around whilst Chris ran around trying to beg steal or borrow a steering oar - thankfully Powerhouse had a spare they would let us use for our final race and we tied it and were away.

In our final we came 3rd but that still gave us 14 points which is a good start to the racing season.

2nd Disaster - unloading the boat on the ramp and lifting up towards the trailer we rested the boat on the ramp and heard 2 almighty cracks - Yep we now have a few cracks to repair on the underside of our beloved Variocana. Some temper and anger mixed up right at the end due to our haste - an expensive lesson learnt.

After loading the boat up and getting our stuff together most of us were on our way between 5.30 and 6.00 down the A1 and M1 to our homes.

A great day - tired and a little bloodied - but full of spirit for the league events to come.

Hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did.

John and Kat.