Race Report - Nottingham League Event, 24th June 2007

The Runners and Riders

Premier Teams	Standard Teams
Batchworth Bristol Empire Dragons Kingston Royals Thames Taniwhas BA Hurricanes WAM Amathus DBC Amathus Bees Three River Serpents	Worcester Dragons Thames Raging Dragons Severn Warriors Secklow 100 Amathus Wasps Notts Anaconda Typhoon Tigers

Scratch Teams
Amathus Dragon Jockey

The Report

Following on from a lovely sunny day at Exeter docks it was back to the wet weather.  Nowhere near as bad as Bristol indeed would it ever be that bad again at a race event.  For sure every team appears to be well prepared now for all eventualities!  We brought the usual Scout tent and most  of us travelled in the “special bus”, expertly driven by Scott.

Perhaps we were complacent or just not switched on for this event but we didn’t really seem focussed on what was ahead.  The river was flowing fast and was interesting in the way it  flowed down the course.  We would have preferred the course to run against the flow.

Dave Faulkner helming us for only the second time this year and nursing a damaged arm did a great job in the circumstances. 

Our first race in the 200 metres was against BA Hurricanes this is getting a bit of habit now!  At the start we had the edge as we did at Exeter only for BA to pass us before the line.  BA 42.52 and Bristol 43.11.  Other times were better than ours and teams seemed to be adapting to the conditions better than us – why they were - I have no idea.  Into the repechages and against the home team Notts and the young Amathus Dragon Jockeys who give everything, every race.  We won the heat but were surprised by the tenacity and closeness of the Jockeys.

Into the semis and  against Secklow, Kingston Royals and Amathus.  We chased Amathus all the way narrowly losing by less than a second (0.57) and finishing second.  Unbeknown to us the other teams pulled better times and so we missed out once again.  We eventually finished 9th in the 200 metres not a good showing.  It just goes to show how close this can be sometimes with just over 2 seconds covering the first to 9th position.

For the 500 metre races we were up against the BA Hurricanes, Notts Annaconda and Amathus Dragon Jockeys once again.  We had raced previously in the 200’s and were all aware of each others capabilities.  Bristol pulled ahead of BA only for them to claw us back in and again pass us on the line this is getting frustrating now – its beyond a joke!  BA 1:48:25 Bristol 1:48:82.  Unfortunately the time wasn’t that good despite being a close race.

Back to the repechages and we appear set to have a good race.  There was absolutely nothing in it and at the finish looking across the line it looked like Three River Serpents by a whisker, Bristol, Amathus Bees and Raging Dragons.  In the boat we were pleased only to get out and find we were placed 4th.  This was one of the mysteries of the day, given that the finish line was diagonally set and favoured our lane.

The result effectively put us out of the running and we ended in the Plate Semi Finals up against Amathus Wasps,Worcester and Severn Warriors.  A comfortable win in an amazingly quick time – did the flow increase?  Lloyd our race virgin was thrilled to win a race and he was now well and truly “hooked” on the sport.  Interestingly the winning time and indeed the first three finish times in this race would have effectively put any of through to the finals.

In the Plate Major Final we were up against Worcester, Thames Raging Dragons and Notts Annaconda.  A very close race with another apparently fast time but we were narrowly beaten by the Raging Dragons who got off the line quicker than us, despite a great recovery we couldn’t quite reel them in.  Raging Dragons 1:31:09 and Bristol 1:31:80.  Again the results were very close and both Raging Dragons and ourselves had much quicker times than anyone in the Cup Minor Final how difficult this sport can be sometimes!

We left Nottingham licking our wounds and wondering where it all went wrong but at the end of the day this result can be dropped off our final race total.  8th place is not something we want to repeat – let’s hope we have learned from this!

The Bristol Empire Dragons' Boat

Drummer	Will Edwards
Crew	Left Side	Right Side
	Del Kyme (Coach)	Shaw Beattie (Club Captain)
	Gary Edwards	Ian Elliott
	Gary Corr (Vice Captain)	Candy Elliott
	Lloyd Khan	Matt Hodgson
	Chris Rusworth	Bob Meridith
	Tim Donovan	Rob Britton
	Ginnett Corr	Adam Mills
	Ben Callaghan	Darren Duval
	Gemma Saunders	Simon Faulkner
	Ceri Angus
Helm	Dave Faulkner
Team Manager	Shaw Beattie

Results of the 500meters

Premier	Crew	Points	Position Overall on the Day
1st	Batchworth	16	1st
2nd	Amathus BDC	15	2nd
3rd	Thames Taniwhas	14	3rd
4th	Kingston Royals	13	4th
5th	BA Hurricanes	12	5th
6th	Three River Serpents	11	6th
7th	Amathus Bees	10	7th
8th	Bristol Empire Dragons	9	9th
9th	WAM	8	14th

Standard	Crew	Points	Position Overall on the Day
1st	Typhoon Tigers	16	7th
2nd	Secklow 100	15	8th
3rd	Thames Raging Dragons	14	10th
4th	Worcester Dragons	13	12th
5th	Notts Anaconda	12	13th
6th	Amathus Wasps	11	16th
7th	Severn Warriors	10	17th

Scratch	Crew	Points	Position Overall on the Day
1st	Amathus Dragon Jockeys	16	15th