Race Report - Worcester League Event, 12th August 2007

The Runners and Riders

Premier Teams	Standard Teams
Bristol Empire Dragons Kingstone Royals Thames Taniwhas Batchworth BA Hurricanes WAM Amathus DBC Henley Dragons Amathus Bees Three River Serpents	Typhoon Tigers Ex-Calibre Worcester Dragons Thames Raging Dragons Colenorton Secklow 100 Amathus Wasps Notts Anaconda

Junior Teams	Scratch Teams
Amathus Dragon Jockey BA Tornadoes	Fallen Angels

The Report

The event was opened by some words from Nigel Leigh about the life of Tim Ward who sadly passed away on 23rd July.  Tim was the former Chairman and Honorary member of Worcester Dragon Boat Racing Club, the GB Under 18’s Dragon boat Racing Team Manager and a stalwart of the official’s teams of the last few years.

In a mark of respect and to celebrate his life there was to be 30 seconds of silence followed by as much noise as possible.  There was a great response everyone took part and the celebration was terrific, Bristol now familiar WhoHaaaa!! Rang out accompanied by cheers and applause – I’m sure that Tim heard it.

On with the event.  In a different format the pressure was immediately on all crews to secure good fast times.  We were placed alongside Three River’s and Kingston Royals in the 200 metre event.  The first race and the 200 metre races are without doubt our worst race. Something happened today – not only did we nail a great start but also took the lead and stayed there winning by a good few metres.  Despite the initial celebration we didn’t qualify as the 6th fastest and so didn’t progress into the 200 metre finals.  7th place however isn’t too bad.

The next race was the 450 metre event and we were up against a very strong Colenorton team.  Whether we were complacent because the 200 m was good or that some of the team thought it was another 200m I’m not sure but whatever the excuse we lost.  That put us in the reps and not somewhere we like to be because of the uncertainty of who you are going to get.

To us it appeared a good Rep draw with Amathus Wasps and Exe-Calibre. We knew the teams that had qualified we just needed to win and ideally get in the race with BA and Henley (I’m sure a number of other teams had the same idea).  At the start we were greeted with a familiar voice – “Hi Bristol” – “Hi Nic!”  (You have a very clear and firm manner and I thought you did exceptionally well - from Ian an ex-starter!)  As to the race - Exe-Calibre had other ideas of giving us an easy time and pushed us all the way and we ended with a fast time that put us with Batchworth and Typhoon Tigers exactly what we didn’t want!

During the time between the finals and the junior racing I was asked to join a mixed crew of Tim and Polly’s friends to take out a boat Worcester have named after Tim Ward – “The Spirit of Tim”.  Polly joined the boat and we did a circuit of the course to cheers from the bank it was emotional but also a joyous event as well as Graham Butterfield reminisced and complained about being on the left!

Following a good warm up before the race with Batchworth and Typhoon Tigers and some inspired talking by Del and Bill gave us the kick we deserved.  We were in lane 3 and initially we thought that wasn’t good as we were not close to the action.  A good solid start and we emerged from behind the bridge pillar alongside Batchworth who were obviously concentrating on Typhoon Tigers.  The race was well and truly on and for only one of a handful of times the team “clicked” and we matched Batchworth stroke for stroke.  (You know I think that trip out in the Spirit Of Tim helped?).  The other crews were making loads of noise from the bank and still we matched them over the finish line and it appeared Batchworth had done enough.  Typhoon Tigers were in the mix and the time was eagerly awaited.  We came second 9tenths of a second behind Batchworth.  Typhoon tigers were third.  Our time of 1:55:37 looked pretty good but we all know how quickly elation can turn to deflation!

As other results came in we looked almost certain to get into the top 6 and we were not disappointed.  As luck would have it we got Batchworth and Kingston and lane 3 again.  It was a certainty that Batchworth would be aware of us this time but again we took a great start this time clearing the pillar slightly ahead and again the team felt strong, the boat was steady and was really flying, again we kept time with Batchworth matching stroke for stroke once again at the line they had done just enough narrowly beating us by 8 tenths of a second and Kingston by a shade under a second!  We came second and awaited the other results.  (Batchworth 1:55:84, Bristol 1:56:21 Kingston Royals 1:56:81) The results came in and we missed a major final by 4 tenths of a second!  (Amathus 1:56:21 Bristol 1:56:62).

Still we had made another minor final and it was up to us to pull out another fine race.  For opposition we had Three River Serpents and Kingston Royals.  This time we took the centre line with both teams determined to beat us and each other.  A reasonable start allowed  Three Rivers the edge and we played catch up all the way, we had got enough daylight between ourselves and Kingston and were fast closing in on Three Rivers but the line came too quickly and we finished second but 5th on the day.  A great days racing for us, despite an up and down start in terms of performance.

I also would like to thank Nigel Leigh for the sterling work he’s done for the league events and for putting together a very slick days racing at Worcester.

All that remains is to see how well we did over the season in terms of the league placing.  We are however immensely pleased with our efforts over the year and you can all give yourselves a big pat on the back.

Now we look forward to good news from Australia and lots of training through the winter interspersed with the Henley Winter Series.

The Bristol Empire Dragons' Boat

Drummer	Will Rushworth
Crew	Left Side	Right Side
	Del Kyme (Coach)	Bill Beattie (Assistant Coach)
	Shaw Beattie (Club Captain)	Gary Corr (Vice Captain)
	Pam Beattie	Ian Elliott
	Candy Elliott	Simon Faulkner
	Rachel Carlyon	Ceri Angus
	Sylvia	Stuart J Pattes
	Chris Rushworth	Bob Meredith
	Tim Donovan	Matt Hodgson
	Dave Johnson	Rob Britton
	Ginnett Corr	Adam Mills
	Ben Callaghan	Darren Duval
	Bharti Tailor	Lloyd Khan
	Michael Duval	Kat Flint
Helm	Dave Faulkner
Team Manager	Shaw Beattie / Nic Milton

Results of the 500 meters

Premier	Crew	Points	Position Overall on the Day
1st	Batchworth	16	1st
2nd	Thames Taniwhas	15	2nd
3rd	Amathus DBC	14	3rd
4th	Three River Serpents	13	4th
5th	Bristol Empire Dragons	12	5th
6th	Kingstone Royals	11	6th
7th	BA Hurricanes	10	7th
8th	Amathus Bees	9	11th
9th	Henley	8	10th
10th	WAM	7	18th

Standard	Crew	Points	Position Overall on the Day
1st	Typhoon Tigers	16	8th
2nd	Colenorton	15	9th
3rd	Thames Raging Dragons	14	12th
4th	Worcester Dragons	13	13th
5th	Secklow 100	12	14th
6th	Ex-Calibre	11	15th
7th	Notts Anaconda	10	16th
8th	Amathus Wasps	9	19th

Junior	Crew	Points	Position Overall on the Day
1st	Amathus Dragon Jockeys	16	17th

Scratch	Crew	Points	Position Overall on the Day
1st	Fallen Angels		20th

Worcester, 12th August 2007, Photo Gallery