The time had come for our second League Event of the season. The boat, and our paddlers were transported up the relatively short drive to Bristol ready for another day of racing and hopefully even a trophy or two… Alas this was not to be, but we did come mighty close. The first race at 10am included ourselves, Henley and Brute Force. As usual in our first races, we do not expect to win against Premier League opposition, and this race was no exception. We recorded a respectable time of 1.07.51, a time which makes me personally doubt it was 200m but instead slightly more. And so to the 200m Repechage, Bristol, Worcester and Powerhouse. A close race was run, but Worcester came out on top, and Bristol narrowly beat us with a time of 1.07.08 to our 1.08.34. And so to the 500m competition, with our heat against Thames, Worcester and Batchworth Aspire, us again drawn in lane 1. Our time of 2.22.77 put us 3rd in that race, and so onto the reps it was. Our rep put us against BA Hurricanes, Thames Raging Dragons and Secklow 100. Unfortunately we were not able to come any higher than 4h, so we were onto the Plate semis. Here was our great triumph of the day, where we somehow managed to pull something out of the bag, knock 4 seconds off our time and qualify for the Plate Major Final! A great effort by all concerned. So the final came, which on paper we were the slowest crew entering. However, as many know, when it comes to the racing anything can happen. Despite our best efforts however we could only manage a close 4th, so finished just 1 place and 1 second off a trophy. However this is progress, as in Cardiff we were only in the Minor Final. Here we were in the Major Final. Perhaps in the next event we could even win a trophy? It’s our home event, and if we can get a full boat (we were again running with 16) then who knows what we can do?