It was Nottingham and it was the finals and most of us expected rain and wind blasting sideways across the course, but not this year. Perfect conditions met us and our shiny waxed bottom. The bottom of our lovely, borrowed, (and very narrow at the back) boat that is.
Starting our campaign early in the first race in the Open 200m we placed ourselves exactly where we wanted to be. This despite Angela’s attempt at sabotage on the first stroke, maybe it’s time we bought some new equipment…
It would seem we have banished our traditional poor start on the first race and fully capitalised on that winning feeling. Avoiding the repechages we took the Grand Final with our fastest time of the day. We collected our trophy from a very nice Spanish gentleman. I don’t know what Sparky was trying to say to him but it translated as ‘your Grandmother sweats like a pig’ and I hear he is still trying to catch up with us.

Having elected not to enter the mixed class there was a long wait for the 1000m. We busy females took part in the Women’s race while the boys hung around in the centrally heated, well equipped but quite smelly tent. We came 4th but at least we stayed warm and supple(ish).
The 1000m can be quite daunting the first time. Some would say it’s a mad thing to do (who said that?) but off we went in the 4th heat in which we came 2nd, beating Secklow 100 which seems to have become quite important to us for some reason. In the final we came in 4th but were not disappointed, having acquitted ourselves well and enjoyed the experience.

Sunday started late for Exe-calibre giving us the chance to recover, not from alcohol poisoning but rather Dave’s orang-utan impression and revelations regarding Sparky’s toolbox. The 500m mixed event filled the morning and then we opened our 500m Open bid. We came 4th in the first race placing us in heat 2 of the Plate competition. We blew the opposition away by over 6 seconds to win the heat and went through to the Plate Grand Final. What a difference it makes not having to enter the reps! Coming 2nd to Notts Anacondas by only 67 hundredths of a second we completed our most successful Nottingham Finals ever. We took home 3 trophies and a handful of medals. The trophies we won were 200m Plate 1st, 500m Plate 2nd, and Plate Competition Winners. As Enid Blyton might have said, ‘tired but happy we made our way home’.

Full Race Results (pdf file)