After our excellent results in the Plate Finals last year we knew that we could only go up from there, and we did ... making it get into the Cup Finals. Our first race was battled against premier league teams in the 200m races, we were surprised to be told by Steven that we had actually 'done too well' and were now in the Cup Competition instead of the Plate Competition! Already we had surpassed our best at the Nationals and we could not wait to see what would happen next! Unfortunately the 'Curse of the Broken Paddle' returned, as Steve's paddle managed to implode in the middle of one of our Cup races. However, our results in the Cup finals still put us in 11th place out of 25 teams nationally, ExeCalibre's highest achievements to date!

Given how bad the weather was all weekend, we were very thankful for Sparky bringing the nice big green military tent with cooker providing constant hot water for teas and coffees. We were the envy of other team who kept poking their head through the flaps to see how toasty warm we all were in spite of the hideous weather, as they watched their own small flimsy gazebos 'tumble-weed' away across the concourse. The 1000m races had to be postponed and combined into one race on the Sunday, boats were blowing around all over the place before the start each time, and we were struggling to race against strong headwinds in the majority of the races.

As for the 500s on Sunday, we finished with a Silver in the Plate Major Final only losing to Secklow 100 by 1.5 seconds. I think we should continually remain proud about the fact that ExeCalibre gives people of all ages and experience the chance to take part in dragon boat racing, and that we range in age from 16 to quite a lot older, and still compete well against much younger teams. Well done Scott for winning two gold medals in his Junior races as well, they were extremely exciting to watch.

As a result of the bad weather, there were some amusing cries of protest early on the Sunday morning about actually getting out of bed, but everyone still turned up on time to show their support by being there to cheer others on regardless of whether racing or not, and many of us still participated in spite of recent injuries! Generally, though, another good weekend of camping was had by all, in spite of the cold, wet, windy weather and consequent exhaustion, which still included venturing out down to the local pub, even as far as into Nottingham itself for a meal one evening, and nightclubbing for some, we believe!

Another year of training from Steve and Sparky has evidently paid off, so thanks and well done to everyone for turning up on a regular basis, with a particular big thank you from all of the team to Sparky and Steve for their continued dedication to our training and taking us all up to the next level, and to everyone else for their continued efforts in running the ExeCalibre club and also helping to make it all happen!

Finally, we finished off this year dressed up for lunch together in Exmouth so we could all remember what we look like on a normal dry sunny day.....

Full Race Results (pdf file)