A beautiful Preston morning (well, it wasn't actually raining) saw us taking on 12 other crews, blue-green algae, portable loos and yet another headwind! Yay! Our 200m campaign woke us all up, with bucketfuls of water in the face and an emergency stop at the end ensuring that the cobwebs had been blown away by the end of our first race. 58.62 seconds (it was a northern 200m) gave us the 5th fastest heat time and a place in the semi against the two Kingston teams. Much 'Kingston-faffing' on the start line (how unusual) saw us blast off full of intent and log a much improved time of 55.88 seconds, sadly, just 0.3 of a second behind Kingston Royals (those dogs will have their day!). So, just 0.3 sec from a Major Final!! Our Minor Final meant we took on Tao and Hurricanes, again just 0.25 sec separated us (57.50 sec) and Tao, unfortunately, again in their favour - so, a 5th place finish in the 200m, which means an extra point for our league campaign!

A quick break and back on for the 500m, which involved a long paddle into choppy water at the end of the dock! We had Hurricanes in our heat, and a win would give us a nice long break, so we resolved to make a bit of an effort! The starter took us rather by surprise and we had to work hard to keep ahead of Hurricanes in the longest 500m race in the world (it was a northern 500m) finishing in 2 min 19.62 (it felt like days!). Thankfully, we were ahead of Hurricanes by about a second so sailed straight into the cup semi. A cuppa, a bit of a nap and fruitless attempts to dry off race shirts ensued. 2 hours later and we lined up for our semi against Crusaders, and Kingston Royals (Oh Joy!). A frantic 2 min 19.69 later and they had unfortunately defeated us by a measly second - pushing us out of the Major Final again (just you wait till Exeter!). So, another Minor Final, this time against Hurricanes and Henley - we pretty much had it in the bag when a member of Hurricanes was overheard getting into their boat saying 'We've got Exe-Calibre in our final?!' with a fearful tone in his voice! Ha! Be afraid, be very afraid! This final was the best 500m of the day, with calm composure from Rachel finally settling the rate into one which made the most of the Exe-Calibre long, strong, stroke. An emphatic win in 2 min 18.60, thrashing Hurricanes by 7 seconds and Crusaders nowhere to be seen. 4th in the 500m!

The London teams and the scaredy cats then disappeared off home, leaving the hardcore crews to battle it out over a 2000m. That is, Amathus, Amathus Bees, a composite of Pershore/Tao/bits and bobs, and of course the inimitable Exe-Calibre! This was a great experience for the crew, most of whom have not had the chance to race at this distance. So, with Rach bravely at the helm and Hayley bashing the drum, the crew set off (sporting buoyancy aids - just in case!). A brilliantly consistent run and a brave recovery after being rammed by Amathus on the first corner resulted in a great time of 10 min 10 secs and 2nd place behind Amathus (who also cut a few corners after they attempted to drown their own second crew!). Exe-Calibre of course remained composed and powered exceptionally strongly in the last 500m, despite the Cox-box failing (again!).

So, a fantastic result in all races and a really great day. As always exceptional Exe-Calibre spirit and team-work made everything come together. A great day for Donna who competed in her first race event, drummed for the first time, and did her first 2000m! Also, for Nicola who is now officially hardcore now that she's paddled for 2km! Just wait till the Henley Winter Series! The usual thanks to paddlers/drummers, Rach for helming and dragging the boat 'all the way' to Preston. To everyone, as always, you did Exe-Calibre proud!!