Henley Winter Series 3 - 15 Jan 2012

Today 39 Exe-Calibites made the trek to a very icy Henley-on-Thames to race in the third of the Henley Winter Series, with Exe-Calibre Open currently leading the club crews and Exe-Calibre Blades the only second crew racing yet again!

Big thanks to the collaborative effort that got the boats rigged and everything ready – everyone pitched in and it was great to see the team working together so well.  We welcomed three Henley novices (Kent, Cat and Dave P) and three ‘ringers’ (Dave, Kieran and Aaron) who kindly stepped in to ensure our Blades paddlers could enter a team.  Let’s make sure we take two full crews to the final Henley on Sun 26th February – it’s a huge achievement that we have taken two crews to the three events so far.  Sign up today at the Race Events Spreadsheet.

As usual an exciting race ensued, with the Blades heading off 3rd, working hard and keeping excellent timing and finishing in 10th place ahead of two other crews, a slightly slower time this time, but a fantastic team effort and a great first race for novice Henley helm Dave Pollard ably assisted by Hayley on drum.  The Open crew went off 10th (out of 12) were overtaken by Longridge just before the first turn, but held off the Rafters until the final bridge – excellent wash-hanging from Ed to give us a bit of a boost!  Some great lifts and fantastic calls from Emily.  Again, a slightly slower time, but well ahead of Worcester, meaning another fastest club crew medal and plenty of points to keep us in contention for the enormous trophy handed out to the winning club crew!

The Henley website has already been updated with the results, and Exe-Calibre Open are in joint second place with 42 points! Just one more Henley race to go, let’s go for getting two great Exe-Calibre crews there – it will be fantastic to be the only club in the UK to take a second crew to all the races.  It would also be great for the Open crew to aim to break the record for the fastest club crew time.  We just need to go faster than the 31 min 19 sec paddled by Batchworth last year.

A huge well done to everyone for their efforts today.  Sign up for the last Henley right now at the Race Events Spreadsheet.