Mansfield - 12 August 2012
22 feisty Exe-Calibites brought home valuable league points yesterday after a great day's racing in Mansfield, Nottingham. The new venue brought sunshine, copious tea-drinking and something called a burger cob (must be local dialect for something tasty!) It also saw Exe-Calibre paddlers fighting hard to gain points to maintain our position in the Premier League.
The first challenge was the 200m, and once again Exe-Calibre's mighty start was in evidence. Even with a crew of nine women Exe-Calibre flew off the start line - taking on Notts Anaconda (who had just one woman) and even beating Amanthus off the start in the semi. Exe-Calibre went on to win the minor final, bringing home 11 points
for the league.
Next up was an interesting 2000m circular race! Quite literally 2 loops of a big 1000m circle! Great fun - especially enjoyed by Ed on helm! Ably urged on by Hayley on drum we 'paddled like fury!' picking up 4th place out of 12 crews. An excellent performance for the crew.
Finally, (feeling a little fatigued!) we headed into our 500m heat. Getting off the start was like paddling through treacle, as the reservoir was definitely a little shallow up that end. However, we managed to claw back and edge in just a dragon's whisker ahead and get ourselves straight into the cup semi. Unfortunately, we shared the semi with Amathus and despite keeping with them (and Ed wasn't really wash hanging at all!) they pipped us and we qualified for the minor final. A solid win in this final gained us another 11 points!
A great day was had by all, lovely sunshine, an interesting new venue, a different race distance challenge and lots of happy, smiley faces. Thanks to all paddlers, helms, and drummers who worked so hard and brought that Exe-Calibre fighting spirit into every race. Fantastic focus on the line, huge starts, great commitment! A brilliant day.