Peterborough 2005

“Sunshine, Tents and Treacle”

Peterborough, the hive of entertainment on the East coast, is one of the furthest race events for Cardiff, a mere 5 or so hours from home. The minibus driven by Debs left Cardiff at lunchtime on Saturday, with Griff, Claire and Carly going in the car and Grace, Alex and Gordon meeting us up there. After standing still in traffic for half an hour, and Gordon, Alex and Grace getting escorted by police to the campsite (ooh err!), we set up the tents and went in the pub. Some of us were woken up in the night by the infestation of rabbits at the camp, but we got up around 7, although Jo (who we borrowed from Exe-Calibre for the day) managed to stay in bed for a little longer. Breakfast was served, tents were packed, and then we bummed around for a bit because our first race wasn’t until 11-ish. Grace discovered that you could sit on the roof of the minibus, and Claire and Carly showed us their amazing dance to the song from Ali G.
Our first 200 was against Three Rivers and (INSERT NAME HERE), and had Stuart from Colenorton paddling with us too. We came third, and this was going to prove to be a bit of a pattern for the day. We were in lane 3 and about two people in the boat heard the starter’s orders (or were deaf/hung over/half asleep), which meant no-one was ready at ‘Attention’ so the rest of the race went a bit haywire, although we did pick up considerably in the last 100 metres. To be fair though, after speaking to a race official all was sorted out in lightning time. Our second 200 was much better off the start, but we were pipped at the finish by Cool Runnings, meaning that our 200s were over for the day. Never mind- extended lunch break!!
Our 500’s were pretty much the same, and for the Standard league it was pretty much between WAM and Amathus Bees all day. We settled into the Plate competition, and only made the minor final, lining up against BA Hurricanes and Secklow 100. We fought tooth, nail and spare paddle (Griff broke his earlier, or rather Gordon’s) to the end, and we came first. No silverware, but a small victory in a day of hard paddling. I’d blame it all on the tents and the rabbits, I swear they ate my guy ropes. We must’ve paddled our best though because on the way back everyone fell asleep, but Debs didn’t, thank heavens. She said it was the serenading by Jo that pulled her through. On a higher level of paddling, Amathus did amazingly well to win the 500m cup major final that became a 550m race due to some new-style helming, and WAM deservedly won the standard division. Bring on the Nationals, and the last race report of the season that will be 95% of the crazy things we ate/danced to/sung to and 5% paddling as usual. Go Cardiff!

*Psn*	*Team*	*Entered*	*Points*
1	Amathus Bees	3	47
2	Cardiff Powerblades	3	41
3	Secklow 100	3	34
4	Bristol Emp Dragon	2	30