Finals 2005

BDA National Finals 2005: Smurfs On Tour
Paddling, drinking and camping: the culmination of the season for the Powerblades. Taking Rory’s smurf episode from last year’s nationals (see 2004 report) to a whole new level, we arrived in Nottingham on the Friday evening and camped after coming up in the minibus and singing to Basement Jaxx (“Good luck in your new job”). After dining on Tesco noodles and tea, we all went to bed (including Debbie the Big Issue Seller) and tried to block out the freezing cold.
Saturday morning involved getting the boat on the water, a process in which Rhi managed to get knocked over in (It’s all on camera Rhi!) and Grace managing to get the steering arm caught up in the weeds and then park the boat in a place where there was nowhere to tie it up at. We started racing about 11 o’clock and were joined by Kat (and Kat’s mum- even Kat didn’t know this bit). The 200’s went well, I can’t remember much (I never can) but they seemed solid. Having opted out on the Mixed 500’s due to our club being overwhelmed by the dumber sex (I’ll get a dunking for that one), we went on a trip to Morrison’s to stock up on junk before the 1000’s. Last year we spent the 1000’s in the Centre’s bar, laughing at the people paddling. This year we decided that they looked too much fun to miss out on so we joined in (WHYYYYYYY????). We actually didn’t do too badly in them, and they proved a valuable experience, especially for those in the crew that hadn’t paddled a longer distance before. Henley 8K’s await, fellow paddlers! The evening consisted of the legendary trip to ‘The Goose’, where everyone ate far too much and Grace moaned that her food was taking too long to come (30 seconds without food and she’s famished). Everyone headed back, some going on to the bar at the watersports centre and some staying at the campsite at ‘Chez Griff and Claire’. Back to bed by an undisclosed but totally sensible time, we caught up on our beauty sleep ready for the late start tomorrow morning.
Starting the morning fed by Papa Smurf and his Assistant Claire (or should that be the other way round), Debbie climbed on top of the minibus and pretended to fly with hilarious consequences while Carly laughed at her. Eventually we got round to racing, and the 500’s flew by. We started picking them off, one by one, including Worcester and WAM until we reached the Cup minor final (you what? the CUP MINOR FINAL did you say?). Lining up against Notts, WAM, Worcester and probably some Amathus paddlers (let’s face it, there’s a lot of them), we pushed and pushed and pushed until we crossed the line in fourth, beating WAM but not Worcester, who were one tenth of a second up on us. That’ll do nicely methinks, and we also clocked the fastest ever time for a Welsh crew at 2.17, beating our previous pb as well. We went home happy bunnies (or squirrels it should be), looking ahead to the great fun that it winter training.
And here’s a round up of our achievements and discoveries for the 2005 season):
• 2.17, our best time ever for a 500 and the fastest Welsh time ever.
• Camping sucks. A lot.
• According to a lovely person in ‘The Goose’, we look like members of the ‘Cardiff Massive (Innit)’ in our blue hoodies.
• Blue hoodies are very warm when camping.
• Tesco Noodles are still extremely cheap.
• Carly is an amazing drummer and everyone wants to take pictures of her.
• Amathus seem to multiply in numbers right before your eyes.

Congratulations to WAM for winning the Standard league and going up to the Premier Division. We’ll hopefully join you in a little while (once we’ve finished our pints).

See you next year!
~*~Bagpuss~*~

*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