BDA Caldecotte 2010
Round 6 - Bring back the cow!
(By Tin Bong Lau)
A dull and grey morning turned out to be a bright and sunny day of racing. We originally had 22 paddlers down, but due to unforeseen circumstances we were down to 20 paddlers. Nonetheless, we gave it our all and the results reflected that.
200m
Our first race pitted us against TAO who we edged in Exeter to reach the Major Cup Final so they were out for revenge. The start we good and we moved ahead… but TAO weren’t taking any of it and stuck to us all the way to the finish line. First job of the day was done… Worcester in the Semi along with both Kingston teams! It was possibly the best draw for us as we have consistently beaten all three crews over 200m this season. Again our start was good and we pulled strongly away from all three boats. But Worcester came back strongly and we had to hold on to our lead with all our strength.
Major Cup Final here we come again. Amathus and Batchworth as well as Hurricanes were the opponents for the day. All three teams have posted faster times than us and we really had to pull something out of the bag to secure a trophy for the day. The start was good, but our strength was not quite up to that of Amathus or Batchworth, who pulled ahead after our transition phase. We did come back at them and clawed back some of the distance lost, but it was not enough and we finished third with Hurricanes in 4th.
This was a great result as it means we go clear at the top of the 200m league again, but the icing on the cake was the fact that Batchworth were penalised for lane encroachment during the race and had 5 seconds added to their finishing time which promoted us to second! This was fortunate, as they did not have a third place trophy for the 200m that day!
500m
After the mix up with the 200m race results we were drawn with Thames for the 500m race. Although they were not at full strength, they are always strong over the distance and we had to stay sharp. Our initial fast stroke rates gave us the lead and after numerous power call exchanges we crossed the line a second ahead.
The Semi final was again against Kingston… Royals, not Pretenders this time. And Kingston are always stronger at this event due to their rotation strategy over the 200m. The result was that we were finished second in a respectable time against top opposition. Our fate was now in the hands of the time keepers. We missed the Major Cup Final by 0.11s.
The final was against Hurricanes, Tao and the rising stars in the Standard League, Exe-Calibre. On paper we had the fastest time, but history has shown that we have been beaten in similar circumstances before! This was going to be a close race. And it was. The result was too close to call and we had to wait until the prize giving before we would find out that we had been beaten again by Hurricanes.
Although we did not finish as highly as we would have liked in the 500m, we made up for a disappointing showing at Exeter a couple of weeks ago.
This was our third Major Cup Final in a row over 200m and it is no fluke. We have reached this position through our hard work and our commitment and dedication. But our position is currently biased as we have raced one extra event than the likes of Amathus and Batchworth. Once all the races are over and we look at the points scored from our best events, we really find out where we stand.
More of the same please from everyone… lets keep this form at Worcester where a ‘lucky’ draw could present us with our first win in the BDA League!
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