BDA Preston 2009

On this day Raging Dragons was reborn!

One small step for man but a giant leap for a dragon team! It has taken many long years and a tremendous amount of hard work and effort by many of the club members as well as the generosity of our kind sponsors, Sun Lik Beer (genius signing up a brewery as a sponsor by the way....someone deserves a medal!!) and the Lotus Restaurant before them, but on this day Raging Dragons took the next step in our evolution by launching our own boat and new team kit as we proudly set off into the wide wide world of dragon boating, standing on our own two feet.

And what a way to do it! Not since the D-Day landings has a campaign been planned with such military precision (don't mention the War Basil...). Officer Commanding (Logistics Division), Corporal Tin Tin Bong sent out list after list, spreadsheet after spreadsheet, instruction after instruction. Nothing was being left to chance. By version 12.6a (appendix iv), I imagine no one had a clue what the plan was anymore....but that didn't really matter. We were off to Preston with our new boat, glorious in red, and would be fielding two teams to make a real splash at our launch event.

You would think that the Logistics Division (Tin Tin, that is...) would at least have thought to organise somewhere to feed 50 hungry paddlers rather than leaving it to chance, but no, that item on the agenda must have been on version 12.7a and he never got that far because he'd done no such thing. Being the first to arrive in Preston, Chi, Ken Yang, Johannes and I took the task upon ourselves and popped into a couple of restaurants to ask if they could accommodate us at such short notice. "Sorry, did you say fifty people...???" was the stock response from the incredulous staff. "In an hour from now ??? And you haven't booked! You do know it's Saturday night, right ???". Staring down the barrel of ordering fifty dodgy take away kebabs as our only option, Chi set off on a mission and by genius or divine guidance we arrived at the Olive Press. Yes, said the manager, he could seat fifty but that would have to be upstairs in the posh restaurant, if that was okay. Perfect. We returned to the Holiday Inn to gather the troops who should all have arrived on the minibuses by now. No chance, sunshine. Nothing is that simple with Rage! There had been all sorts of dramas...screwed up bookings, breakdowns, jack knifed caravans on the motorway...you name it. And yet, everyone still made it eventually and arrived with a smile. That's the sort of Dunkirk spirit that saw off the Boche in Word War II! (I said don't mention the War Basil...Oops, sorry Johannes...!!)

And so to the restaurant. Whilst I'm not sure it was fully appreciated by the couples out for a romantic meal that evening, the energy and buzz from fifty RD'ers strung out the length of the restaurant was tremendous and it is further testament to the spirit of the team that newbies and oldies alike were blending seamlessly despite having spent such little time together. Apart from Angelique not getting her salmon risotto on time (Jesus, of all the people to pick! There is one waitress in Preston who won't be making the mistake of not keeping her customers informed about food delays again...!!), the evening was fantastic and culminated with a grand 'shirt hand over ceremony' back at the hotel. The shirts, by the way, are awesome...even if they aren't too flattering for the fuller figured gentleman...not that I know any of course!

Ten years ago, a crack dragon boat unit was sent to prison for a crime they didn't commit (dipping, I hear...!!!). These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to Mile End Underground. Today, still wanted by the BDA, they survive as paddlers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire...The R-Team! Cheng "Hannibal" Yee, Eddy "Faceman" Lee, Richie "BA Baracus" Wang and Ronald "Howling Mad" Murdock-Wang are that team. Sweeping into Preston on the Saturday night with blacked out windows to avoid being recognised, they had set about securing our dragon boat to the railings of a military compound that was cleverly disguised as a bus garage using nothing more than sticky tape and a pair of tweezers. We slept soundly that night, knowing the boat would still be there in the morning.

We set off for the docks the next morning only to find the road blocked. What the f...??? It takes a special kind of british council worker to be smart enough to block off the entrance to a dragon boat festival at 8:30am before the dragon boats have had a chance to get through. Brilliant! Personally, I don't think we pay these people enough and can't wait for my taxes to go up to meet their pension obligations. Undeterred, we took the long way round and if anyone doubts the power of the R-Team, that'll be because they weren't there to witness "BA" Wang swing the R-Mobile (blacked out windows come as standard...) and a 40 foot dragon boat trailer around a traffic island whilst the rest of us blocked the road to oncoming cars. It was the stuff of Hollywood legend, with the back end of the trailer missing the railings with inches to spare...all part of the plan of course (gulp...phew!).

The Raging Bulls were up first in the 200m. The new boats first race. An excellent effort for a scratch team and one of which they should be justifiably proud. Then it was the Raging Dragons turn. Massive! First by a mile and with plenty left in the tank. What a difference a boat makes. We were finally in a position to challenge for a podium place, something that was only a dream in the Black Mamba. Getting through to the final of the 200m via the semi was a mere formality. Amathus lined up alongside us. The other team was there just to make up the numbers. The race would be between the two of us. "Paddlers, down and ready. Attention. Go." Bang! We exploded away from the start line and raced down the course, neck and neck with Amathus. With 50m to go, there was still nothing to choose between us. Their experience of finishing big races was probably the deciding factor in the end as the pressure saw us make the mistakes. We tensed up in the final 50m and they crossed the line first. They hadn't won the race, we had conspired to lose it. But second place is no shame and we had shown our true ability. We now knew unequivocally that we were their equals and still had the 500m in which to prove it.

Getting to the final of the 500m was slightly less of a formality, especially when Richie Bennett managed to snap our carbon fibre steering arm (he's stronger than he looks, that boy...) but we won both our heat and semi-final. In the final, Amathus again, along with BA Hurricanes (perhaps BA Wang should be racing for them...???) and Worcester. Amathus got a better start than us and provided us with a challenge to get back at them but whether we could have done so will have to forever remain a mystery as some ('scuse the language...) twat in a speedboat choose that precise moment to start doing doughnuts just next to the racecourse. The waves from his boat caused chaos to all teams but us they hit Worcester first, us next, then Amathus and finally BA, this gave BA the advantage they needed to beat us in a photo finish and we had to settle for 3rd place.

Raging Bulls went from strength to strength as well and not only secured 3rd in the plate final, but also the prize for best scratch crew of the day. Top effort!

After the races and because it was Johannes' last race with Rage he had to go for a swim so was promptly thrown in. Next to be thrown in were Tin Tin and Richie because it was their respective birthdays. And then Eddy because...well, just because he's Eddy really. Last, clearly feeling left out, Martin threw himself in for the hell of it...and why not !!!

Oliver from Sun Lik and Raymondo Cheung then collected our abundant silverware at the trophy ceremony and as the rest of the teams went off for free tea and biccies (whoppee do...), we cracked open a couple of slabs of Sun Lik's finest and celebrated the days achievements in proper style. Now that's my kind of sponsor...!!!