August 15, 2017
Winning at Stourport Regatta
It's a long while since I competed at Stourport Regatta. It's a challenging course. 1100m long and with a few bends and obstructions to catch you out.
The first time I raced there was in 1970 in novice fours and it was raining so hard when we arrived on the Friday night that we put our tent up inside the marquee!
The next year I raced in novice sculls in committee boats (boats provided by the regatta committee) which were open cockpit and in one race mine nearly sank!
I was probably last there in about 1987 because Keith Barwise came and chatted with me and reminisced about my girlfriend of that time, who is still one of my best friends.
This time I was racing in G/H 1x and in the final had to give my opponent an 11 sec start, as I had done at Shrewsbury earlier in the year. I finished 22 sec ahead of him on that occasion. But this time I was only ahead by a couple of lengths at the end. He had been training in a quad in between time!
I also raced with my awesome training partner, Diane Moore, in E/F Mixed doubles. This time we got the handicap advantage, being older, and our opposition did not encroach on our lead at all. We just jumped in the boat and did it. This was only our third outing together but neither of us would ever let the other down and we won easily. :-)
Posted by Stephen Walker at August 15, 2017 01:47 PM