Bristol Sprint Regatta 2018

27 Mar Bristol Sprint Regatta 2018

Well at least there was no snow this weekend! At around 10 am members of the club gathered for our local regatta kindly hosted by Bristol gig club on the ‘other’ side of the harbour to Clifton. Remarkably by 11am both gigs (Goram and Lindy) were moored up and ready to go the impressive Clifton gazebo had been erected with minimal faff and deckchairs were arranged in hap-hazard fashion. With full mens and womens crews attending we were also going to introduce competitive rowing to four of our members. Step forward Brendan, John P, Natalie and Jo for your first competitive honours. Iain had somehow following his Three Rivers experience come back for more.

The race format this year was velodrome style ovals around a tight course of about 800m length with boats starting on opposite sides.  Clifton mens were first up in the first race and had barely finished their first cuppa when told to depart the wharf. 10 strokes later we were on the start line and off. The shock to the system was considerable.  Zero to 110% for the next four minutes and boy did Debs make us work for it (well those of us on Stroke side anyway not those on Bow who had two rests every race)…. We managed to ease past Portishead in the first race but was our time respectable?

Girls were up a few heats later against Clevedon.  Steve had them off to a good start and the timing and power was plainly visible from the quay.  Clevedon misjudged the turn, went round the wrong buoy and nearly had a confrontation with a harbour ferry in Goram!  Girls won comfortably, so a 100% record thus far for Clifton.

We then decided to enter the novice race with our race virgins forming a novice crew who also won and were coxed for the first time in a competitive race by Rosie.

After a bit more cake, tea and a healthy salad we got back in the boat and raced again. The boys were up against Portishead again and won comfortably. Nina was persuaded to cox for the first time in a race and did a brilliant job in complete control.

Girls had been promoted and were up against Bristol A in a shoot out for first place…… Remember those girls are good!  They always look classy when we see them in the harbour and they came in the top 10 last year at the world championships.  Did our girls with two new crew members in the boat and perhaps giving away a few years have a chance?  Not half!  They were in Goram  and got off to a flyer.  Beautiful timing, great turns and real effort on the straights.  Bristol were really putting it in as well and just pipped us over the line by three strokes…A tremendous effort girls and looking good for the Scillies!

Last up was the novice race and once again another great effort was put in with the timing really improving over the first run.

End result was Clifton were on the honours board.. .A first for the club with second place finishes in the Women’s and Novice crews.  Not all debuts are like that!  We then proceeded to pack away our gazebo with all due faff we could muster and departed for our side of the river and the pub.

Quote of the day has to be Nina who as we approached the second turn after a lung buster down the straight asked the Stroke side to ‘start turning it on’.

Comedy moment has to be Brian who decided to turn up to spectate in a very trendy looking coat.  Within half an hour he was wearing both of my coats and hat.  Stood there like Michelin man next to Fraser who had turned up in shorts and T-Shirt……We did manage to get him in the boat the following day but it was nip and tuck until pint number 7…One of our founder members Craig also put in an appearance but quickly disappeared when informed we might be one short….A great fun day out and nice to see so many new faces giving it a go.