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Veterans under fire at Ross Regatta
Chris and Jim competed in veteran F pairs at Ross Regatta at the weekend:
'We won on Sunday at Ross! Hereford pair destroyed - river safe again.
It was over before it began. The 'competitive' Hereford pair overdid their pre-start manoeuvres on the fast and tricky current and it irritated the starter and bemused their opponents. "Hereford: back it down; move over you are too close together; you are only supposed to have a stagger lead of half a length. Come on Hereford back it down; both crews back it down; Hereford; HEREFORD. Well I'mgonnahavetostartyouanywayattentiongo." We were going backwards at the time having naively followed instructions but we set off the best we could.
After 10 strokes Hereford veered right across and their stroke rigger was almost touching our bow ball. "Move to starboard Hereford, move, move, MOVE NOW."
Soon afterwards we successfully negotiated the corner and started concentrating on the rowing rather than the steering. We hit a good pace and soon established a good clear water lead, pushing to keep in the best of the stream. We must have overdone that because we sensed warning shots walloping across our bows, coming from the Umpire bunker under the bridge. "Move to port Avon, move to port". They were ranging in on us for sure. We were in sight of the finish flags and had the rudder on but the boat wasn't moving. "Avon, move over, this is your FINAL WARNING". They had a good lock on us this time those Umpires. But for the Hereford pair it was all too much: they blew up and all but stopped rowing, leaving us to cruise home safely.
All in all it was a good day out on the Wye.
Jim'
