Pudding Races

Unlike our summer fun day, Raedwald smiled on us today and we were blessed with sunshine, high tide and (relatively) low winds for the first ever DRC Pudding Races.

Tim was master of ceremonies and drew names out of a hat (okay, bucket) to decide the crews and, after a little admiration of the new ramp, we all set off down to the red buoys near Waldringfield. There were just the right number of people for the following doubles: Tim & Oli, Terry & John, Anna & Mark, Bev & Chris, Clio & Em, Roger & Andy. With the tide racing out and wind blowing off the Waldringfield bank, the course rowed by each boat was going to be crucial; four crews decided to cling to the bank, whilst two braved it out on the Methersgate side of the channel. Bev and Chris set off first and set a good pace for the rest of us to maintain. With approx. 1000m gone, Mark & I took the lead, closely followed by Roger & Andy and these two boats stayed neck and neck up towards Methersgate. At this point the others had a little steering difficulty (!) and I thought Mark & I were going to steam ahead to the finish...the trouble was that we were actually only about half way and just a couple of minutes later Roger & Andy started to pull ahead of us. Just as I thought it couldn't get any worse, Oli & Tim appeared from nowhere and also steamed past us to the finish. Terry & John meanwhile had also sneaked up on the other side of the river, but I think we just managed to stay in front. The two women's doubles also battled well against the tide and wind, crossing the finish line shortly afterwards.

Back on the bank, we celebrated with a little bubbly and awarded the puddings to Roger & Andy - a pretty impressive result considering that they hadn't even realised the races were on until they arrived at the clubhouse!

Thanks for adding another great even to the DRC year, Tim :-)