With thoughts of blue skies, grass skirts and pina coladas, I looked down and noted the blue mottling effect that was travelling across my hands. It was February 24th, it was Hammersmith Women’s Head and it was cold.

 The pre-race nerves were there, the imaginary need for the loo was there but both soon abated as I looked up and saw the snowflakes beginning to fall. There was only one remedy, well there was another but it involved the Sons bar and a hot toddy and they weren’t available on the start line - our crew better row their little hearts out and at least then we’d feel the blood returning to our limbs. So when Tash (the cox who’s boss) told us to de-kit we were more than ready to spin the boat and get going.

After a very solid start, we hit the necessary 32 stroke rate to take us through Chiswick Bridge and beyond and it felt ‘chunkily’ good. We’d spent a long time in training working on ‘catching there’ and ‘ratio!’ (thanks Cat & Paul) and it felt really good that our hard work was paying off.

Then Barnes Bridge happened. I’d always wanted to try coastal rowing and I should know by now that wind over tide on the tideway always makes it a little bouncy but perhaps I’d been spoilt with good water over the winter. That said we coped.

I’m really pleased that both my crew and the second IM3 boat put in a stirling effort and didn’t let it phase us. They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result...well you know what, I think the women’s squad must be a little insane. For a little over 15 minutes, in difficult conditions, we did do the same again and the results are paying off. The first boat is catching our friendly neighbours, AK and the second boat is catching the first. Let’s keep doing it.

 To all those racing IM3 having started rowing just last August I would like to say a huge well done to you. You’re working really hard and I have no doubt will go far – like from Chiswick to Putney on the 9th March. Here’s to WeHORR and blue skies...and of course pina coladas!

Lizzie Austin

It wasn't great weather for the Hammersmith Head. Let's just say two boats sank. 

After waiting for a year to race the Dewar Shield (for reasons not to be spoken about here), the day had finally come round again! A year of anticipation had increased the enthusiasm within the club and a whopping 72 people signed up for this year's challenge, filling eight boats from Sons (four men's crews, three women's and one mixed). Boats were begged, borrowed and stolen from around the Tideway and thanks must be mentioned to Mortlake Anglian & Alpha Boat Club, Thames Rowing Club and Vesta Rowing Club. Some last-minute scrambling ensured that the last boat was filled - thank you to all the rowers, coxes, timers and marshals that participated to make this year's event so great!

To the race, I was racing in the first men's crew and we got out onto the water promptly (after a good warm-up row in the morning and to ensure we didn't clash with the schools who were running an impromptu head race outside Sons). The race preparation was going well right up until a launch (unrelated to the Dewar Shield race) washed us down and half-filled the boat with water necessitating a quick stop at Tideway Scullers for a boat empty (without wellies as we were in race mode!). Back on the water and a soaking wet crew had to wait for over half an hour in the freezing cold for the start, as a school octuple had managed to wrap themselves around Barnes Railway Bridge. School kids rescued, the race started (with reluctant de-kitting!) and my boat rowed over at the head of the river. We had a determined row knowing that Auriol Kensington Rowing Club had a good crew after a close result at Quintin Head. The crew showed some of the symptoms of the early part of the season but the boat speed was there and we managed to secure the fastest time at just over 11 minutes.

A quick shower to thaw out (along with the traditional club photo) and then over to Furnivall Sculling Club for the results. A set of strong and promising results from around the club but the shield was lost by one point owing to a very strong showing by the hosts, Furnivall, in the women's races. Congratulations to Furnivall on their victory (a deserved one this year after the controversy of last year). Thanks also to Auriol Kensington for organising this year's event. We look forward to next year when, rest assured, Sons will be even stronger and I hope will show out in force once again.

Ross Cook, Men's Captain and at five in Sons M1

The small hours of Saturday afternoon saw waves cresting at four or even five inches on the Tideway. Dead leaves were seen to move on trees and a drizzly rain threatened any ant foolish enough to venture outside its nest with a catastrophic soaking. 

It was reminiscent of the Dewar Shield race from the previous year. Then, Sons of the Thames Rowing Club was enveloped in polar conditions so severe that the decision was made to withdraw the club from the competition. By a quirk of local climate Auriol and Kensington RC and Furnivall SC, were somehow able to boat and contested the shield without us - most of the Sons membership fondly imagining that the whole event had been cancelled. 

So at the core of the Sons 2013 effort was a determination to show up. Snapping their fingers at the weather, eight Sons of the Thames VIIIs pushed off from the pontoon. With seven crews from Furnivall Sculling Club and six from Auriol and Kensington Rowing Club, 21 VIIIs and 189 rowers contested the event - probably an all-time record and certainly one for recent times.    

A new "Grand Prix" style scoring system meant the first ten in boats in the men's and women's sections would score - additional crews getting just one point. The strength of this is that a club is scored not just on the performance of its top boats, but the full spectrum of active members - social rowers and novices included. 

In the Olympic year of 2012 volunteers at all three clubs have worked hard to train newcomers to the sport, many of whom have been inspired by watching the successes of our Olympic rowers. 

Before the no-show of 2012, Sons had won the shield for a number of years running, but 2013 was never going to be a push-over. 

A long, buttock-numbing delay at the start was due to a school's crew being stuck under Barnes Bridge. Or was that a Russian submarine? It was hard to hear. Eventually a PLA launch went by with a bushy thing like a discarded Christmas tree in the stern. Obviously if we'd been aware of the danger we would have pulled the whole club out of the race.  

At last we turned into the stream and began the familiar build-up to Chiswick Bridge. A scratch crew of creaky veterans, we were none-the-less designated Sons M2, and started in fourth position. With Club Captain Tony Brown making the calls from the cox's seat, it became clear that we were gaining on Furnivall M1. Eventually we'd row through them before the finish at Hammersmith Bridge. At that point things seemed to be going well. 

Our first VIII looked to have pushed away from an AK unit that had beaten them by 0.2 seconds in the Quintin Head. That Sons M1 time would turn out to be 11.13 - comfortably the fastest of the day. Behind us Furnivall 2 in a borrowed boat (and a few borrowed all-in-ones), didn't seem to be closing us down - and indeed, we finished third.

It wasn't a bad year 2012. We got two crews to Henley, plenty of new people joined and we were one of the few clubs to be represented in the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Pageant. We even won the PLA's safety award. The Christmas Party's always a good time to acknowlege and thank the people who made all those good things happen - not least Lju, who organised it. 

It's also a time to exchange rowing kit for something smarter and the basement areas of Linden House for the more elegant upper floors of this handsome Georgian building. It's great to have the Linden House staff there as well - not just because they did a great job with the catering, but also because they are are familiar and friendly faces we see throughout the year.  

Greg stepped up to claim Colin's trophy having just posted the best result in the Scullers' Head. The other main award - for club champion - was close run with a number of rowers in the frame. In the end, it was too close to call and the award went to the Henley Wyfolds crew which felt like the right resolution. Ross stepped up with Rory to claim the shield. His recent engagement to Gemma, whom he met at this very event a year or two ago, reminding us that stuff can happen at the Christmas party. 

Over on the tables people tried to thread Bond quotes into the conversation without anyone else noticing, food was eaten, drink was drunk and it's rumoured that after one or two of the older members had creaked off into the night (OK, me), many of the young people even danced. 

On the Saturday youth, athleticism, endeavour and rigour. On the Sunday, maturity, grit, well-honed skills and a hint of algipan on the breeze. At the Veteran Fours Head, the will to win is exceeded only by the compulsion for self-ridicule.

As with the Pairs Head, some of the club’s most worthy representatives were the ones out on the Tideway in the square-shaped metal boats who helped to make this excellent event a success. At the risk of leaving someone out, we should thank Cat, Anna and Kate.

A mid-day start had plenty to recommend it, the early morning frost melting in a crisp autumn sun which illuminated the colours of hundreds of visiting clubs.

Trentham Universtiy RC were with us again at Hammersmith, as were and one or two Cambridge clubs who seem to have made us their operating base on the Tideway.

This account is from the Vet D 4x boat because that’s the one I was in. After a gruelling practice outing to Chiswick Bridge the previous weekend, we paddled away from the Sons of the Thames pontoon with more resolve than style.

Behind me in the engine-room, the Boerike-Scrine turbo diesel – they of a close second place in the Vet D 2x division of the Pairs Head. In the bows, command and control safely entrusted to the matchless rowing brain of Baldwin.

Crowded with fours and quads in the sunshine, there was an unexpectedly carnival feel to the Thames at Chiswick, although these painterly observations soon gave way to the necessity of paddling down to Chiswick Bridge.

I'm not one for counting, so it was a big plus to have Brad's stroke meter in the back with me. I noticed it said 33 as we passed the stripey pole that ends the university boat race... steady, we'd talked about 32.

As the bridge faded into the distance, the crews behind became reassuringly smaller. That said, Stephen's calls from bow showed it was taking a long time to catch the quad in front. We'd later discover it was a City of Bristol crew.

We passed the club grateful for the support. Maybe we were already overlapping Bristol, I can't remember. But it seemed as if we were locked together even as we overtook other crews, Baldwin adroitly steering through small gaps.

Steady at 32, I expected us to go past them, but the Bristol crew just wouldn't roll over. It's never easy that Hammersmith to Putney stretch, but this was the hardest I've known it. Along the boats at Putney, Bristol pushed away to break the overlap. We beat them on time, but in this head race turned match race, their indomitable refusal to be overtaken seemed like a victory in itself.

Back in the bar at Linden House, the results were in before the sausage and mash was on the table. (It's a well-run event the Veteran Fours Head.) We were third in our division, and fastest crew from Sons... just. Somehow though, I think it's the epic battle with City of Bristol Rowing Club that we'll all remember.  

Just two years ago, our only representatives in the Scullers' Head were Les and Ed H. Today, 13 of us pushed off from the pontoon to join the traffic jam of singles to Chiswick Bridge. The start order looked something like this:

Ed Hillyard MasBNov

Michael Tchoubouroff   IM2

Ross Cook IM2

Anna Caffyn WMasA

Faith JameisonWMasB

Stephen Baldwin MasC

Drago Zhelev MasC

Ed Fawssett MasD

Eoin KashishianNov

Neil Kashishian Nov

Dave SmithIM3.LWT

Greg Foden IM3 LWT

Lju LazarevicW.Nov

The weather forecast's promised sun duly appeared, bringing with it an unexpected warmth, although a couple of scullers who fell in may not have said the same about the water temperature.

The presence of Olympic single sculls bronze medalist, Alan Campbell, brought extra distinction to the race. How many other sports let ordinary mortals compete alongside the Olympians? Mind you,  there doesn't seem to be any such thing as a wild card at the Sculler's Head. Alan started back at 108, but won anyway. 

Meanwhile, further down the order at 318 your correspondent was progressing up river, the sharp knock of oar on carbon-fibre shell enlivening a stop-start journey.

At the Ship Inn, official "tops-off" station, a nagging anxiety about my ability to feed a soft-shell jacket through the mouse-hole sized hatch cover was dispelled by the unexpected prescence on the shingle of a club mate. Thanks Cat, with your impressive rowing palmarès, I should be carrying your jacket.

And so to the return under Chiswick Bridge, my heart rate monitor suddenly deciding the time of day was much more interesting than news about what my heart might be doing. At least the Boat Coach app on my phone continued to work, displaying 30 in reassuring large numerals. 

As usual, I was slow to settle and immediately came under pressure from 319. He'd eventually row through me right opposite the club - a humiliation that passing four other boats didn't really make up for.  He must have had a good second half too, finishing third in Masters D.  My aim was to finish in the top 200 which I failed to do by five seconds. Last year it was six, so with this rate of improvement I'm looking good for 2017. 

The bigger news was Greg finishing as the fastest Sons of the Thames Rowing Club entrant. I've come to think of Colin's elegant trophy as being permanently resident on the Hillyard mantlepiece so this was quite a shake-up and well done to Greg. Ed did win the MasBNov category however with another characteristically fast row. Joining them in the top 200 was our Mens' Captain, Ross. 

Right down the starting order, and probably with less tide, Lju put in a really solid row having only learnt to scull this summer. Dave Smith, her unofficial coach, demonstrated some tidy blade-work of his own to finish 254th. Dave tells me that the last time he did the Scullers' Head in 2000 he placed 347th which just goes to show that advancing years can still produce faster times. 

He also had the spur of competing with his daughter Catie who represented Latymer School. The older Smith won this encounter, let's see what happens next year. 

Anna placed fourth in her category. Did anyone else know that Anna is a former winner of the the Pairs Head pennant for elite pairs? There are hidden depths to some of our members. 

In the men's novice section Eoin put in a strong row winning the battle of the twins, although I'm not sure their boats were as identical as they are. Neil has made a film record of one of his early morning outings from a stern-mounted camera which you cansee on Youtube. I think it gives a good idea of what it's like to be on the Tideway early in the morning and boat from Sons at Hammersmith. 

With the sun and very little wind this was an enjoyable day wasn't it?  Most coaches believe that single sculling is important to technique development in both sweep and scull crew rowing so a healthy sculling squad won't do us any harm. I imagine most of us scullers will be out rowing VIIIs for the Dewar Shield next month.  

In prospect the Pairs Head promises to be a bit easier than the other winter head races. It's shorter for one thing, the weather's a little warmer and we can hardly complain about the paddle back from Hammersmith Bridge. 

In practice those mellow delusions are pretty much knocked out of you before you've passed Barnes Bridge. Everyone simply compensates for the shorter distance by rowing harder. This year, the presence of a number of British internationals in the field helped keep standards high.

Pushing off from the Sons pontoon were six of our own crews – a lot of work from Drago and Tony ensuring that every available boat was ready to race. There were quite a number of visitors too from all over the country with doubles and pairs crowding the walkway by the river wall.

A wind that seemed mostly out of the West and a strong stream promised some fast times, with autumnal showers helping to keep heat stroke at bay.

The stand-out performance from Sons has to be Les Scrine and Brad Boerike in the Vet D 2x. Third in the same division last year they improved by one place to take second place, just four seconds behind the winners from Walton Rowing Club.

Almost as close behind the winners of Vet B 2x were Ed Hillyard and Sam Haeta. But very similar performance from the leading boats meant this highly competitive time only secured fifth place. A good row none-the-less – particularly as a number of scullers in this division are rumoured to have been competing at international level fairly recently.

Also worth a mention or a rumble of approval, the fourth place in the Women's Vet B 2x from Faith Jamieson and Alex Ayakatsikas. All in all some decent racing performances from the club – and volunteering too. A number of other members were kind enough to help run the race and make this important national event possible.

The Voga Longa - a 30 km row round the lagoons and canals of Venice with over 1000 craft of all types - doesn’t feature on any rowing calendar and had never featured in my 25 plus years of international rowing travel. But I’d heard from a few people who had ventured to Italy to take part in it that it was one of those events you just had to do sometime. And I’d never been to Venice. So when I heard (two weeks before the event) from Drago and Tony that some guys from Sons of the Thames needed a cox for it I offered my services and booked my flight.

I did no more preparation for the event beyond checking the weather forecast (rain) and packing my hand held gps (on which Peter Horton had loaded the local charts). Arriving there the day before the race, the boat trip from the airport to St Marks gave me more of a flavour of what to expect. Venice is a mass of (very) low lying islands, with the deeper channels in the lagoons between them marked with wooden posts. There are boats everywhere and lots of wash, but what was clear to see was the respect paid to small craft, with our high speed little ferry slowing down when anything smaller came close. This was encouraging as by then I had ascertained that we were rowing in a coxed pair and that we would have to cross this very same stretch of water.

Mark (who is a seriously super star organiser – boats for this event are like gold dust) had found us a boat from Diadora rowing club on the Lido, the island at the far end of the lagoon that shelters the rest of the Venice archipelago from the Adriatic. Getting there from our hotel involved a boat ride and then a bus trip. The very friendly boathouse manager showed us our boat, aptly named Adriatico, which he proudly told us had been built in 1920. At least it looked very sea worthy - Venice and our start line looked a long way away across a large expanse of very bouncy water.The route across wasn’t exactly obvious and I was very grateful for my gps as we set off across the lagoon. The boat rode the waves quite remarkably well and we negotiated fishing nets and ferries and duly found the entrance to a canal which Mark had ear-marked for a beer stop. The guys then offered to let me try rowing on the way back and we practiced swapping over in the lee of an island. I’m not exactly built to row a coxed pair – never mind one this heavy – but I loved it!

Pre-race prep that night consisted of a trip to Harry’s Bar for a dry martini and then some pasta loading ahead of an early night. We wanted to be in the start area well ahead of the 9am start and, getting there for 830am, we parked ourselves strategically ahead of the larger boats and with other smaller and slower craft. 

These all started off and we followed them – we reckon we crossed the “line” at 845am – and this meant we were still ahead of the big craft at the first big bottle neck and a 90 degree turn left at the end of the island. There were boats of all types everywhere and a lot of cries of “Attenzione!” - a pair with old wooden blades is a surprisingly wide vessel and manoeuvrable only if both blades are actually free to row.

The race then takes you up to its furthest away point and the island of Burano (which confusingly had a different name on my gps) and where you can get land on a beach and pay calls of nature. We took the opportunity here to swap rowers over – with Jeremy now steering and me rowing. Setting off again we crossed another lagoon and then rowed through Murano, under a bridge packed with people. While still in the shelter of the island and this time on the water – Adriatico is a remarkable little boat – we swapped back to me coxing to make sure Jeremy and Mark got to row up the Grand Canal. Lucky we did so then as the excitement of rowing had distracted me from my role as navigator and we were much closer to home than I’d realised. Very shortly thereafter we turned into the Grand Canal.

And there we met chaos! A current was pushing boats onto the first bridge and boats had got jammed sideways across the canal and no one was going anywhere. Then Mark inspiredly suggested we go across some red buoys (see the photo above), take our blades out of the gates and manoeuver our way through the inside arch. This was achieved remarkably easily to cheers from the assembled throng on the bridge, and off we set down a near deserted canal. It felt rather like a victory parade- with crowds cheering and even people singing. At the far end of the canal we collected our medals and certificates and set off back to our favourite little bar for some very well earned beers, ahead of a row back across to the rowing club and to say a fond good bye to Adriatico.

I’d reckoned the race could take us c 6 hours. In fact it took us 4 hours 15 min. I haven’t mentioned the weather – it did indeed rain hard for much of the first part, but the sun came out as we entered the canal. I have also failed to mention the sights we saw. Venice is packed full of them, but it was the atmosphere of the event itself that was by far the most amazing.

Would I go back to do it again? You bet!

Hilary Cook

After our intensive training on a 2k lake in Plovdiv, Bulgaria for a week in the middle of May, the men’s squad came back ready for the two remaining regattas at Dorney Lake (location for this year’s Olympics). Unfortunately conditions at Dorney weren’t quite as idyllic as Plovdiv with strong cross-headwinds at both Metropolitan (2nd & 3rd June) and Marlow (16th June) regattas.

I was racing in the IM2 coxless four in both regattas and we had some success. At Metropolitan regatta, we had a good heat on the Saturday that saw us finish second in the heat and get straight through to the final in the late afternoon (with one of the fastest times of the three heats as well). We took what we had learnt from Plovdiv and were able to put in a good row, sitting ahead of London RC in the lane next to us. Some bad luck on the lane selection meant that we ended up in one of the windiest lanes for the final and this impacted our overall result – evidenced by the same London RC crew we had beaten earlier on getting in just ahead of us (having won the repechage earlier on in the afternoon) and leaving us in last. 

We were still pleased to have been in the final though and saw this as a positive step in our progress. We thus showed up on the Sunday with high expectations, although knowing we had the tougher of the two heats. Unfortunately, our steering broke just after the start (not early enough for a re-row) and we were forced to zigzag down the course fighting the rudder that was jammed on bow side (an easy race for stroke side!). This put us out of the running for qualification for the final but we were still able to race against Twickenham RC and avoid finishing last.

We had all been following the weather forecast for Marlow regatta and so turned up slightly apprehensive about what lay ahead. The wind was stronger than Metropolitan regatta but we arrived with a new, more stable boat (on loan from Mortlake Anglian & Alpha Boat Club) that we hoped would let us ride out the conditions better. We were allocated a lane in the middle of the lake for our heat so not the best, but not the worst, and a good row saw us finishing third (and so through to the final as only two heats) ahead of Upper Thames RC. What’s more we had a faster time than everyone else in the other heat. The more sheltered lanes (6 and 7) took the top two positions, unsurprisingly it could be said. Our third-place finish unfortunately put us in lane 1 for the final in what can only be described as near hurricane conditions. The very strong winds had already seen all the eights’ races abandoning the starting blocks for “free starts” at the 1,750m mark (something which our IM2 eight had the pleasure of experiencing!). Five minutes of tapping/heaving the boat round at the start (which nearly saw us capsize against the huge waves that were pummelling the boat and tired us out nicely) finally saw the boat straight. 

We were then able to get going (some boats had realised the lawlessness that had taken over at the regatta and so started slightly earlier than the rest of us!) only to have waves crashing over the bow side of the boat and the boat constantly being pushed to the side of the regatta course. The wind had pushed all the buoys over leaving not much of a lane “0” and a gust of wind and waves saw us pushed into one of the returning umpire launches. That marked the end of our race really although we kept going (mostly in lane 2) to the end and recorded a very slow time. We informed the umpires of the unsafe nature of lane 1 and hope that the lane was avoided for use in the remaining races. Once again, we took comfort on our heat race as we were beating boats that we knew we would meet at the qualifying races for Henley Royal Regatta. We certainly saw that in windy conditions, lane allocation has a big impact on rowing at Dorney – hopefully there won’t be similar problems at the Olympics later on in the summer!  

The four of us are now training hard in Henley in the evenings in the run up to the qualifying races on Friday and are hopeful that we can qualify to have two boats representing Sons of the Thames at Henley Royal Regatta.

Ross Cook

Mens' Novice IV+:  Messrs. Harrison, Lund, Brinker and Rees, coxed by Dr Maunder.

 glorious weekend, in a glorious location, four lanes of racing over two days and a selection of pubs located near the finish line: Peterborough Regatta seemed like the perfect scene for us to put in a valiant losing performance in our heats and spend the remainder of the weekend lazing in the sun.

That idea didn't last long. 500m into our first race and we found ourselves out in front of the competition, a couple of pushes later (powered largely by our own surprise as much as anything) and we came in first, 25 seconds ahead of our nearest challenger. My feelings were a strange mixture of elation and confusion. Having only beaten one boat in our previous three regattas, beating three in one race was a little surreal. 

Benjamin commented: "No one was more surprised than us to be climbing out of the boat a few minutes later with other crews still racing!  Mirko had pushed himself so hard he couldn’t recognize the reason he couldn’t see boat’s out of the corner of his eye was not that they were ahead but that they were a distant speck on the horizon.  Having lost a good number of races to that point I was fully aware that the unrestricted view I had from stroke of three distant rivals would be a lasting image."

A repeat performance in a slightly tighter semi-final proved that it wasn't an abberation and that we actually deserved our place in the final. I'd love to describe the final but I cannot for the life of me remember any of it. All I recall was the pain at the finishing line and the disappointment of finishing third. Seriously?! Disappointed with third? At the start of the day I'd have been pleased at not being embarassed in our heat. We finished behind a handy De Montford University crew and St. Neots RC, who seemed to find the afterburners in the final, after we beat them in the semi.

Day 2 dawned with heightened expectations, tempered somewhat our attempts to double-up in the novice 4+ and 8 and some tougher competetion, not least the usurpers known only as Sons Of The Thames (Field). The first 700m of our heat saw us involved in an tight battle with the Cambridge 99 crew, before we pulled away to take second place behind Derby. In a strange way I felt more exhilarated by this race than any on the previous day. We were further cheered by the news that the other Sons crew had qualified for the other semi-final.

After several weeks of training in the four getting into the boat for our heat in the eight felt really odd. It was basically a crew that involved glueing together the two fours that had just got through the heats and we hadn't rowed together before. Given that, I'm quite pleased that we managed to keep the race tight, nicking third place on the line. But I wasn't thinking that at the time. As we crawled out of the eight all I was thinking about was the prospect of our semi-final in the four in just 40 minutes. I can't have been the only one in the boat feeling a little pessimistic of our chances of getting through to the final while still having the thighs burning from the previous race. But what do I know? We found ourselves in a three way race for second before again pulling away in the last 300m to claim second. Suddenly the reason for all those sodding winter erg sessions becomes clear and we'd squeezed into our second final of the weekend.

Seven races over two days over the same course under broadly the same conditions, surely the nerves should have gone by now? Apparently not, the stomach was doing its thing again as we moved onto the start-line. Again, I'm sure that the race was fascinating, but you'll have to wait for the DVD because I can't recall what happened. It turns out that we came fourth (otherwise known as last, if you want to be pedantic) but in comfortably our fastest time of the weekend. So you've got to be pleased with that, haven't you? The race was won in a blistering time by Derby RC. They popped over to say 'Hi' after the race, which was a great gesture. I still want to kick their asses at IM3 though!

So ended a terrific weekend, filled with nervous tension, exhilaration, exhaustion and excitement. I can safely say that I've caught the multi-lane racing bug. 

James Rees