City Men Kings of Kingston
Kingston is a very nice place, a very, very nice place. The sky is blue all year round, the swans and ducks cut dashing figures on the river and the people are lovely - in particular the lovely woman who handed us our extra shiny, special hinged pots. She was adorable and if she hadn't been on her guard during the pot hand-out ceremony would probably have been bearing m1 8's children by the time the photos had been taken. We can even (almost) forgive the large signpost awkwardly placed at the entrance to the regatta which duffed up our lovely Stampfli 4.
The day began dramatically as the damage to the Stampfli held the men's 4 of Pete K, Russ V, James P and Feargal back from boating for their race, which they then had to scratch. Bad start. Now they had to wait around all day for the 8's race, stewing over their miserable luck.
The two im3 8's of the men's squad eventually arrived after experiencing the delights of the m25 for 2 hours. But what a lovely place to arrive to, have I mentioned what a wonderful setting Kingston is for a race? Really, truly delightful! And the lady with the pots was a handsome lady indeed. Did I mention the pots already? Hinged y'know.
So eventually it was time for the two eights' heats (semi-finals). Up against unknown opposition we didn't know what to expect. Kingston has three racing lanes along 1km of river, with a separate lane for the many pleasure boats and other pleasant things that Kingston has to offer. City 1 was up first, we flew away off the start leaving our oppo for dead, paddled the last 500m feet-out, arms-only, waving to the massed crowd of beautiful people. The M2 crew stormed through shortly after with two unfortunate crews flailing in their wake.
All good, and happy days as we prepared ourselves for the final, only to be hit with the news from Jo that the winners of the other semi had recorded a considerably faster time than either City crew. Oh dear. Time for the gloves to come off (Alistair!). The final arrived and we rowed up on the lovely Kingston river with it's delightful wavy bits and sat, tensely, on the start. City 2 lined up in lane 1 and Kingston pulled alongside in lane 2. Kingston looked disarmingly young and fit, fortunately this just made our crew of sour, embittered old men all the more determined! And here was the 'GO', couple of draws and then spin like crazy, up to 75spm, settling onto a relaxed rhythm of 80. We were holding them off the start, up a little perhaps, but they had the bend advantage. We just kept going and little by little we inched away (Al Pacino would have been proud!), at halfway they gave everything but Kate called for us to respond and sure enough we finished the job. City 2 piled in 3rd with Amy supplying the power.
Thank you Kingston, we adore you!