by Oli
On 21 October the 2023 gig rowing season came to an epic close at the Mount Batten Centre in Plymouth with the National County Championships.
Members from all clubs across the country were invited to put themselves forward and crews were formed for each gender and age category with a mix of rowers from different clubs. These were split across five county teams: Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, Devon, Dorset, Somerset/Bristol and the East (a combination effort from the eastern counties). Myself and Jane Mitchell represented Affinity in the East crews, along with rowers from Brightlingsea, Langstone, London Cornish, Newhaven, Rowhedge and Tudor.
The rain disappeared just in time for the start of racing and left us with reasonable conditions for the day, just a bit of wind to fight on the return section of the course. Races were 2km in length up and down the Cattewater and most of the action was clearly visible from the watersports centre. We were rowing in gig Pegasus, built in 2015 by Brian Pomeroy and kindly loaned for the day from Brixham.
Racing was of course dominated by Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, with Devon usually following in behind, however the lower positions were all to play for. I was racing in the men’s open which turned out to be rather historic. Cornwall and Isles of Scilly had a strong start but Devon caught up and steamed past them to claim the only victory of the day (and maybe ever?) over Cornwall. More to our surprise was that we came in third scoring the highest position of the day for the East, with great coxing from Chris Bream of Langstone.
Although it was a long way to travel just for the one race, it was definitely worth it for the social side, being a great chance to meet and chat with members of other clubs. Everyone was friendly and I got to find out about events other clubs run that could be potential inclusions in our 2024 racing calendar. Moreover many of the East crew members were keen to meet again and get some local racing organised over winter.
Huge thanks go out to all involved. Plans are already being made for next year with talk of splitting the East into two groups for even more competition. I’d recommend it to all Affinity members interested in racing. The stream team were out filming and there are plenty of videos and pics from the event up on the gigrower Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/gigrower) if you want to know what you’d be letting yourself in for!
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