Tees Valley Dragons have had a very busy weekend of dragon boat activities, despite the Powerhouse Crew not racing at Milton Keynes.
Jo and Colin made the trip to Milton Keynes to officiate the event. Jo being on the finish line all day and Colin moving from boat marshalling to the searing heat of the start line. As well as Cooper keeping the ducks and geese off the grass.
Paul, Andrea, Mikey and Pippa all travelled to Milton Keynes to guest paddle for the very welcoming Pershore Pheonix team as well as the ladies being part of the Powersaints women’s crew with St Neots.
Powersaints and Powerspartans crews continued to rack-up the points on Saturday in the women’s and junior leagues, and even without turning in a team Powerhouse have held onto the third place in the Standard League! All looking positive for the rest of the season and the coming national finals.
The Northfield School Summer Fair was used a promotional event on Saturday. The Tees Valley Dragons put on an ergo display and banged the drum for us with plenty of interest from both the pupils, teachers and their family members.
Sunday saw the annual Hong Kong Lions dragon boat event in central London with Jo and Colin among the 15000 crowd cheering on Brian and Lisa in the Purple Warriors team and our friends the St Neots Spartans paddling with a celebrity (you can ask them next who time you see them). The Purple Warriors raced four times and won four times taking home the charity trophy – Excellent work from both seat buddies Brian and Lisa you did us proud.
Allyson led the first training session for the GB senior squad (over 40s) on Sunday, on the Thames at Longridge Activity Centre in Marlow. This was the first training session for the seniors (over 40’s) looking to enter the squad for the European Championships in Germany in 2018.
All-in-all just another reminder of the opportunities for travel, making new friends and generally having a bunch of fun that comes from dragon boat racing. It makes the winter training worthwhile.