Well done with our best 200m performance this season!   We finished 7th at Liverpool and London but at Peterborough we did one better.

Typhoon Tigers,

Well done with our best 200m performance this season!   We finished 7th at Liverpool and London but at Peterborough we did one better.  This season, we have really established ourselves at 200m and I'm sure many of the top teams in the country now see us as a real threat!

Peterborough

We all knew that Peterborough was going to be a difficult but challenging venue.   Unlike all other racing venues, the depth of the water at Peterborough is very shallow at only 4 feet.  Where it is advantageous to ride the wash in deep water, the wash causes massive problems in shallow water.   Any trailing boats are smacked with wave after wave, making it a real uphill struggle to keep up let alone catch up.  Hence the importance of taking an early lead and at Peterborough our racing starts were crucial, more so than any other race.  Also, it is essential to race with a lighter boat.  We raced with 16 paddlers whereas some top teams were strong enough to race with only 14.

200m

We got off to a flying start in our 200m heat.   Despite being drawn against Thames (3rd best team in the country), it was us who took the lead off our racing start!  But Thames quickly caught up and maintained their lead to win the heat with us less than 2s behind at 56.14s.

With the 6th fastest qualifying time, we were through to the Minor Final where we were to do battle with Amathus and Amathus Bees.   Another powerful racing start saw us command an early lead against the top team in the Premier Division and the top team in the Standard Division.   But this time we held out and dominated much of the race.  It was only in the last 50m that the Amathus teams stepped it up a gear, lifted their boats and pushed for the finish.   That was enough to overtake us but only just - we came in only 2s behind with a time of 54.69s.  This gave us an overall position of 6 th in the UK for 200m  That's a brilliant result considering we beat 4 premier crews and all but 1 standard crew – the remainders didn't even come close as none of them broke the 1min barrier! (out of 27 teams).

500m

Our 500m campaign began with a race against Batchworth but we were no match for the 2006 joint 1 st team in the country.  BW pulled away from the very first stroke leaving us trailing in their wash.  With bow wave after bow wave crashing against the side of our boat, we had to work much harder than we needed to as it was like paddling through treacle!   We finished way behind BW but marginally ahead of Amathus Wasps with a time of 2:45.71.

We missed out on the cup but qualified for the plate.   We were up against Thames again for the plate semi-finals.  We were convinced by other crews to put a gap in the boat such that those paddlers behind the gap would be less affected by the bow wave.   However, the gap caused problems with timing.  In fact, the whole of the race was very scrappy!  We just didn't get it together for our racing start and again it was an uphill struggle from the very beginning of the race.   Our energy was being sapped very quickly and as we dropped further behind, Secklow 100 pipped us at the finish line!  We came in with an abysmal time of 2: 51.45.

And with that time, we just about made it through to the Plate Minor Final.   Having experienced the hard work necessary when trailing behind another boat, we were all eager to use our racing start to gain an early advantage and we did just that!   We pulled away with a phenomenal start and was already ahead by full boat length at the end of the first 10 strokes!  The whole team paddled with everything they had in what was to be the last race of this season's BDA league.   We increased our lead but in the last half of the race, I could hear the drums of WAM and S100 gaining on us!  But with an unrelenting effort from the whole team, we pulled away to finish first with a time of 2: 39.08, that's 5s ahead of WAM and 13s ahead of S100!

Feedback

We did brilliantly considering there were 27 teams and the standard of competition was a lot higher than usual.   Crews with 2nd and 3rd teams were ones to watch out for.  As 1st teams raced with a reduced number of paddlers, this meant surplus paddlers from the 1 st team strengthening the 2nd team and, in turn, surplus paddlers from the 2nd team joining the 3rd team.  This explains why Amathus Bees and Wasps, Kingston Pretenders and BW Beasties were so strong.   Our performance was good but discounting these teams, we did exceptionally well.

Also, we did have tougher draws in the first two rounds for 500m whereas Raging Dragons had it easy in the semi's which they took advantage off to storm their way into the Plate Major Final.   Had it been the other way around who knows what might have happened.  Some say it's just luck of the draw and but in reality you have to work hard to get guaranteed a good draw.   RD did that at Peterborough and we did that at Worcester.  That's why every race is important and even if we don't win a qualifying race but we continue to race for a good time, we will be rewarded with a better draw in the next round.

The challenging shallow water conditions really emphasised the importance of our racing starts .  We have always been told that this is where races are won and lost.  Peterborough really drilled that home.   When we get it right, we are flying ahead of even the top teams in the country!  But sometimes we just don't get it together.  We need to be consistent and can only do that by frequently training together as a team.

Unfortunately, the DBA points awarded at Peterborough were not enough to catch Raging Dragon or S100 on the league table.   Both teams do deserve it as they have been consistent throughout the whole season.  However, what the league position doesn't show is how far we have come.   We started the season fairly weak but with dedication, commitment and a lot of hard work we have really grown together as a team to finish the league as a force to be reckoned with!   Despite finishing behind S100 in the league, we have beaten them consistently in the past 3 league events and gave them a proper whooping in our last race where we beat them by 13s!

This was our last league race of our debut season and what a way to round off the league!   5th out of 15 teams in the Standard Division and 6th faster team in the UK for 200m!

Well done Typhoon!

 

Ping

P.S.      Sue (the BDA official who helmed for us in the 200m races and 500m final) was commenting that we have made huge progress over the season in terms of technique, timing and performance.  And she's not the only one to say that.  Many of the top teams were giving us the same feedback at Worcester.  We are beginning to get the recognition we deserve!

 

P.S.   Also, I want to say a huge thanks to the following people (apologies if I have missed anyone out):

Andrew                - For really nailing a good pace for both 200m and 500m.

JC                       - For surviving 3x 500m!

Ambi's                 - (Sam C/Phil I/Kalai) Our ambidextrous paddlers!  You righties did a brilliant job on the left as usual.

Drummer             - Caroline, for her debut as a drummer and Helen for always being ready and willing to drum when we need her.

Canadian Helen     - Who only started training with us last Sat and was ready to paddle with us the following day!

Ed                        - For paddling and giving everything he had despite being ill.

BW Boys              - (Kin/Adrian) For your guidance and working us like dogs over the past month!

 

Results

200m Heat

1. Thames Taniwhas      0.54.42

2. Typhoon Tigers        0.56.14

3. Millwall Dragons        1.10.24

 

200m Minor Final

1. Amathus DBC           0.52.65

2. Amathus Bees          0.54.00

3. Typhoon Tigers        0.54.69

 

500m Heat

1. Batchworth Dragons   2.28.91

2. Typhoon Tigers       2.45.71

3. Amathus Wasps        2.46.46

 

500m Plate Semi-Final

1. Thames Taniwhas      2.33.86

2. Secklow 100             2.50.71

3. Typhoon Tigers       2.51.45

 

500m Plate Minor Final

1. Typhoon Tigers       2.39.08

2. WAM Dragons           2.44.77

3. Secklow 100             2.52.18

 

 

Team Line-Up

200m Heat

D  Caroline

1  Alan H     Andrew

2  Kwok       Jo

3  Phan       Alan T

4  Sam C      Ping

5  Jeremy     JC

6  Ben        Dan

7  Wai-Hung   Chi

8  Phil I     Ed

H  Sue

 

200m Minor Final

D  Helen

1  Alan H     Andrew

2  Kwok       Jo

3  Phan       Chi

4  Sam C      Ping

5  Jeremy     JC

6  Ben        Dan

7  Wai-Hung   Alan T

8  Phil I     Ed

H  Sue

 

500m Heat

D  Helen

1  Alan H     Andrew

2  Kwok       Jo

3  Phan       Chi

4  Sam C      Ping

5  Jeremy     JC

6  Ben        Dan

7  Wai-Hung   Alan T

8  Kalai      Ed

H  Paul

 

500m Plate Semi-Final

D  Helen

1  Alan H     Andrew

2  Kwok       Jo

3  --GAP--    --GAP--

4  Phan       Chi

5  Sam C      Ping

6  Jeremy     JC

7  Ben        Dan

8  Wai-Hung   Ed

9  Alan T     Helen

H  Paul

 

500m Plate Minor Final

D  Helen

1  Alan H     Andrew

2  Kwok       Jo

3  Phan       Chi

4  Sam C      Ping

5  Jeremy     JC

6  Ben        Dan

7  Wai-Hung   Alan T

8  Phil I     Ed

H  Sue