Olympic effort for Cakeland crew
Lakeland’s Explore co-ordinator Lizzie Wyatt reflects on an unexpected finale to the season
The Cakeland crew – from left, Susan, Sharolyn, Lizzie and Andrew – with their new cox, Olympian Harry Brightmore
The final event of this year’s North West and Yorkshire Explore Series turned out to be more exciting than expected – and not just because of the top-notch catering provided by hosts Chester’s Grosvenor RC.
The day started strongly for the Cakeland crew of Susan Cammish, Sharolyn Parnham, Andrew Butcher and me, as we lived up to our name, fuelling ourselves with home-baking before the briefing.
In race one, versus Trafford Ladies, we enjoyed a positive start, but our opposition rowed well to take it by half a length, despite Susan nearly sacrificing a couple of fingers in pursuit of glory. This was followed by a lengthy break in which we again made the most of the catering, with sarnies and soup (in a bowl not a mug, especially for Susan).
Next up were back-to-back races against Windermere RC and Warrington RC. Windermere's all-male boat – who emerged the overall winners – pulled away off the start, but we had our best row of the day and almost reeled them in, conceding victory by under half a length.
Against Warrington, the lack of cake between races showed and we produced an underwhelming race with some questionable blade work. No disasters, but not our finest performance.
After refuelling from the excellent selection of savoury and sweet options (the spiced ginger cake was a favourite) we headed down for the final race and our lovely cox, Elizabeth from Lancaster’s John O’Gaunt RC, suggested a change of steersperson might alter our luck.
When Cakeland met Harry
So we gathered up our courage and asked one of the spectators, Olympic gold-medal winning cox Harry Brightmore if he would take four wannabes out for a race. He happily agreed, treating us to a quick Q&A (importantly, his favourite cake is red velvet), offering some really useful insights and amending our start plan.
The new start proved very effective and we had a tidier race against John O’Gaunt’s second crew. It’s just a shame Harry’s season peaked before the finale, otherwise it might have been Cakeland crossing the line first.
The Explore crew boating at Chester's Grosvenor Rowing Club