Newark Dragon Boat Festival: Racing for a cause

Last weekend the 24/Three team (alongside recruited friends & family) took to the River Trent as part of this year’s Newark Dragon Boat Festival, raising money in aid of Beaumond House Hospice Care and The Children’s Bereavement Centre.

The day started with a warm up led by Poppy, followed by a quick safety briefing and some practice on land before our first heat of three. Led by Harry on the drums and cheered on by the rest of the team on the riverbank, the team finished in a strong second place!

Our competitive nature started to show and between races, we swapped tactics with our next team (row in time with each other and don’t splash the person behind). A second team took to the water for the next heat, led this time by Philippa on the drums. After a strong start, they powered through their heat and also finished in second place.

Taking a break from watching the other competitors, the team shared pizzas over lunch time ahead of the final heat. After fuelling up, the final team returned to the start line. Our most dramatic race of the day, the three teams were neck and neck for most of the 200m course (with 24/Three at a slight lead!), but all composure seemed to be lost towards the end of the race, with the boat nearly capsizing and Danni the drummer almost being thrown into the river, with the rest of the boat to follow. Despite this, the team stayed (mostly) dry and raced their fastest time of the day, finishing on a high.

As the rain started to pour, we huddled under our gazebos as our director Shelly presented the teams with medals, a fitting end to a fun, competitive and slightly soggy day, before heading home to have a well-earned rest!

All in all we had a great day out, and we are proud to have raised over £3,000 for such worthy causes in the process. A huge thank you to everyone who rowed, cheered and donated. Same time again next year?!

Author: Hannah Harvey