This was the inaugural Upper Tees Creek Race – organised by Rory Woods as a pilot for what is hoped to be an annual event. Low water perhaps deterred a number of people from traveling a significant distance but there were still over forty racing on the day and it attracted quite a lot of interest both from passing walkers and spectators who had come specifically to watch the event. It was also great fun!

The format was an initial time trial from just above Dog Leg down to the bottom of Low Force (it was originally intended to end under the Wynch bridge, but this clashed with other river users doing a WWSR course, so this bit was shortened slightly). The times from this provided seeding for a series of boater-cross heats from just below the island below Dog Leg, to the same end point.

It’s more critical to stay upright than fast on Dogleg in the time-trial

The first heats had five paddlers and subsequent ones (mostly) four. The main classification was for typical creek boats (maximum length nine feet) paddled as kayaks. There were a couple of long boats (although Andy took a foot off the back of his ancient Pirouette in practice on Low Force last week, it was still over nine feet), one playboat, and one boat paddled as a C1, but as these classes were too small to be useful, everyone just competed together. There was also a separate boater-X for ladies in addition to the main ones.

In the time trial, Michael came Joint 17th on 4’00” (the fastest time overall was 3’28”), Crayston was joint 19th on 4’01”, Sarah joint 25th at 4’12” (second fastest lady, just pipped by three seconds). Andy (veteran, longish boat), 32nd in 4’23”, Dave Peel 34th in 4’26” and four people didn’t get times recorded owing to swimming. Sarah also came 2nd in the ladies Boater-X, so ended up with two prizes!

Sarah (far side) on her way to 2nd in the ladies Boater-X

Of the SOC members, Andy was, remarkably, the only one to progress to the quarter finals in the Boater-X part of the race, mainly down to his traffic cycling experience giving him the ability to barge people onto rocks and shallow spots and cut them up without worrying about manners (this is how boater-X works, as well as city cycling). This (and perhaps a faster boat) got him over Horseshoe in second place. The paddler behind him took Jacuzzi chute, which was proving to be a much faster line, and seemed likely to get ahead, but he cocked it up and Andy was fast enough down Low Force to be able to cut him off and get to the banner first. He couldn’t quite get a hand on it, though, and was technically pipped by the fourth place paddler who sneaked in and got a hand to the banner while Andy was trying to make frantic draw strokes to get there… However, after he tried to concede 2nd to Andy, it ended with both taking part in the quarter-final (coming fourth and fifth, and thus eliminated).

For those not too knackered, there was then a Le Mans-style mass-start race over the same course. The people who led this by a large margin almost to the end were those who avoided the delay of putting spray decks on. However, understandably they chose not to take the line down Jacuzzi chute so the first three places were taken by those that had got a slower start by taking the time to put decks on. I was amazed at how many people successfully ran both Horseshoe and Low Force without spraydecks and stayed afloat!

“Remember to leave plenty of space between paddlers on the harder bits…” – this is not a photo-montage, they really were that close together. Mass start boater-X at Low Force – note lack of spraydecks on first three boats!

Although water levels were on the low side and there was a bit of a breeze, the sun shone a lot of the time, and I think everyone enjoyed themselves, even those who swam. We think Andy was the oldest contestant and very definitely had the oldest boat – older in fact than at least two of the paddlers!