Dragon Boat Festival 2010
What a day!
Congratulations to all the teams who took part in our Dragon Boat Festival on Sunday 27 June. The weather was perfect as our 600 competitors fought it out for the title of 2010 Champions.
The day was a huge success with teams in costumes as varied as bees, pirates and Alice in Wonderland characters racing down the River Severn in long boats.
Our eventual winners, James Pond, brought a dash of elegance to the proceedings with their white shirts and bow ties. Their final time of 1.10.53 was the fastest time of the day. The final was closely fought, with just 2.5 seconds separating the six teams.
At the bottom of this page you will find a link to our Flickr page – we will be adding more photos to this throughout the week so do keep checking back. You can also check out the final on Youtube – the angle is a bit odd but feel the noise!
Lots of people are already asking about registering for 2011 . The good news is that we hope to be able to open registration in the next few weeks. You will be able to sign up online here, but in the meantime if you want to be part of this amazing day email appeals@severnhospice.org.uk and we’ll send you details as soon as they are ready. The date for your diary is Sunday 26 June 2011.
We have a lot of people to thank for making this event possible, starting with our hosts. Each year Pengwern Boat Club and Shrewsbury School allow us to use their facilities free of charge. The location is absolutely perfect for our event and it simply could not happen without their hospitality and support.
Our thanks also go to Shrewsbury Marine Services, Veolia, Shukers, Patients First, Toot Sweets, Shropshire Council and the Shropshire Trophy & Bowling Centre who generously give services, prizes and facilities.
Our partner in the event is Dragon Boat Events Ltd. The professionalism and skill of the team ensures the event runs smoothly and we look forward to working with them again next year.
We would also like to thank all the volunteers who gave up their time to do everything from running the tombola to taking photos, hammering in stakes to litterpicking. Their hard work and enthusiasm set the tone for the day. John Fairclough, one of our Trustees, sums up everything we would like to say to our volunteers (and to John himself, who was helping on site for over eight hours):
‘It seemed to me that everyone had a very good time indeed and had thoroughly enjoyed themselves and that has to be the best tribute of all – whether its tombolas, medals, registration, caterers, the Dragon Boats themselves, volunteer co-ordinating, car parks…..and a million and one other things it all added up to a wonderful day – a true testament to everyone’s hard work.’
Thank you again to everyone who was there on the day for making it so special. We’ll report back on how much was raised for the work of Severn Hospice as the sponsor money comes in over the next six weeks. In the meantime check out the photos and see if you can spot yourself!
Thanks to our volunteer photographers: Jim Hawkins, Nick Cameron, Shaun Dean, Dave Evanson and Colin Rees. Colin’s photos can be seen here while the others are in the Flickr set below.
