Cygnet Rowing Club

Sports Day & Boat Naming, 17 July 2005

The Barnes Bridge/Cygnet Sports Day, by Doctor French David Ph.D.
[click here to jump down to the Boat Naming - ed.]

Piss-up, brewery, etc...

Poppy & David have it all in hand...

Egg & Spoon. Won in thrilling fashion by David French. (It was widely agreed that he was absolutely right to not patronise his girlfriend in second place, and to fight this one to the last yard. In the end, Eggs & Spoons were the true winners). Nick Wyatt was knocked out early on.

The Nickelator takes an early lead in the egg & spoon...

Men's and Women's 100 yard dash. A wide field in both events, both with clear winners. Nick Bates and Corinne posing the inevitable question of "what on earth are they doing rowing, when they can clearly run very fast in a straight line?" Nick Wyatt didn't win a medal.

The men's 100m (during)...

The men's 100m (shortly after)...

Ben's taken his shirt off, no, erm, it's the women's 100m...

3-legged race. Increasingly desperate, Nick Wyatt severely bruised his partner's ankle, but failed to win a medal. Neil Pickford and Bea's successful use of the rhythm method however, brought them romping home.

The three-legged race...

Sack Race. Marj the Magnificent. All those who saw it will never forget. The back markers looked like they were being raked by machine-gun fire. Including Nick Wyatt.

Nobody else stood a chance...

Obstacle course. 10 out of 10 to Nick Wyatt for devising a marvellous obstacle course (tailored to his strengths, cynics noted). There was a real risk of Wyatt winning a medal here, so a ringer was brought in in the form of "Konrad The Tarpaulinator", who won and went home.

The obstacle course - Poppy's first over the incredibly scary death ramp...

David catches up bouncing his big ball...

The hills are alive...

Hmmm, we could be here for some time...

Andy & Poppy have been under there for 10 minutes...

4x100m. The shamelessly rigged team of Andy Naylor, Poppy, Nick Wyatt and Bea, er, won. Cunningly there were no medals for this event, thus ensuring Nick Wyatt didn't get one.

Carrying the Cox. Won by Caroline G's carefully hand-picked team of 8 oarspeople. Nick Bates ably demonstrating his wooing technique of chucking a lady over his shoulder and legging it.

Carry your cox...

Welly-Wanging. A variety of techniques on display here, including the Baldwin "He's behind you", and the Naylor "Lozzing it at Alex's head" specials. Ever the purist however, Neil Pickford magnificently cleared the marquee, open-jawed onlookers, and (most of) the boats.

Take me home, I've seen enough...

To keep it short the prize-giving was conducted ankle-deep in gently simmering water...

£9.99 from Millets (barbecue not included)...

...go on then, let's say a fiver

The final event - international queueing...

Apparently there was also some rowing going on at the National Championships, where some Cygnets also did us all proud again (Nick Wyatt didn't win a medal).

A great afternoon was had by all, and many thanks are due to Poppy [& David - ed.] for pulling all of it together - with the help of Andy N, and of course Nick Wyatt's barbecue (which was no doubt almost included in his obstacle race), amongst others.