A message from our steerers
Guyz-n-Galz,
When I left home this morning, I expected Belinda to be still in bed sleeping, rejuvinating her aching muscles... she kinda was... watching videos.
So how many of you are in pain? To those of you that attended, great job... to those of you that have forthcoming exams but still attended - a BIG thankyou... to those of you that couldn't make it because of commitments - we know you were with us in spirit, thank you. So that people like Dom know... 250m races were on the week-end, 500m races on Sunday. The week-end was brilliant, sun was out, weather was warm, very little wind to stir up the waters, what more could you ask for? Hmmmm, more team members, of course... but you make do with what you've got, right peoples?
Saturday.
We fielded 2 boats - ACCA1 (social) and ACCA2 (serious). We had numbers for 1 and 3/4 boats. International competitors included a team from NZ and China (not their national teams). Most of the crew were there before the 9am call out - "competitors in race one and two... required to bring the boat out for the eye dotting ceremony".
Guess who was in race 2... a mad rush, frantic team selections, seat positioning and we were there. Clockwork?? you wish, we're ACCA for god's sake. Sitting out in the blazing sun for 45 minutes, whilst the ceremony went on, prompted urgent requests for anti-sun blocking/burning cream. Water fights with other teams did little to belay the boredom. Races ended up beding delayed an hour and with races in the corporate category, social, university and sports, you knew it was going to be a long day. Meant to have finished at 4pm but didn't finish till well after 6pm.
| As usual, all races were based on one tactical plan... increase all chances of scoring that trophy. 2 up for grabs - Mixed Sports and University. Take it easy in the heats. Postion yourself carefully and sneak in for the kill. Fielding a mixed social team (ACCA1), lacking endurance and strength but not heart, together with crews from other teams, they made a valiant effort. Pooring heart-n-soul into each race they had fun. I'm sure they even managed to beat ACCA1 in won of the heats. |  |
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ACCA2, as expected, rowed a strategic race, at least that's the way we like to think it happened. Slowly building for the finals, peaking at the right time, the right moment. They came away with first place in the Uni category and scored a respectable, 2nd or 3rd??, in the mixed category... surprising quite a few teams. Congratulations. |
A small, select but tired team members, spent Saturday night at Panthers. Dinner at Spurs, where James and Shaneel (sorry if i spelt your name incorrectly) had a 3 course meal + coffee. Whilst waiting for the food to come out, hear say was that a couple of tired eyes began drooping... but soon to be woken with the chance of the scoring some money - Aqua Golf, not pokies. Unfortunately, no luck. Quan came the closest but soon gave up and took up the challenge of longest drive. Early night for some, beginning for others (for those that did begin... anyone have goss?)
Sunday.
For the first time in many seasons, ACCA fielded a relatively small team in the 500m races. Just barely enough to crew a boat. Lacking numbers and the strongest crew we could muster, it was always going to be an up hill battle. Fortunately, we have spirit... i think? Let's see - we had just a touch more than 10 guys and at least 9 girls... of course that left the girls with no choice but to row. By the way, contratulations on a job well done. Would never have done it without you. A few lucky guys, on the other hand, had the benefit of sitting out. After race one and before the beginning of race two,
volunteers were sought to sit out the race - hands popped up thick and fast. So many, in fact, that we were left fielding an all girls crew =). Jana's solution... cards drawn randomly from a deck, with the lowest 3 get sitting out the race.
First draw included Steven, Justin and can't remember the third. Must be old age. Anyway, turned out that Steven had to pace the next race and so a second draw was required. Justin protested loudly and refused to be included. Did i say we had spirit or what? ;) Seriously, great effort guys. At one stage we raced the University finals with 18 people. We managed a respectable 3rd place *smile* behind MSO and DragonBlades. Note: the smile is there for those that were at the races... they know why.
Final race for the day... a gruelling 1000m. Actually 1km up and 1km back. Last race of the day and as tired as we all were, it was a fun way to end the season. If you enjoy that kind of thing. 8 boats in the race - comprising of opens, mens, mixed, you name it, it was there. We fielded a 70/30 split. 70% guys and 30% girls. Clint steered and Bindy drummed. China and CYL mens blew us out of the water... couldn't even say we beat China out of the starting blocks =( ... but have faith, by the way, how many of you were thinking ACCA came last. We managed 6th out of the 8 boats... and we
managed to beat FFB (F*cking Fast Boat)... should be renamed, FSB.
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The usual thank you's go out to...
Angela, for all the behind the scenes work
Belinda, for all the hard work she's put in
Jana, for putting up with all the crap we dish out
Committee members, Jacqui, Shirley (but we know Casey does all the actual work), Samantha, Corrina, and Carolyn
Clint, for keeping the boat staighter than I.
The core element (you know who you are) that turned up for training week-in, week-out. The effort and hard work you put in is reflected in the trophies we brought back. The team thanks you.
And finally, to the seasoned vetrans who are thinking of retiring - ACCAdbr's thank you for your efforts and hope you finished the year on a high. Good Luck!!
Celebrations at the end of year dinner. Hope to see you all there.
Thanx.
ps. photo's will be coming your way. If you're on acca-d, make space
available, approx 2mb worth of digital photo's soon to be unleashed. I'll
spread it over today and tomorrow.
Correction
Just a bit of a correction to Even's missive below - and to show just how tactically we rowed on Saturday morning:
With bigger and heavier paddles than we were used to, the "pick-up" strokes were not generating the power we needed for the top placings we were after in the Mixed heats.
By the third race of the day (the Mixed semi-finals) we realised what we needed to do to get back on top of the pile. So instead, with both ACCA teams in the same semi, we split the social and serious teams, mixed them together and game
last and second-last in our semi-final (this was where "ACCA1-social" beat the "ACCA2-serious" - at least that's how the score sheet read). The strategy in this was that rather than fighting against 5 other HUGE boats for a top 3 placing in the major final, we instead had two boats competing for a first place in the minor final - which of course was won by the serious crew with the newly adjusted stroke rate.
Well done to Jana working out the best way to win a trophy in that category and to people like Shirley, Thuy, Casey etc for working out and then pacing the new stroke.
CB
