Saturday saw us return to the St Neots Dragon Boat Festival

Seven years since our infamous win!

Seven years ago, JCW held a Family Away Day at the St Neots Dragon Boat Festival. It was an exciting day for all, not just because of the various activities on the day, unpredictable weather and the determination of our novice paddlers - but the fact we actually won the event! Our return may have been a long time coming, and the fact that only one of the original crew has stepped foot in a dragon boat since, but it was still no less exciting!

About the Festival

This is the ninth Dragon Boat Festival that the St Neots Council have organised to raise money for charity. On the day there are food and drink stalls, gift stalls and a fun fair to keep the children entertained. Of course, the main event is the racing itself. The excitement begins at 10am, all the way through to 5pm when the winners are announced. The event is well known locally and we were proud to promote it nationally to our staff, many of whom travelled many miles to attend.

To make sure the 90 or so JCW related visitors were well looked after, we hosted two marquees and provided welcome drinks and a buffet lunch. We needed to make sure our crew were kept in tip-top condition for the racing ahead!

The Weather

We knew the weather could be hit and miss, but this year we were smiled upon with sunshine and just some light cloud and cooling breeze. Almost perfect racing conditions. The anticipation was building, could we actually bag another win this year!?

The Racing

The Festival is gaining popularity year on year. There were 22 teams who entered this year, compared to the 12 in our inaugural event. We entered two teams, the JCW Dragonflies and JCW Blazing Paddles. Apart from just a couple of near-capsizing moments, the teams were in high spirits. The first round, for both teams, was a steep learning curve but they got into the swing of things in the second attempt.

The third race saw both JCW teams competing against each other, now this was a nail-biting 60 seconds! The two boats were close together from the off and neck and neck towards the finishing line. The JCW supporters were cheering as loud as they could to egg them both on, it was so close - it ended in a photo-finish result!

Which team conquered?

It was such a close call but the JCW Dragonflies just pipped to the post at 66.13 with JCW Blazing Paddles very close runners up, at 66.41. However, despite the defeat in the head to head race, the JCW Blazing Paddles still ranked higher from the overall three races on the day. So, everyone was a winner!

Sadly, even after all of the excitement of the third race, with other teams achieving times of under 60 seconds, neither of the JCW teams made it through to the next stage. Our paddlers took it all in their stride, headed back to base to celebrate the day anyway, with some well earned drinks and snacks.

Huge thank yous!

JCW would like to thank everyone who travelled to join in, who took part in the racing and came along to support the team and the charities the event was organised for. Your spirit on the day will be remembered for a long time and has also been captured in the many photographs taken throughout the day.  If you would like to see more of those, please visit our facebook page by clicking here.