Grandtully and Thistlebrig Race Reports

The first big WWR weekend of 2003, the Tully and Thistlebrig races, happened during the first weekend of March. The weekend on the river Tay included the Grandtully Sprint and Classic, the Thistlebrig Classic and the Annual National Prize Giving.

The busy weekend got off to a great start when everyone discovered that the river had gone up to a good level, after a night's rain. The racing started off, after everyone had had their boat scrutinised, with the Tully classic event on the Saturday morning, which starts downriver from Aberfeldy and finishes below the Tully rapids. The race was won by Pete Keron for the men's K1 and Tina Parsons in the ladies class. There were lots of C2 crews competing and the winners were Dave Belbin and Phil Caunt. Mark Laskey won the C1s and Dee Paterson won Division B.

A couple of hours later it was time for the Grandtully Sprint. Starting just above the rapids and finishing just before the last weir it was a very short course. It was a good race for the juniors as junior world champion Jonnie Schofield won the men's K1 with a total time of 1.47, under 23, Mary-Jean Smith won the women's K1 and, under 23, Colin Radmore won the C1s. Dee Paterson won division B for the second time that day and Ian and Andy Clough won the C2s.

That evening it was the National Prize giving, with awards for 2002's racing year. This time it was held at the Riverside Inn at Grandtully, where there was lots of food, drinks and then the presentations. This year, being the first year with separate classic and sprint series, there were more winners than last year. A member of the local community Council, Muriel Simpson, gave out the prizes and the evening was enjoyed by all.

The next morning everyone was up early to do runs of the course before the race. The race started at Burnmouth and finished at the Thistlebrig rapids. The course was about 4km long, with large flat sections and big, bouncy, wavy parts too! The racing began at eleven and brothers Ian and Alan Tordoff won the race with exactly the same time of 11.07! Tina Parsons won the ladies event and Colin Radmore won the C1s. Again Dee Paterson won the division B event, even with an injured foot! Belbin and Caunt won the C2 class. The event was popular as usual but this year, especially for the juniors as one of the selection races for this year's GB team is at Thistlebrig in May.

After the race everyone went to the Tayside hotel at Stanley, for food and prizes and a well-earned rest before the long drive home!
Thank you to Kelso Riddle for organising the events and thanks to everyone who helped out during the weekend.

Jess Oughton