Viking Boat Race - Sunday Events

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The Viking Gods

"I was surprised by how many of us made it through the parade. For many it was more of an ordeal than the race itself. A couple of my more Southern Vikings were troubled by the apparent ease with which they found themselves marching through Killyleagh, who would have thought it eh? That together with the four pubs, wives and children that we passed certainly proved too much for some of my crew to bear. An early few succumbed to wifely pressures to wheel their children - the crew now resembled a Viking New Age trip to the seaside rather than a fiercely focused racing machine. By the end of the parade, my crew was down to four (on account of mysterious vanishing acts everytime we passed a pub). Not that we noticed, the cheering and laughter from the crowds suggested we could have picked up a dozen volunteers if we needed too.

Race time came, the crew weighed down by several gallons of the black staff ambled down the quay to the boats. Light hearted banter disguised a genuine competitive spark that we all pretended wasn't there. Pretence had gone at the start, silence and calm in the boat contrasted with the noise from the foreshore. Not sure who they were supporting, but it seemed far away in the seconds before the starting horn.

Astonishing result, we held the fastest time (well for about 5 minutes before the next crew came on), but somehow against all intentions we found ourselves in the semifinal, and through that to the final. Well now we were with the big boys, and big they were - the professionals from Scotland, and what was more extraordinary, the crew were beginning to think that we might even be able to beat them - there was only 6 seconds in it in the qualifiers.

I like to think it was the last two rounds in The Smugglers that slowed us down, but the pressured final saw the right team win. We drank a toast to the boys from Glasgow - they had come a long way to join the fun.

Killyleagh has been left richer for the experience, roll on next year, who knows, you might even win."

Gawn Rowan Hamilton

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Nationwide Nordic Nutters

As Nationwide Nordic Nutters, we headed the parade (for the competitors) and were directly behind the Royal Ulster Regiment. We marched in step with the army, proudly wearing our Nationwide t-shirts, but unfortunately only half our Team took part in the parade. The rest of them were in the Dufferin supping the Guinness. Their excuse was that they thought the parade started at 7 pm - as Team Captain "I was not amused". The parade finished and we were first ones racing. We were down by the harbour-side and getting really nervous. Only 2 members of the Team had ever stepped into boat before (not counting ferries and cruise ships). Those oars were huge!! Our seasoned rower (Karen) coached us and before long we were rowing - believe it or not in time!

As the first team in this time trial, we set the pace and were chuffed to bits at our time of 4 mins 40 secs. We led for 3 races and came 12th out of 19. For quite some time we nearly had to race again in the semis - but then the 'pros' started racing. We were beaming all afternoon and evening at our performance, especially when the 'pros' from the Isle of Man team said we looked good and we rowed in time with each other.

Thank you for a fabulous weekend - we really bonded as a Team and look forward to next year (we are even looking already for other similar events later this year - not bad for a group of people who never really knew each other until Thursday!!)