DRAGON BOAT RACE 2010- DONCASTER LAKESIDE
Saturday 24th July 2010 heralded the first Doncaster based Dragon boat race. This was held at Doncaster lakeside near the St Leger race course and the town’s football ground, The Keepmoat Stadium. It was a glorious day and there were many stalls for this Chinese celebration, Face painting and balloon making, a fun Children’s Craft workshop – kids made and decorated Chinese lanterns, paper dragon puppets and Chinese fans plus the chance to see the spectacular and colourful Chinese Lion Dancing.
There were 19 teams entered into the Dragon boat race from local businesses and our team Young C.W.U were up against some tough opposition. The Thales Thunderbolts and the One Call Oars had 10 hefty men, but this did not daunt our team. We had a good mix, from our youngest team member Daniel Chapman (17), a CWU member’s son, to the oldest Paul Clays our Regional Secretary. Team members travelled from all around the North East Region. These included Tony Pedel York & Districts Health & Safety Officer, Joanne Lawton the Regional Youth Secretary, Scott Haslam from Leeds No1 Youth, Kath Kelly and Brian Irvine from Newcastle Amal and our own Hannah Watson of Doncaster & District Amal supported by some of her colleagues Liga Vitina, Chris Pollock and Scott Hall. One of the most important rolls in the boat was the drummer; this was Kirsty Lenham of Sheffield & District Clerical, who did an amazing job encouraging our team to paddle for their lives.
We had a fantastic BBQ and refreshment stall manned by Steve West, Doncaster & District Health & Safety officer, who kept our team fed and watered. A big thank you to Graham Clough of Sth Yorks & District, and his wife Karen, for helping on the stall giving away freebies to all the visitors and promoting our “Keep the Post Public” campaign. Our thanks also to Simpson Millar solicitors for the sponsorship of the event and Allison Chatto of the Newcastle branch of the Solicitors for her support on the day.
Thanks to all the people who helped collect sponsor money, Dan McKay, June Bryan and Karen West and Paul Johnson. A fantastic day of fun and for worthwhile causes and monies raised go to Macmillan Cancer and CWUHA.
Last year we finished last, this year we got into the Semi finals, next year “bring it on” !!!
