World of Chig   

24.7.05
What I did today...and what I'll be doing tomorrow



Chig loves this time of year. The end of July usually sees me paying a visit to the Worcestershire Festival of Lycra© or, to give it its proper name, Bewdley Regatta. Today was no exception. In recent years, it has often been boiling hot on this particular weekend, but earlier in the week the forecast for this weekend in Worcestershire had been for showers and worse tomorrow. Last night the forecast was revised though, with the rain removed, and that turned out to be correct. It's been a lovely day with no rain at all. In fact, it was even hot for a few minutes. Bewdley is a beautiful place, as ex-Led Zepper Robert Plant knows. (I believe he lives there.) It's worth much more than my annual visit, or the almost annual news coverage when the Severn floods the town. No worries about that today though, as I've never seen the river level there so low. Indeed, they've had to block off one side of the river near the finish, with straw bales, to keep the rowers in the middle and prevent them running aground. It failed dramatically at least once today though, as the women in the lead crashed into the straw with about 10m to go and watched their opponents cross the line first. Sad for them, but it was quite funny to watch.

I've been admiring the views, but missing Orion, the gay rowing club from London, who aren't there this year. I've met them twice before at Bewdley, and they were a lovely bunch of athletic chaps, and very photogenic. I do wonder though, looking at their website, if they're still going, as the last update seems to be over twelve months old. They row out of Furnivall Sculling Club, but I don't think Furnivall themselves are in Bewdley this weekend either. If you know anything about the continuing existence of Orion, or otherwise, please could you let me know? Even without Orion, there are plenty more views to admire, and I'll be back in Bewdley tomorrow, with picnic and camera, to admire some more of them. :-)

This man has just won a race. As you can see, he's quite excited.


The swans were eventually disqualified, for having three times too many team members.

Foursome


Oarsome



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