We’re going to need a bigger pool-room
“This is not a race to perfect your rowing skill. It is a regatta to celebrate the camaraderie of rowers.” Not for the first time, Pascal from Marne & Joinville nicely summed up the ethos behind the Rallye. Everyone might be very competitive on the water but the advantage of a multi-day event is that there are better opportunities to make friends. Those who, mistakenly, equate sport with winning (yes I’m looking at you, Murray Deaker), would probably blow a gasket to hear that every team in the Rallye was presented with a cup together with medals for each team-member. Yet it perfectly fits with the ethos underlying the Rallye. We did finish ahead of Pascal and his colleagues, ending up ninth overall with a time of 19 hours, 21 minutes, 55 seconds, about 2 hours and 20 minutes behind the winning La Depêché crew.
At Friday night’s dinner, André presented the André Dandine cup, which is awarded to the team exhibiting the highest standards of sportsmanship throughout the Rallye. This went to the two Stuttgart crews who were always competitive on the water but good company off it.
On Saturday the Mayor of Beziers together with a couple of officials responsible for sport in the region showed up at the start of prize-giving but, perhaps wisely, left for another appointment before we could add them to our collection of mayors.
Note: the quote in the title of this post is from the wonderful Australian film The Castle which is probably as good an insight into our (usually) endearing neighbours from across the Ditch (the Tasman Sea) as you’ll find.
blackstrokesrowingadventure 