Leigh & Lowton 21st October 2006

Pennington Flash must once have been a fairly ugly place but it is now now a country park, surrounded by grass and low green hills,  has a flourishing nature reserve and provides the best piece of clear sailing water for miles around. It is a good size, and handily aligned east-west for the prevailing winds.

We had southerly for the Europe Northern & Midland Traveller on Saturday 21st October, not the best direction, but with three beats per lap we certainly got a fair share of windward work! It was a good day, the breeze blew quite hard at times, and the rain held off until after we were finished. The locals had a 100% turnout, and the other half of the fleet travelled from far afield to look at next year’s Inland Championship venue.

Gareth Williams showed his inland skills, aided by good speed downwind in his new boat, and abetted by a bit of local knowledge upwind. In fact he was in front for the whole day, except for a brief moment in race two when he let Richard Eagleton get on the better side of one shift. Kate Annan chased Richard hard in the first race to finish third. In the second race the back four were neck and neck until the last couple of legs when Jenny Rogers broke away on a private gust, and she came third again in the final race, with Fiona Annan close behind. Katie Hughes was in Gareth’s other well-known fast boat for the day, but never quite got it to go.

It being the last event of the year, there were traveller’s prizes as well as open meeting prizes. Katie Mapplebeck, nursing a cold and therefore not on the water, was presented with the North & Midlands Travellers Trophy, the Southern Travellers’ Trophy, and the National Rankings trophy for 2006.