Event 1
Hollingworth Lake, Littleborough
Saturday 21 May 2005

First Win for West Kirby Warriors

Against the odds the West Kirby Warriors with a team of just 5 sailors pulled off a dramatic win in round 1 of the 2005 series. The day started well with the Hollingworth staff signing on 26 sailors from 6 teams. New to the competition was the team from Cumbria, the Windermere Rufwinds but missing were the Astbury and Hollingworth Zone Squad members who were away training. The Hollingworth Hunters did manage to field a full team and looked favourite to take their first ever team win.

Michelin like looking shore to returning sailors many in resulted foam of pieces Collecting race. chase a for out sent were fleets the 3 force SW fresh – fun bit with started competition The

The competition started with a bit of fun – in a fresh SW force 3 the fleets were sent out for a chase race. Collecting pieces of foam resulted in many sailors returning to shore looking like Michelin Men!

The serious racing started with a series of short down wind slaloms from a beach start. In all fleets the West Kirby Warriors with their strong wind experience were recording some good results. The home team were also maintaining a strong presence in all fleets. After lunch the important 4th race (for 1 discard), an enlarged slalom was set. This was to be the best race of the day as the wind decided to drop and the rain approached. Races 5 and 6 proved to be very fluky and in race 6 we had very few finishers. Then it started to rain!

Having promised 7 races with 2 discards we had no alternative but to wait until 3pm to see if the wind filled in. The rain cleared but the wind failed to arrive. It was during this period of inactivity that Luke Bungenaar (TeamAstbury) and Jay Gwynn (Warriors) in the 6.6m fleet had worked out that they were tying on points, number of 1st’s etc. and could only be separated by the last race result (and that was a no wind race!!). Showing great sportsmanship both sailors agreed to go along with the suggestion that the 7th race should be a simple paddleboard competition - complete with the potential mayhem of a mass start! Jay proved to be very noble in defeat having been in the winning position going into the final race. That final race also proved to be the downfall for Charlie Lloyd (also West Kirby Warriors - 4.5m fleet), with the consistent results of Alyssa Key (Salford Sharks) giving her the edge.

So, how did West Kirby Warriors pull off their unlikely Team win? Following the SI’s any teams missing a sailor would have 11 points (largest fleet +1) added on to their score. 2 sailors down would mean 22 points added and so on. Remarkably the Wirral team recorded 1x1st, 4x2nds and an 11th - would they win?

West Kirby Warriors 1 2 2 2 2 11 total = 20
Hollingworth Hunters 1 3 3 4 4 7 total = 22
Windermere Rufwinds 3 4 6 7 9 11 total = 40
TeamAstbury 1 3 9 11 11 11 total = 46
Salford Sharks 1 6 8 10 11 11 total = 47
Manley Mere Katz 5 5 11 11 11 11 total = 54

Trophies were also presented to William Kay (Salford Sharks) and Philip Shelmerdine (Windermere Rufwinds) for their efforts during the day.

A big vote of thanks must go to the Hollingworth Team as hosts for the day and Paul Hopkins (Salford Sharks Coach) for the results recording. Thanks also to Neilson, Tushingham and Bic for continuing to sponsor the T15 initiative nationally.

The host team - Hollingworth Hunters (sponsored by Bic)

What will the next event bring? No doubt TeamAstbury will be wanting to re-establish their winning ways? But we will be on Wirral Warriors' home patch and the Hollingworth Hunters will not want to miss out again by 2 points! - All exciting stuff!! Look out for some real competition on the 18th at West Kirby.

Mike Roberts
T15 Competition Organiser - West(n)

Team winners
West Kirby Warriors

All photos courtesy of Ian Shirra / Hollingworth Hunters 
 
For further details contact
Mike Roberts
mark@aroberts56.freeserve.co.uk

We are the Champions!
West Kirby Warriors
T15 Champions 2008

Congratulations!

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Mount Batten Centre - Plymouth
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Weekend course: 27/28 September 2008
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