Exeter 2009

Ye olde legendary tales from thee start line

The mind can play funny tricks on past events- the further away they get a different spin is put on them. Take this recent sporting event for example;

Roger Federer won the French Open, but can you remember why he won or just that he won? He certainly played some of the best tennis there, but he wasn’t at his imperious best, yet he beat the player that beat Rafael Nadal quite convincingly and stayed the course.

You can remember now, but before the French Open starts next year ask yourself the same question; Will you still be able to remember the details as to why he won or just that he won?

And a slightly older sporting tale now;

Diego Maradona was the player of the tournament at the 1986 World Cup, but do you actually remember that he had a quiet final? No? The details have again gone missing; he’d done all the hard work in carrying his team there and was too well shackled to play the role he’d probably have wanted.

My point is that how we remember things changes over time, either because of what we are told or because of the details that we forget. Therefore I have produced a short test about our adventures in Exeter. See how much detail you can remember by pruning out the False statements from the True statements. Some easy ones to start with to get your brains in gear then it gets a bit more taxing:

Practice one	I am a deeply philosophical person which is why I have mused on memories of recent tennis events	T/F
Practice two	Dom wants a report for the website but I couldn’t think of anything to start with for an event so long in the past so a bit of waffle padded it out	T/F
Practice three	Short sentences are easier to write than whole paragraphs and I can get away with it at work more easily in short bursts	T/F
Practice four	Technique and timing is more important than power	T/F

Right that was the practice, this is for real now so concentrate, this is not a drill. Slap yourself round the face twice, sit up- no you’re still slouching. That’s better. Take some deep breaths, grab hold of a sharp pencil and insert in…. no, just use it to cross out the T or F of the following. I think you are taking it too seriously now, don’t be silly. Good luck. Answers will be produced at the Bristol event.

1	Some hardy souls camped nearby the night before. No tents were lost to the wind	T/F
2	Exeter is one of our favourite venues	T/F
3	Teams were thwarted from setting up home in the shed-type construction because half of it was rented out by a woman selling Croc’s sandals and a man selling RSPB membership	T/F
4	Teams set up camp along the waterfront. Many gazebos were sacrificed to the wind goddess to ask for calm conditions	T/F
5	Amathus sent the usual four teams, whereas Execalibre struggled, as usual, for numbers	T/F
6	Wraysbury Dragons didn’t manage to get more than ten paddlers to go to the event	T/F
7	The race programme was changed many times before the event	T/F
8	Sean turned up	T/F
9	Lorraine didn’t	T/F
10	Fortunately 15 other paddlers did	T/F
11	Dom got his mitts on a new carbon fibre paddle	T/F
12	Claire and Gina got so hot paddling that they finally took some of their many layers of waterproofs and thermals off	T/F
13	Louis developed a speech impediment	T/F
14	Wraysbury got given the usual pool boat held together with hope and prayers	T/F
15	Watching Liz trying to climb, crawl and belly flop out the boat onto the footpath was the best form of entertainment ever	T/F
16	The lemon curd tarts were delicious	T/F
17	The weather was gorgeous throughout. A lovely day in the West Country	T/F
18	Someone went down with hypothermia	T/F
19	The race results got wet and only one official remembered to bring a pencil	T/F
20	Crews voted to cancel the event and go to the pub early	T/F
21	Wraysbury surprised the helm by pulling themselves back into the first race at the midway point after a poor start	T/F
22	Wraysbury repeated the trick in their next race to prove it wasn’t a fluke and got better and better	T/F
23	Wraysbury surprised everyone else by actually winning a race or two	T/F
24	Wraysbury surprised themselves by actually winning a race or two	T/F
25	Darrion and Melanie had fantastic debuts at the back	T/F
26	The whole crew responded to my quiet calls of encouragement and gave it everything they had	T/F
27	We made it to a major final	T/F
28	We had a decent enough start to stay with the other two crews. Finally, at the last hurdle you do it	T/F
29	I lost most of my voice	T/F
30	We were in contention all the way through and pushed Bristol and Colenorton so close	T/F
31	We finished second	T/F
32	We came away with silverware	T/F
33	Other crews looked on in awe and disbelief	T/F
34	Most of the team missed Clive collecting our cup because they were too desperate to get to the pub	T/F
35	Thanks to the efforts of everyone, new or experienced we showed what we are capable of	T/F
36	Together we are better	T/F
37	It’s lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges	T/F
38	But we believed in ourselves	T/F
39	We will all turn up for training every week and commit to all the forthcoming races	T/F
40	I might write all race reports like this. Maybe I’ll write them sooner after the event as well	T/F

And here are some answers:

Practice one	False	Talking about past events is not the same as being deep and meaningful
Practice two	True	Ahh, the real reason is coming out now
Practice three	True	Might as well get paid for it
Practice four	True	If you don’t know this by now you clearly need to listen to the coach a bit more

1	T	Keeping people cold beforehand is perhaps the way to keep them mean, keen and alert
2	T	Probably even more so now
3	T	Unfortunately this is true. How much space do two stalls actually need?
4	T	I don’t think the wind goddess was listening or we just made her angrier
5	F	Nope, bit of a surprise here. Only one drummer was in attendance from the North West. Odd really. Execalibre initially entered four teams but settled for two on the day. Very odd
6	F	Nope, we had a boat two thirds full. Of our own team. Very very odd indeed
7	T	Three times I believe. I gave up trying to download them after a while, because if I did it at 1730 on Friday it would still be different at 0900 on Sunday
8	T	Good man, see you in Bristol
9	T	Boo, hiss, splitter!
10	T	Wow! 16 Paddlers! Sixteen paddlers! I’ve run out of fingers!
11	T	Ooh, shiny, ooh, light. NO Dom, you’re not supposed to get it wet!
12	F	I doubt that, I doubt that very much indeed
13	T	Why Louis, why? If anything, Paddle…BETTER, please refer to Practice answer Four
14	F	And we did much better as a result. Lets try to use our boat more often, it is less likely to capsize at the very least
15	T	Unless you are called Liz and happen to be reading this, in which case: F- we all had the decency to look down and find our shoes laces were undone every time you leapt gracefully out the boat
16	F	They were Jam tarts…stupid.
17	F/T	It got worse before it got better but this is typical Dragon boat racing weather. You wait until a race is scheduled during Wimbledon fortnight…
18	T	Only mild, possibly but they were sent to the back of the café for rehab. They drummed for us in the first race you may be interested to know
19	T	Pencils write on wet paper. I’ve been there before
20	F	Bit of a daft question really asking them if they wanted to cancel the morning’s races. They would never say no. You’d have to tell them it was aborted to get them off the water
21	T	I was startled to see Secklow slow up midrace. No wait! It was us closing them down
22	T	Well done. Keep it up
23	T	Yup, we turned a few heads
24	T	Hope you were pleasantly surprised. Feels good though doesn’t it, getting out of the boat knowing you were the best and not having that thrashed feeling. A very strange day.
25	T	Well done kids. Well done to the other new folk as well
26	T/F	You did respond, good work but I didn’t ask quietly
27	T	OMG WTF just happened?! This is uncharted territory. I’m probably dreaming.
28	T	You can do it when you decide you really want something
29	T	“…..”
30	T	Couldn’t call it on the line and neither could the finish officials- it went to the slow-motion camera
31	T	You should be delighted with that result. Well done
32	T	A small cup that you could lose down the back of the car seat, but it is still a shiny cup whatever size it is and it is ours, hooray.
33	F/T	Yes and no or at least not yet. But we did surprise people
34	T	Obviously you are supremely confident that we will get more opportunities for cup lifting. Me too, if we commit like that every time
35	T	No question
36	T	No doubt
37	T	It’s so true. Winning is all in the mind
38	T	And you did. Thank you to Muhammad Ali for the quote
39	?	I should damn well hope so
40	?	Certainly easier but did I miss out some detail? probably

How many did you guess correctly?

...Ends