A view from the bank

 

First light, Westminster Bridge, Easter Monday.  A small knot of cheerful people is gathering around the steps by the bridge, wrapped in several layers to ward off the unseasonable intense cold. With a growing sense of excitement and anticipation, they peer over the parapet, craning their necks to scan the murky water swirling past them. Finally, a cheer goes up and far away in the distance: there they are.  What look like tiny pond-skater insects appear round the bend, making their way rhythmically and steadily towards the bridge.  Tiny and vulnerable, dwarfed by the colossal thighs of the bridge straddling the Thames, a whole flotilla of double canoes suddenly comes into sight and races towards the end, swept down the mighty Thames on the morning tide.

 

This is the dramatic finish of the Devizes to Westminster canoe race, one of the toughest and most demanding races of its kind in the world and certainly one of the most gruelling challenges thrown down, every year, to hundreds of canoeists, including 150 juniors, all under 19 years old.  The crews arrive wet, thoroughly exhausted but elated: they have just completed 125 miles in around 20 hours over four days, which is an achievement of quite mind-boggling proportions.  They are overjoyed to have made it to the end, they visibly glow with pride and there are scenes of emotional reunions with family and friends as they emerge from the river.

 

It is impossible to appreciate exactly what our 18 brave and intrepid Cranleigh paddlers put themselves through until you have followed the race along its course, torn along towpaths in deepest Wiltshire, hurtled down narrow lanes in Berkshire to make it in time to see the team through another lock, under another bridge or battle with the Thames on another bleak stretch of water. The weather could not possibly have been worse; we stood in howling gales, horizontal sleet whipped the faces of the canoeists as they valiantly ploughed past us. We yelled encouragement through hailstorms and struggled to make ourselves heard across 100 metres of angry Thames as the wind stirred the river up into a heaving sea, white horses breaking over the decks of the canoes. If we had any scintilla of doubt about the magnitude of the challenge these determined and seemingly indomitable young people were putting themselves through, they were firmly dispelled by those sights.  At the end of each day, their spirits unbroken, they hopped out of their canoes and trotted off to get warm and dry. It was a moving and humbling experience to witness.

 

The number of Cranleigh supporters was incredible. Nine out of last year’s 16 paddlers and several other current pupils besides, turned out to cheer this year’s team on, tagging along in a beaten up Land Rover.  Members of Common Room, along with Guy and Hilli Waller, popped up all along the course, lending valuable support and providing a friendly face to keep the paddlers’ morale high.  Most of all, parents and families supported the crews with food, dry clothes, equipment and endlessly enthusiastic encouragement, working on a very precisely calculated timetable so that they could intercept them as often as possible.

 

If you want to be inspired and excited by incredible feats of endurance and resolve, I urge you to spend your Easter weekend next year joining in the thrill of the chase, following the race. You won’t be disappointed.                     

 

PJC