West Country Boat Repairs RS200 SW Ugly Tour heading for a cliffhanger final
by Pete Vincent 25 Oct 2019 10:10 BST
26 October 2019
The West Country Boat Repairs RS200 SW Ugly Tour reaches its nail-biting cliffhanger of a conclusion at Chew Valley Lake SC this Saturday October 26th. Everywhere you look in the fleet the overall Tour prizes are up for grabs.
It is not just the overall victory that is tight, the top two boats go into the final event with exactly the same score but who wins the silver division and who wins the bronze division is up for grabs. Also many boats outside the current prize positions could easily win a mug with a decent result at Chew. The possible permutations gave me a headache just working them out!
With West Country Boat Repairs sponsorship providing the much sought-after ugly mugs as prizes (for the top seven boats overall plus the top three boats in both bronze and silver divisions) over 22 different boats go into the final event with a realistic chance of winning a mug.
At the very top Alistair Norris and Helen Summersgill started like a runaway train recording 3.1.1.2 in the first four events and then took their eye of the ball letting a little matter of their wedding distract them. John Teague - having got his wedding out of the way in July - was on fire in September scoring 2.1 with Naomi Pound at the Exe estuary double header. With their first place at Bristol CYC back in April they now have exactly the same score tied at the top so Chew becomes a winner-takes-all shoot out.
In the Silver division Bristol CYC's Nick Smith and Max Ross have been front runners all season but Thornbury's Nick Smith and Hannah Smith are counting a second and a sixth so could easily snatch the silver division with a good result at Chew. Alistair Hodgson and Joanna Worrall could easily upset the Smith party with a star bar result at Chew only 2 points behind BCYC Smith. (Hope you are following this!)
Meanwhile BCYC's Chris Baker and Jenni Wyatt appeared to be cruising the bronze division with a string of good results but then Henry Hallam and Ashley Hill found real forward gear. The St Mawes youngsters scored mighty impressive eighth and sixth at the Exe Estuary double header. If they repeat that form at Chew they will snatch bronze overall so there will be a real featherweight contest at Chew, all involved seriously need to eat some pies!
Meanwhile the Greens from Llandegfedd also have a very close tussle for third in bronze only one point ahead of Will "second round the windward mark at Starcross" Rhodes.
And I have not even mentioned the tense third place fight between Fred Mainwaring and Liz Teague, and Pete Vincent and Victoria Upton.
Throw into the mix that the weather forecast is suggesting we could have every wind strength from 5 knots to 33 knots in the same day from varied directions and you get the idea anything could and probably will happen.