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Christmas rescued from flooded Thames at Henley Sailing Club

by Duncan Mackay 6 Dec 2012 15:05 UTC 1 December 2012

Henley Sailing Club's Commodore Tim Saunders, Rear Commodore Duncan Mackay, Bosun Viv Roberts and Shaun Sheppard braved the floodwaters swirling over the lawns of the club on Saturday to rescue Christmas decorations, a tinsel tree, party poppers and 60 crackers marooned at the club for a week.

Commodore Tim said, "It would be crackers to let a little bit of floodwater spoil the club's annual Christmas Party usually held down by the Thames. So, we relocated the event to Waltham St Lawrence Village Hall but just had to go and try to reach our stranded decorations". "Using a 4x4 to carefully reach Little Willow Lane we donned wellies to navigate across the flooded car park to get to the clubhouse steps and formed a human chain to pass the Christmas goodies to safety. The river is still tanking along in the main channel but we were well away from any risky areas and all wore buoyancy aids just in case of slip ups in the slippery silt", continued Tim.

The Christmas Party for 60 members and guests took place at the well-appointed Waltham St Lawrence village hall and much to the children's delight Santa managed to put in a special appearance to offer gifts to all the young believers. "Normally Santa arrives at the sailing club by coming upriver in the rescue boat but had to divert to an open top sports car instead this year with just enough space in the boot for his sack", said Tim. "Everyone was very pleased that a bit of flooding hadn't put Santa off completely".

For further details see www.henleysailingclub.org.uk. Henley Sailing Club is located off Willow Lane, Wargrave, Berkshire.

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