Thames Valley Area Enterprise Series 2020

Enterprise Thames Valley Area Championship © Chris Rowsells

With the Covid shutdown this was a peculiar and truncated season. Nevertheless four meetings were planned during September and October, although the weather intervened and only two meetings were completed. Too strong a river current and no wind preventing Twickenham and Papercourt respectively - a real pity given the preparations that both clubs had made.

So thanks go to Hampton and Frensham for holding open meetings. I attended both and can report that they were well organised and that I felt safe. Sunny days meaning that staying outside was not a problem certainly helped in this respect.

With uncertainty over what meetings would occur, we decided that the River Trophy would be awarded from the results of Hampton's open meeting, that the Thames Valley Bowl would be based on the best two open meeting results and that if the entry merited (both in number and quality of entrants), the area Championships would be held as scheduled at the Frensham open meeting. With 8 entrants and with a similar strength of field as in recent years, I am pleased to say that the Area Championships were indeed held.

The Champion Club Trophy awarded based on the aggregate of home club open meeting turnout and the number times members from a given club visited other open meetings was very tightly contested. Both Hampton and Minima scored 8 points on this metric. I have split the tie in favour of Minima given the efforts they made to travel this year - well done Minima - champion club 2020.

Thames Valley Area Championships - Frensham Pond Sailing Club

This was sailed in light and shifty winds. A fair summary would be to conclude that Nigel and Andy Bird dominated, although David Beaney crewed by son John did their best to make it interesting.

1st Nigel Bird and Andy Bird (RYA)
2nd David Beaney and John Beaney (Rickmansworth Sailing Club)
3rd Katrina Gilbert and Karen Ferguson )Frensham Pond SC)

River Trophy - Hampton Sailing Club

A day that demonstrated the best of river sailing. A decent breeze, sunshine plus flat patches / wind streaks to test the tactical skills. David and John Beaney took leads early in each race, but Nigel and Andy Bird stayed close enough to slip by when tactical errors were made!

1st Nigel Bird and Andy Bird (RYA)
2nd David Beaney and John Beaney (Rickmansworth Sailing Club)

Thames Valley Bowl - Area Aggregate Trophy (best 2 results)

Winning both events, Nigel and Andy won the Thames Valley Bowl and the Geoff Foster Memorial Trophy for the winning crew. Robin Broomfield of Minima came third. While 18 boats sailed in one of the two events only the leading three sailed both events.

1st Nigel Bird and Andy Bird (RYA)
2nd David Beaney and John Beaney (Rickmansworth Sailing Club)
3rd Robin Broomfield and Zoe Van Den Bosch (Minima Sailing Club)

Ladies Champion - Awarded to the top lady helm at the Hampton Open meeting, Ellen Cooper.

Youth Champion - Best performance by a junior sailor at the Hampton Open, Sophie and Ben Peerless