THE MAIN EVENT: For the first time, Pershore was the venue for this year's Main Regatta for England organised by Fladbury Paddle Club. More than 350 competitors took part in the regatta last Saturday, the idea for which was originated by local canoeing enthusiast David Train. As David pointed out, that is more entries than the British National Regatta!

The regatta consists of races between bellboats, highly stable craft invented by David, paddled by groups of people from local communities and schools. This year's event was organised by David's son, five time Olympian Steve Train, who was very happy with the way that the event turned out. He felt this was partly due to the boarding area at Pershore being much bigger than at Fladbury where the event was held last year, enabling many boats to be boarded simultaneously. Worcestershire Lifeguards patrolled the stretch of river being used for racing, ensuring any river boats waited for races to finish before passing through. Many thanks are due to them.

There were four categories of race and the results are shown below with team times:

Inter village: 1 Bishampton (1.02), 2 Lower Moor (1.03), 3 Fladbury A (1.05)

Schools Year 4: 1 Fladbury (1.18), 2 Broadway (1.22), 3 Inkberrow (1.24)

Schools Year 5: 1 Cropthorne (1.10), 2 Overbury (1.15), 3 Sedgeberrow (1.16)

Schools Year 6/7: 1 Evesham Combined (1.10), 2 St Nicholas Pinvin (1.14), 3 St Egwin's Evesham (1.16)

The winners were presented with engraved shields, each in the shape of a paddle blade.