MEMORIES OF DEVIZES - WESTMINSTER

 Although it has been over twenty years since I last took part in the race, each Easter my thoughts always turn towards Devizes. Throughout Good Friday and early Saturday morning I look at the time and think of where I would be likely to be if I was paddling.  This year, as a fairly recent user of the Internet, I thought I would enter ‘Devizes – Westminster’ just to see what I could find.  What a pleasure to find your website and to transport myself back in time by checking on the race history and results.  The memories came flooding back of my involvement with the race in the 60s, 70s and 80s so I thought I would share a few of them. 

 I completed the race six times – in 1968, 70, 73, 75, 81 and 82 - and I see from the statistics that my average time was 28.2.  Not spectacular but it may or not be significant that my best time was achieved on the last occasion when I competed.  I steadily improved as I got older – like a fine wine!!

 MEMORIES OF DEVIZES – WESTMINSTER  

 I was first involved with the race in 1967 – as back up for some friends at the Welsh Harp Youth Sailing Base (WHYSB).  I was a sailing instructor at the time but got sucked in to the whole DW experience.  Both crews had bad luck in that year and neither finished.   It was disappointing for all of us so I jumped at the chance when asked if I wanted to compete the following year.  But first, I had to learn to canoe!!

 My canoeing partner in that first active involvement with the race was Derek Roberts, a canoeing instructor at the Base.   He was very experienced and also very patient.  Paddling a K2 isn’t easy at the best of times and to have me in the back saying ‘Are we there yet?’ couldn’t have been easy for him.   We did a lot of our training paddling round in circles on the smaller part of the Welsh Harp reservoir in north London so it was a real pleasure to actually get out on the canal and river and not see the same scenery every few minutes. 

 That first race in 1968 was an amazing experience.  We set out early on Good Friday and made our way down the weed-choked canal.  Those who were paddling in the 60s will remember that the canal was very different then and it was not unknown to have to get out and push on the shallower parts and to portage whole lock pounds in some parts.  Then, of course, there were the swans at Hungerford!!

 We were behind schedule at Reading and things didn’t improve. We paddled out onto the Thames expecting some help but the river was low and there wasn’t much flow and we fell further and further behind our carefully worked out schedule.  The night was cold and I remember sliding a sheet of ice off the stern deck of our boat.  It was, of course, in the days of self-sufficiency and we carried huge quantities of camping equipment, sleeping bags, cookware and our food for the entire trip.  I was never quite sure why we had separate bags containing digestive biscuits, dates and oranges all packed in other larger plastic bags.  Plus we had the legendary Kendal Mint Cake to sustain us in our (many) hours of need. There was barely enough room for us to get in the canoe and lifting it through portages was a bit of a challenge!

 Mercifully, memories of the night have faded with advancing age but I know we missed the Saturday morning tide at Teddington that we had been aiming for and ‘readjusted’ our schedule to catch the next one.  I do remember having hallucinations at some stage and seeing ‘things’ crawling up and down Derek’s back as we paddled along.  When we got to Westminster – in a time of 33 hours and 32 minutes – the backs of my hands were like raw meat and Derek had open blisters on each joint of his fingers but one.  He was 21 and I was 20 and how we enjoyed re-hydrating later that evening!! 

 Strangely, the experience did not put me off and my next DW adventure was in 1970 with a life long friend Roger Whitmill.  We finished that year and went on to successfully complete the race on a further three occasions. It was with Roger that I got nearest to my secret goal of finishing in under 24 hours.  Roger was a great bloke to paddle with.  He went along with my fantasy that I was a great canoeist – in reality all I could ever do was paddle for long distances without falling in very often – and let me sit in the front for long periods without complaining.  He was also responsible for improving my low level of wildlife knowledge and recognition.  It was with Roger on a training run that he discovered a duck just above Sonning that had got tangled in fishing line.  While I supported the boat – we were under an overhanging tree at the time – good old Roger successfully freed the duck and we continued on our way feeling very satisfied.

It was with Roger that I had some of the most memorable and enjoyable DW experiences.  We were the first crew away one year and we were featured on the TV news throughout the morning although we never got to see our moment of TV stardom. 

The great thing about paddling with Roger was that we enjoyed the experience of being on the water both in training and on the race itself. One year we got to Molesey and took the boat down through the rollers.   Unfortunately we each thought the other had control and the boat went off on its own.  Without a moments hesitation, well perhaps a slight discussion, Roger peeled off his top and dived in to retrieve the boat.  We had to paddle at a furious rate to get Roger steaming and he had dried out by the time we got to Teddington.  That was the same year that the then Greater London Council came under the control of Ken Livingstone and banned the Services from providing the showers and changing facilities at Westminster.  Having reassured Roger with the promise of a shower when we finished, we were not best pleased when we found out at Teddington that we would be changing in the car park at County Hall.

 It is 24 years since my last outing with Roger but the memories are still fresh and very special, as is our continuing friendship.

The one other partner who I ‘persuaded’ to paddle with me was John Knights, who was another sailing instructor at the Welsh Harp. Like my first attempt, John had little experience of canoeing but was hugely attracted by the potential pulling power of DW success. He was convinced, mainly by me I must confess, that the fact of completing the race would make him amazingly sexually attractive and that girls would flock to his side, and bed, when he produced his certificate.  It didn’t quite work out as he anticipated.

 I have many memories of paddling with John, including a confrontation with a swan at 4 am early one Sunday morning on a training run somewhere above Windsor and a wonderful girl, Vivien, on backup who produced huge honey sandwiches to keep us going. However, the most vivid were from the race itself in 1973.  We had Trevor Weatherall – another product of the WHYSB who went on the great fame in the canoeing world - on back-up duty and, by the time we got to Marlow, poor old John was suffering from fairly severe back pains.  Trevor emptied a whole tube of Deepheat on to it and gave him a good rubbing!  Unfortunately John pulled his clothes back down or we could easily have navigated for the rest of the night with the resultant glow!! I was never completely convinced that this treatment had worked or whether the pain from the Deepheat merely replaced his original pain. Something must have worked because we reached the Tideway although the tide had all but gone and we set out with a sort of grim determination to reach Westminster.  There comes a time under those circumstances where rational thought goes out the window and I remember paddling against the tide inching slowly towards the finish.  If I had thought a bit more clearly we would have got out of the boat and walked – it took us over an hour to paddle from Battersea to Chelsea Bridge!!  Finally, at John’s insistence, we got out just before Vauxhall Bridge – climbing and dragging the boat up a ladder cemented into the wall – and walked the rest of the way.  It was good to be reunited with our back-up team who had lost us on the Tideway.  As far as I remember, it took us about eight hours to travel from Teddington to Westminster.     

I loved the race and the excitement and experience of Devizes on Easter Thursday when we saw many old friends and fellow competitors who were either paddling or backing up for others.  Unfortunately, the camaraderie also encouraged a bit of over indulgence and the first few miles the following morning usually involved sweating out several pints of Wadsworths 6X. 

 I also remember the slog of training throughout the winter on the water and in the weight training room. Nor have I forgotten the various aches and pains in training and on the race itself, but it was worth it for the sheer pleasure of feeling alive, fit and healthy, and sharing the challenge of completing the toughest canoe race in the world.

 Les Peacock