Drivel From Devizes: Dateline – Sunday 4th April 2021
Here is our weekly round-up of events from D-Town:
1. With Covid regulations still in force, a decision was made that the traditional annual Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race could not be held on its usual course on the Thames. Joy was therefore almost unconfined when it was moved to a new temporary course on the K&A canal near D-Town. The two eights, however, were hampered by the large number of locks which they had to negotiate over the first mile, resulting in broken boats, bent oars and exhausted competitors. A spokesman for the organisers later admitted that they should perhaps have used the flat water out towards Horton, rather than down the Caen Hill flight of 29 steeply-descending locks. A decision on next year’s race is yet to be taken.
2. However, the staging of an internationally-famous event so close to The Vize, brought out spectators in huge groups of six. Large gangs of drinkers, with single-use barbecues, lined both banks of the canal, to laugh at the antics of the eights and coxes, molest the nesting swans, scare the fish, and carry out large amounts of littering that they have been prevented from doing within the confines of their own homes. One spoke of his relief of no longer having to tip cigarette ends, empty lager cans and discarded pizza boxes from his own window, but of now having the freedom to dump this litter across the previously unspoilt countryside.
Copyright Andy Fawthrop 2021
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