Entries are invited for this year’s Dragon Boat Festival to be held on the River Nene in Peterborough on Sunday June 20th. 2010 in aid of the East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices. Broadcast at 07:55 on Wednesday 29th March 2010 in the Paul Stainton Breakfast Show on BBC Radio Peterborough.
PB: Now later on this year I and the team here will be paddling down the river. Yes, and if you work in Peterborough you might be taking part too in the Dragon Boat Festival. Because this is the year to do it. And organisers need more teams to come forward. Money raised will go to the East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices. Lindsey Newton is from that particular charity. Morning.
LN: Good morning.
PB: It’s great news that you’re this year’s charity then?
LN: Absolutely over the moon, really, really pleased and incredibly excited about this year, so, yeah, just wanted to come on and rally the troops and get some people involved really.
PS: Yes ‘cos normally there’s about forty teams take part in this.
LN: Yes that’s correct yes. It’s a huge event and crews can be up to a maximum of twenty one people, so thousands of people down there and they bring all their friends and family, so yes a really good day out.
PS: Twenty one? Twenty one people?
LN: Yes up to twenty one you can have in your crew, so yes.
PS: Well we might have to disqualify a few people then because ours might be listing, with twenty one on there. We need to work out the ballast points, who goes where. Tell me more about your charity then, and what you do.
LN: Well we are known as East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices, EACH for short, and we’ve got three hospices across the whole of East Anglia, but the one that relates particularly to Cambridgeshire is our one based in Milton, on the edge of Cambridge. And we provide care and support for life-threatened children and their families.
PS: Right. Ok. So a worthy cause. And hopefully a recipient of quite a lot of money here as well. So the Dragon Boat Festival, we’ve got a bit of time to prepare, it’s on Sunday June 20th on the River Nene, opposite the Key, and if you want to take part .. have you ever had a go, by the way?
LN: I haven’t actually. Yes quite tempted. I think we should really give it a go. We’re getting everyone else to get involved, so maybe we can get an EACH team together possibly.
PS: Yes because thousands of people turn out. I think there were ten thousand people down there last year, it’s amazing.
LN: Definitely. And it’s not just fun on the water. We’ve got lots of entertainment on the bankside as well. And it’s great for all ages. You just have to be sixteen or above to take part. So there’s something for people of all ages and you can bring the children along. It’s a lovely day out.
PS: I think we should have a competition. We could invite people onto our boat, couldn’t we? We can invite listeners onto the boat.
LN: You could yes.
PS: And if they upset us, We’ll just shove them in.
LN: (laughs)
PS: Elbow. Get in.
LN: I don’t think we could support that.
PS: No of course not. No.
LN: You need to be able to swim to take part. In case you do fall in.
PS: That’s a given, I think. But it’s only two hundred metres though, isn’t it, the race. So I mean it’s not far is it. Can you do any cheating? That’s what I want to know. Can ..
LN: No definitely not.
PS: No? No cheating? You can’t put a hook on the back of one of the fast boats and just tie a line to it? No?
LN: Unfortunately not.
PS: No.
LN: I’ll tell you what the key to success is, having a good drummer. Because you have to have a drummer to beat out the rhythm.
PS: Right.
LN: And if they’re doing a good job and everyone is pulling together then I think that’s the key to success.
PS: So we need to find a drummer.
LN: Yes.
PS: (makes drumming noises) Beat in time so you can all row in time.
LN: Yes.
PS: Oh I see. Yes. I’m more on stopping other people I think.
LN: No.
PS: As long as we can stop the other people by drilling holes in the bottom of their boat I think we’ll be fine.
LN: (laughs)
PS: If we can get exclusive media access to all the other boats before we start I think we’ll be OK. We’ll be absolutely fine. We’re in training anyway. We’re all sorted, so hopefully we can win this race. Do you want to be part of our boat?
Ln: Errrr. I’ll say yes.
PS: It’s a yes or no. It’s a simple question.
LN: (laughs)
PS: She’s not up for it. She doesn’t want to be on our boat.
LN: I am. I am. I’ll give it a go.
PS: Lindsey, a pleasure talking to you this morning. I’m glad you’ve managed to secure the money for the charity, and hopefully it’ll be a huge day down on the River Nene. It’s on the twentieth of June, it’s a Sunday. If you do want to take part in the Dragon Boat Festival, if you want to put a boat in, you can contact the organisers Gable Events, on 01780 470718, or you can visit www.dragonboatfestivals.co.uk/peterborough. It’s a great way to get your team, to get your workmates together. Get a boat sorted, they build all the boats for you apparently, so we don’t have to build it. We don’t have to lash a raft together, so it should be fine. All we do need to do is grab hold of Ringo Starr, Buddy Rich.