The normally tranquil River Avon flows peacefully past the Good Energy offices, but on Saturday it was transformed into riot of noise and colour when 16 teams took to the water to battle it out at the third annual Chippenham Dragon Boat Race.

After donning our trademark yellow team Good Energy t-shirts we were briefed and ready to go. That was when we realised that our opponents for the first race would be the 9 Regiment RLC Hullavington who were considerably louder and more able to paddle in time than our motley crew. We couldn’t beat them but we did manage to keep up just behind their boat and surprised ourselves with a fantastic time that had us placed 4th overall after the first round of racing! 

We even won our next two races but thanks to some very competitive performances from the other teams, our time wasn’t quite quick enough to put us through to the next round. But in the end it was a much better result than last year, and we managed to raise £541 for our charity Solar Aid and local charities chosen by the event organiser. So we all went home with wet shoes, feeling tired but happy.

Big thanks go to our boat captain Michelle for all her hard work in getting the team motivated and organised – bravely leading us to our first victories on the river!