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Pilkington SC Enterprise Open Meeting by Richard Critchley
 Pilkington SC Enterprise Open Meeting 2008Saturday morning at Eccleston Mere saw a light eastly breeze across the water. This direction is notorious amongst the locals for being fickle and tricky to sail in - and if it does blow up, it becomes extremely nasty with 90 degree wind shifts causing many an experienced sailor to swim. The wind though remained light for most of the day and in all, only one sailor ended up in the drink - Ray Lewis, a home sailor who was a beginner only a few years ago so he was forgiven. The Pilkington Open meeting is often hottly contested, especially amongst the home sailors. In particular, the last 4 years have seen battles between Ste Blackburn and Royston Taggart, the later who has won the open three times as crew ( for Steve Hunt) and twice as a helm. Would he make it a hat-trick? Well not if Blackburn had anything to do with it. Other former winners who were rumoured to be showing up included Tony \"The Tiger\" Woods and Alan Johnson, but regrettably, neither showed up. Apparently Tony opted to go to another event elsewhere although his wife was adamant it was only because he was scared. The first race started with one boat who was over the line but they failed to go back so ended up with retirement points. Taggart rounded the windward mark first and soon generated a gap over the fleet, however Blackburn was not going to let him have it that easily and with his incredible boat speed (especially since his boat is over 20 years old!) he was on his tail. He failed to capitalise and Taggart took the first with Blackburn 2nd. The second race was held with the same course as the first - it had good beats which are often tricky to find in the eastly winds. Blackburn wasted no time in this one to take pole position and soon had a great lead over Taggart who got caught in traffic but clawed his way into 2nd ahead of Eddie Pilling. So with a first and a second each Blackburn and Taggart both needed the third race to secure victory. So the pressure was on, and at the first mark - Pilling was ahead, with the contenders for the title battling other further back on the course. Blackburn soon over came Taggart and set on his march to victory. After several particularly fast laps he passed pilling to take victory and Pilkington Enterprise Open Winner 2008. Steve Blackburn and crew Nick Hampson were particularly delighted with this result as this was their first open title and with two firsts at their home club, they\'d done it in style. 17 year old local sailor Alan Roberts also deserves a mention with his crew Rob Lea for finishing 4th overall having sailed some great races through the day. They won the Ecclesall Trophy which is awarded to first non-podium Pilkington Member. |
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