| Youth League at Paxton 2007 |
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The final event of the 2007 Cambs Youth League took place at Paxton Lakes Sailing Club on Saturday 6th October and Hunts sent a team of no less than 16 competitors. The weather forecast had been looking grim all week, with extremely light winds predicted. It was therefore a pleasant surprise to see any wind at all for the start of the first race. The Optimists started first and Gabriel Clarke got off to a flying start, opening up a big lead before giving the others a chance to catch up by going for a swim! He soon bailed out and regained the lead but the delay would ultimately cost him in the overall placings. The Toppers started next and Alex Alcock got off to a great start, only to be beaten by a wind shift and rounded the windward mark just behind James Steckelmacher from Cam. However, Alex is proving to be very good in light winds these days and he soon regained the lead which he retained until the finish. The Laser fleet started last with Finn Johnson and Oli Scrimshaw up against very strong opposition in Ollie Tweddell from Cam, who two weeks earlier had finished joint second in the Sailing For Gold Regatta at Weymouth, Finn and Oli stayed close to Ollie who went on to win the first race with Oli second, Finn third, Alex fourth and an outstanding fifth for Martin Mills from Ely. The second race followed a similar pattern to the first, with Ollie Tweddell first, ahead of Finn in second, Oli third and Alex fourth. The third race saw Alex over the line at the start, when he eventually returned he found himself at the back of the Topper fleet. Meantime the Optimists were leading the fleet the wrong way around the course. By the time the error had been pointed out to the remainder of the fleet, who then started sailing the proper course, the race office decided the sensible thing would be to abandon the race. Race 3 was then restarted, though the result was a familiar 1, 2, 3 for Ollie Tweddell, Oli Scrimshaw and Finn Johnson with Gabriel taking fourth place. So Ollie Tweddell won on the day with an unbeatable three firsts with Oli Scrimshaw second, one point ahead of Finn Johnson. Alex Alcock took the under 15 prize ahead of Gabriel Clarke with Finn Conroy and Adam Williams from Cam finishing highest placed under 12. Alice Parker from Paxton took the first girl prize and 6 year old Michael Whiteside was the youngest competitor. With 8 races to count from 12 for the overall series, Finn Johnson and Gabriel Clarke both finished on 17 points. Finn winning, for the second consecutive year, courtesy of his 3 firsts compared with Gabriel's 2. James Steckelmacher was third place overall and Alex Alcock won the under 15 prize with Lewis Easy from Cam second. Finn Conroy from Cam was first under 12 ahead of Adam Williams, also from Cam. First girl for the series was Lucia Lachlan-Cope and her crew Emma Houlder from Cam. The team trophy was once again won by Hunts, who finished 49 points ahead of Cam. Congratulations to all the team on this outstanding achievement, particularly our new team members this season: Frankie McConnachie-Starling, John Lindley, Lucy Farrow, Jacob Wright, William McCrossan, Holly Dickinson, Martha Evans, George Whittle, Stefan Gawin and Mika Gawin. Last but not least, a special thanks to Finn Johnson who has now sadly sailed in his last Youth League event. Finn has been a regular member of the team for many years and was instrumental in Hunts winning the team trophy for the past two years.
                   
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