Community Sport: Breathing fire in the dragon’s den

Sep 7 2007 by Peter Guy, Liverpool Daily Post

IT’S fair to say Liverpool Dragon Boat Club has a fearsome reputation. As back-to-back Premier League Champions, Amathus DBC have broken the winning monopoly of London-based clubs and are well on course to add the European crown to their growing trophy haul.

Founded 19 years ago, the club, based at Liverpool’s Water Sport Centre on the Queens Dock, have accomplished unparalleled recent success despite struggling to attract sponsors and much-needed investment.

Attracting paddlers of all ages from across the North West, Amathus’s first team – or the Open team as they’re commonly known – collected their latest trophy in July at London's Royal Albert Docks, where they successfully defended their British Dragon Boat Association Premier League championship, an honour the club have now won on four occasions.

“We are one of only five teams to have ever won the Premier League,” Open team paddler John Galt said. “The win made Amathus Open the third most successful team in the Premier League history.”

Further success in 2007 saw the Open paddlers win the Victor Ladurom ‘Colenorton’ Trophy, breaking the 250-point barrier and setting a new record-breaking margin while October sees them defend their 2006 President’s Cup – the BDA’s version of the FA Cup and the biggest event in the UK’s race calendar.

John, a member of the Great Britain side that won gold at the 1999 World Championships, added: “We are narrow favourites to retain the Presidents Cup but we face fierce competition from three London-based teams. It should make for a fascinating end to the season.”

Success hasn’t been exclusive to the Open team, however, with the second team – The Bees – winning the BDA Standard League last year meaning both the Open side and the seconds held their respective league titles in the same season.

Further down the ranks, Amathus’s under-18s – the Dragon Jockeys – have won the BDA U18s League this season, in their very first season together.

John explains: “The DJs were set up as part of the Chief’s Challenge – a Merseyside Police Authority’s initiative to offer opportunities for youngsters. It proved a major success and one which the club and the Prince’s Trust have taken great pride in and are keen to promote further.

“The youth set-up is exceedingly strong, so much so, the under-18s have won the title for an unprecedented 10 years in succession. In fact the majority of them also race in the Open team. Not surprisingly, they are again firm favourites to win again at this year’s national finals at Nottingham’s National Water Sport Centre on October 6-7.”

But it hasn’t been all plain sailing for the club this year, as with all minority sports, the Merseysiders have struggled to attract more cash from local investors resulting in the cancellation of their trip to Russia to compete in the biennial EDBF’s European Club Crew Championships.

To attend the event, which gathered together 40 of the finest crews in European dragon boating took place in August, Amathus needed to raise £20,000 in funding but with cash running low and time running out the trip was shelved, much to members’ disappointment.

John said: “It was extremely disappointing, especially as we later discovered the winners put in times all well within the capacity of us so we feel we could have been extremely successful. The aim now is to keep the current Open team together and attempt to either go to the world championships in Penang, Malaysia, next year or go to the European championships in Budapest, Hungry in 2009.”

The club’s attention is now firmly focused on this season’s European Dragon Boat League championship as the Open side look to cement a unique treble.

Currently occupying pole position, they have secured maximum points from all of this season’s races, however with plenty of action remaining until its conclusion in late October, Amathus are not taking anything for granted.

John said: “Hopefully we can retain top spot though we face stiff competition from the German, Italian, Hungarian and Czech top teams. It all makes for an exciting end to the season – hopefully Liverpool can come out on top”

Facts and figures behind dragon boating

Dragon boating originated in China over 2,000 years ago.

The boats, which are 40 feet long, seat 20 forward-facing paddlers and have a drummer at the front, a helm (steerer) at the back and they have an ornate dragon’s head and tail on them.

The sport has open, mixed, female and U18s categories and is one of the few sports permitting male and females to compete against each other.

Amathus are the only team from the north west. The first race of the 2007 European calendar was hosted and won by Liverpool. The club are hoping the Culture Company will support their cause to host the event again in 2008.

Amathus’s fledgling charity clubs Pool of Life and Breast Cancer Survivors. The latter won medals at the 2006 World Breast Cancer Games in Singapore.

Amathus DBC were the only UK side to represent Great Britain at the IDBF World Championships in 1995.

In 1997 Amathus DBC became the first club to successfully cross the English Channel in dragon boats.

Amathus DBC’s manager and chief coach Dave Bangs is the BDA national team’s director of coaching and oversees the training for the GB’s national teams.