HIT @ The Nowka Bais 2011

A sea of green and red accompanied by the sound of cymbals and drums filled Farmoor Reservoir, Oxford on Sunday 10th July 2011 for the Fourth Annual National Nowka Bais (the Bangladeshi community’s annual boat race).

HIT's Shane Bailey (Thames Valley Team Leader) tells us his experiences of a day where eighteen teams from all over UK competed for the HIT Cup, each equipped with their own decorated Bangladeshi boats with crews dressed in traditional colourful costumes.

This was HIT Training's first Nowka Bais and we were all looking forward to being part of this colourful and exciting event on what turned out to be a fantastic day.

Myself and my team were all extremely enthusiastic about the event and having the opportunity to meet so many people from the Bangladeshi community.

We were the headline sponsor of this year's event with the much coveted HIT Cup being the top prize for the winners. The weather was ideal for racing on what could have been the warmest day of the year. The heats and semi-finals progressed quickly through the day with Thames Valley Police and BRACK UK putting on some entertaining displays. 

Three teams progressed to the main final with reigning champions Pride of Asia London being favourites to win the HIT Cup. The final was an interesting race as team Cheltenham ran out easy winners after the other two finalists collided. Celebrations were short lived as a re-run was ordered, although the result was the same with team Cheltenham scooping the cup with another impressive display which also pocketed them prize money of £1000. Runners up went to Bangladesh Coventry society who received the Bangla Beer Shield and £500, with Pride of Asia of London coming third. The team of the tournament deservedly went to BRACK UK.

The awards ceremony was led by founder of the Nowka Bais Aziz Ur Rahman with my job being to hand out what seemed like hundreds of medals. Channel S were filming the whole ceremony and I was starting to feel the pressure of all the cameras. Everyone was waiting for handing over of the HIT Cup and I couldn't wait to get it over myself. When I did present team Cheltenham with cup it felt like all hell broke loose with the team jumping around celebrating while streamers were being let off all around me.

Before the evening's entertainment got underway I managed to get a few words from Mr Aziz-Ur Rahman, Founder of Nowka Bais and Chairman of The Bangladeshi Association, he said

“This event captures the spirit of traditional Bangladeshi cultural activity, and is a great occasion for the enjoyment by British Bangladeshi and the wider community,”

On reflection of the days event I couldn't agree with him more.