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Lots of competition events going on today. Dave Reevey represented the club at Stone slalom today and a small team of flatties went off to Gailey haser; the bumpiest race in the region.

Ellie and Simone Orme (Burton) had a cracking start among the div 7 k2s and led the field from the first bend, winning by several boat lengths. Kate and Dave stayed clear of the washes in the same race coming 5 out of 8 boats entered.

Deb and Sam rather unexpectly entered div 6 (not really ideal after a winter of training with the lightnings with a max distance of 2km). With only 2 boats in the race the start was consolidated with div 5 k2s which made it really rather choppy and they only just managed not to swim. They chose the sane course of action and dropped back a little coming second in div 6. This got us a nice shiny shield and more points than we would have won in div 7 so a win all round really (although next time Jane will be in change of Sam's alarm clock).

Lauren and Ben did their second lightning races, Lauren winning U12 girls and Ben coming third in U10 boys being beaten by Ben Quitenden and Ben Aston. Clearly to be a cool U10 boy these days you need to be called Ben!

A small crew of racing paddlers went to Trentham hasler at the weekend.  It's out of region, but Stoke is much closer than most of the midlands region and it's a chance to paddle on their fabulous lake.

After the heavy rain last week it was dry, clear and more than a little bit parky; the kind of day where you chip the ice out of your boat before putting it on the car.  Fortunately the mist lifted before the racing started so the paddlers could see where they were going and the support crews could watch the the race.

There were some good results; Cam teamed up with Ross Orme from Burton and they came third, Ellie won div 7 stealing the race from two Trentham guys at the penultimate turn, Matt Kate, Dave and Deb came mid field ish in div 5k1, div 7 k2 and div 7 k1 respectively.

For the first time in moths we were able to put some lightnings on the water; Ben & Lauren Homewood races in U10 boys and U12 girls respectively.  In the interests of non-sibling rivalry they both came second - a tremendous result for two youngsters who have only been paddling since the summer and who had never raced before.

All in all, a cracking day!

That was the last hasler of the year, but for folk who like longer distances there is the Ross Warland (20 mile relay) race later this month, the Frank Luzmore in the new year, followed by the Watersides. Thamesides and Royal.  And the DW.

Other than that, next race is Gailey hasler on March 27th.

Its been an interesting year for the flat water squad this year.  A lot of the div 6 crews decided to take the year off (and anytime you want to come back you'd be more than welcome!) and Andy and I (and Catherine) had a fairly slow start to the year.

The first races of the season saw a small squad of 4-5 heading out to races but by the spring numbers had increased enough for the club to come 6th in the region and secure our place at the hasler finals.

Promotions in the 2009-10 season were as follows:

Matt Whittle Anker Valley 7 to 6

Cam Lambert Anker Valley 9 to 8

Cam Lambert Worcester 8 to 7

Deb May Worcester 8 to 7

Will Bevan Shropshire 9 to 8

Florence Whittle Shropshire 9 to 8

Matt Whittle Ironbridge 6 to 5

Dave Barnes Nationals 8 to 7

Dave also got a Gold medal at the nationals championships in div 8 as well as a silver with Kate in the Div 8 K2 race.  Deb & Sam won bronze in the over 34 veteran women's race at the nationals.

All in all, it has been a pretty good year!

The team going to the hasler finals in Worcester on Oct 10th is as follows:

Div 5 K1 Matt Whittle

Div 7 K1 Deb May

Div 8 k1 Andy May

Sam Rudd

Florence Whittle

Div 9 k1 Jonathan Evans

Div 9 C1 Joe Whittle

Div 6 K2 Anita Bennett & Cam Lambert

Div 7 k2 Dave Barnes & Kate Jinks

Div 9 k2 Tim Bevan & Nick Stokes

The lightning squad has yet to be confirmed.

Ironbridge is the last race of the Hasler year and its always a good one.  There are two separate courses; for div 1-6 the race starts at Ironbridge, goes through Jackfield rapids and finishes at Bridgnorth.  For the lower divisions and lightnings the race is a circuit around Bridgnorth.

This year Shropshire entered 14 paddlers; most of us racing the Bridgnorth circuit and Matt and Ellie both decided to tackle the longer course through the rapids in K1 and Anita and Cam raced div 6 k2.

The weather was good but the water was low posing challenges for both races.  In div 7 Deb managed to improve her normal second from bottom position when the two boats behind her grounded out on the rocks and in her new light boat managed to float free and maintain the advantage.  Jonathan had an altercation both with the rocks and a local fisheman who tried to cast at him and survived to tell the tale albeit a bit wetter than he intended.  Nick Stokes put in a great performance in his first ever k1 race  as did Tom Rosser who isn't known for paddling long point boats, but teamed up with Connor to come 3rd in div 7.  Kate and Dave comfortably won div 8 k2  and Florence won div 9.

The high division crews all competently negotiated the rapids (there is video on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASl-YyqI7ks&feature=channel - do make sure you have your sound turned on for thi; the commentary from Louise and Chris is priceless) and put in good results.  Anita & Cam narrowly missed out on a medal, coming 4th, Ellie, racing above her normal division came 6th and Matt, in his  second race in div 6 came second and got promoted to div 5.    Well done Matt.  Full club results re below:

Div 6 k1:   Mat 2nd

Ellie 6th

Div 7k1     Deb 7th

Div 8 K1    Andy 7th

Div 9 k1    Florence 1st

Jonathan 11th

Nick 15th

Joe 16th

Div 6 k2    Anita & Cameron 4th

Div 7 k2    Connor & Tom 3rd

Div 8 k2    Dave & Kate 1st

Dave Barnes is the national div 8 marathon champion after just pipping Emma Hooton from Anker Valley to the finish line.  Well done Dave.  Other results to follow.

The national marathon championships are taking place at Chester this weekend and a host of SHP paddlers are talking part.   Kate Jinks & Dave Barnes in the Div 8 k2 race.  They've never not placed at the nationals but this is their first national championship in div 8 and they came third which is a great achievement.

Matt Whittle was also racing in U16MK1, Florence Whittle in U14 FK1 and Cam Lambert in U14MK1 and Joe Whittle in Over 49 Veteran Men C1. I don't have their results yet.

Sunday morning sees Jonathan Evans racing in div 9 k1, Dave Barnes in div 8 k1 and Deb May in div 7 k1.  These races will start from 09:30 if anyone fancies coming up to watch.

Lots of club members are racing in the afternoon - and we have some new pairings: Ellie is teaming up with jenny Barber from Solihull in U16LK2,  Anita with Geoff Barber (Jenny's dad - also from Solihull) in the open K2 race and Matt Whittle is racing with Solihull's Tom Lusty in U16MK2.    Closer to home we also have Nick Stokes and Tim Bevan racing U14K2, the long standing Barnes-Jinks team racing in O44MK2 and Deb & Sam Rudd have teamed up for O34LK2.  The K2 races all kick off at 3pm.

It should be another good day tomorrow.

A new and improved super-size race team went off to Burton on Trent for the day yesterday with the club managing to field 11 paddlers - that's the first time we've been in double figures for a long time. As usual Burton managed to find some good weather (perfectly timed as the heavens opened just as we left to drive home) and Team Shropshire generally had an excellent day.

In doubles Cam raced up in Division 6 with Anita with both of them looking very smooth and crossing the line in 3rd place. In Div 7 Ellie and Deb notched up a comfortable win - so comfortable that they were seen negotiating with Mick Nadal to ensure that they didn't get promoted just yet.

In Div 8 Dave and Kate yet again found themselves racing to the line against Solihull, but this time got edged out into 4th place.

In singles Jonathan went for his first race in Div 9 (whilst being heard muttering something about "this is only my 4th time in a boat...". I think we still have some work to do to find an appropiate size and shaped boat for him as some back problems meant that he didn't exactly have a comfortable race. He didn't come last however, and at least we were able to put him in touch with a good physio afterwards.

At the other end of the Div 9 pack  we saw the very welcome return of Florence Whittle to the race team, putting in a storming race in her first time out of Lightnings. She came a very credible 3rd with both the two people above her being promoted straight to Div 8.

In  a huge Div 8 field Sam managed to avoid any entanglements with careless East Anglians to come 6th, while Andy found himself racing flat out in the final stretch (with a couple of juniors!!) but old age and treachery overcame youth and talent to enable him to sneak a 9th.

Last. but certainly not least, Matt braved that sudden double-distance feeling that comes with being promoted to Div 6 and still managed to come 4th. he looked, shall we say, a little weary as he came off but that's all just a matter of practice.

All in all a great day, terrific to see so many people on the water and some very useful club points which consolidated our position in the clubs championship. It's now looking pretty much certain that we'll make the cut for an invitation to the Hasler finals. That, however, is a long way away - the next thing is our own race next weekend. See you all there in some capacity or other.

Well the race team have been out and about a lot since my last post - where did the time go?

First of all there was Worcester with grey overcast skies and a cold wind . We had Ellie racing in Div 7 K1, Sam and Andy in Div 8 K1, and Kate & Dave  and Deb & Cameron in Div 8 K2. Deb and Cam got promoted to Div 7 - so that's two promotions in two races for Cam !

Then we went off to the sunshine of Leamington Spa. For those of you who've not been to the Leamington race it's a short course between two weirs and so the lower divisions do three loops - that's six turns ! This race also saw the very welcome return of Cat Jones to the race team racing Div 7 K2 with Deb and producing a very credible 4th place. We also had Ellie with a comfortable second in Div 7 K1 while Andy struggled along at the back of Div 8 somewhere and eventually got in after they had all packed up and gone home

Last weekend was the blazing sunshine of Nottingham and the usual suspects assembled on the banks of the Trent for a glorious (but very hot) day out. Dave and Kate revealed their new world class training programme and still got into a neck and neck race to the line for second place with Jenny & Jo from Solihull but were just pipped at the post. Ellie was racing C2 with Nottingham's Kath Nadal and they came second despite Ellie admitting that she'd never canoed 4 miles before. Deb had the joyous experience of her first Div 7 K1 race, accompanied for most of the distance by old friend and nemesis Archie Miles from Lincoln. Afterwards she was heard vainly pleading with Mick Nadal to be allowed to go back to Div 8, a sentiment supported only by Ethan Troy whom she managed to capsize on the home straight.  Sam had an "incident" with another paddler who managed to turn her boat around and force her onto the side.  She recovered and continued of course, but ended up much further down the list than she's used to. Andy, as usual, pottered along somewhere in the middle of Div 8 although apparently there is video of the finish which has Louise Clive  saying to Catherine "Look - here comes Daddy ... oh he looks about done in).

By the way I should mention that Louise and Chris Pretswood are being complete stars by looking after Catherine for us which enables both Deb and I to race.

So - as it stands at the moment we are on track for a trip to the Hasler finals. We have the last qualifying place, just above the cut and so if we can maintain that over the next couple of races then we'll be eligible to go to Worcester on October 10th.

Not only did Matt make it to div 6, but Cam also got promoted to div 8.  Well done guys!

The club had a very successful trip to Anker Valley hasler yesterday.  The sun shone and we fielded 6 boats: 2 div 8 k1s, 2 div 8 k2s and 2 div 7 k1s.

The div 8 k1 race was a mainly civilised affair with Sam Rudd coming 5th - the fastest boat not promoted and Andy, after a year's paternity leave and on training session came 11th.

Div 8 k2 had a choppy start which was taken by Deb & Cam and Jenny Barber and Jo Green (SOL).  These boats led the entire race sharing washes (OK, we hung on theirs far more than they had ours) and having got left behind on the tunr we stalked them all the way back before Cam set a cracking sprint pace and we beat them over the line by half a nose.  It was close.  So very close.  Then, to compound the excitement, Kate & Dave came hareing in wth Ant Hooton & Aaron Dempsey (ANK) and again beat them by just one second.

The div 7 start was entertaining and VERY messy.  A Trentham k1 swam on the start line and Ellie ended up with someone elses paddle trying to rearrange  her shoulder so retired sore.  Matt chased Jake Fairly (RLS) up the course and some of the way back before realising they were so far ahead of the rest of the race he could cruise and guarantee his second place whilst hoping to avoid promotion.  Unfortunately he and Jake had gone too fast at the begining and both were promoted to div 6, with jake only just missing a div 5 promotion.  Well done all but particularly Matt!

Can we maintain this performance at Worcester next week?  We think so.  Anybosy else want to come and join us?