shropshirepaddlesport.org - the blog

Results to follow but here is some footage of last week's sprint regatta. The weather was utterly hideous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV0ldEThTrQ

Looking out of my window now here back in sunny Shropshire you wouldn't believe that the Hasler race team have spent the day in Leamington mostly standing around (or paddling) in the rain.

A small (but perfectly formed) team of racers made the trip down to Warwickshire with us fileding two K2s and two K1s across divisions 9 to 7. A few glitches in the Hasler Race management software meant that Ellie nearly got an easy race in Div 8 but Deb went and sorted it out with the organisers such that Ellie ended up racing in her proper division (which I'm sure she appreciated).

Despite the rain it was an interesting race - first time for us at Leamington, marked by the fact that it's an extremely short 500m section of river between two buoys and so to make a longish (4.5 mile) hasler race, we ended up doing three loops - yes SIX turns!!!. This was reflected by the times (not just for us, for everyone) being a little slower than you might expect for a normal Hasler.

A good effort all around though, with :

• Dave & Kate coming 3rd in Div 9 K2
• Matt & Cameron coming 2nd in Div 8 K2
• Andy coming 5th in Div 8 K1
• Ellie coming 7th in Div 7 K1

The club points hadn't been listed by the time we came away, but I've updated the rest of the Hasler results page which you can find here. No Lightning racers for us this week (although Grace & Rose Blackman were racing for Gailey coming 2nd & 3rd respectively) so our Lightning table hasn't changed.

I'll update the club points bit as soon as I know the results.

...there seem to be a lot of promotion congratulations recently...

Congratulations go to Ellie Barnes for being promoted to Girls C at last weekend's sprint regatta.

She managed to get into the A finals in K1 500m and 100m, B finals in 500m and 1000m with Sarah Walters from Burton and came 3rd in the K4 over both distances!

She also got to paddle OC2 and only got slightly damp.

A good weekend's work - especially for someone who was ill!

A group of us were having a conversation at training last night, and we realised that there were probably some things wrong with the way in which we've been counting points for the Club's own internal Hasler shield.

Firstly there was the issue of what we do with Lightnings. It's always been our wish to include Lightnings in the running for the main trophy, especially given that in most years we seem to have members crossing-over between Lightnings and the senior race. Because there isn't any divisional structure within Lightnings we felt that we had to use the standard Hasler split of Lighning races counting 10 points and down compared to the senior race being 20 points and down.

What we have realised however is that this means that people who *just* race Lightnings aren't getting adequate recognition, and so we've decided that as well as Lightning points being counted within the main club table, we'll maintain a separate "champions" list for the Lighning paddlers to ensure that their efforts don't get overlooked.

Secondly, it was pointed out that the Hasler Race Management system includes a number of relatively complex rules about discounting the points of people racing "out of region" as well as the rather ridiculous rule about your points only counting if you're within 110% of the time of the winning Team which cost us, as a club, so many points at Gailey.

The national Hasler rules do provide a useful starting point, but we don't feel that we need to be bound by them, so what we are proposing for the internal club trophy are scoring rules as follows.

1. You can earn points for the club Trophy by competing in any qualifying regional race - for Midlands this is Ironbridge, Fladbury, Lincoln, Gailey, Anker Valley, Worcester, Leamington, Nottingham, Buron, Hereford, Shropshire and Soar Valley.

2. Of course we would encourage people to  compete outside of region (and we sometimes do) but this helps us to focus on the fact that we need regional qualifying points to take us to the Hasler finals.

3. You will earn points based on your position *on the day* irrespective of whether the people you are competing with are paddling in our out of their own region. We're all doing the same race after all.

4. Points will be awarded for seniors starting as 20 for a 1st, 19 for a second and so forth down to 1 point for everyone who completes the race. We will ignore the "your points don't count if there's a very fast team in your race" rule which the BCU uses.

5. Lightings will have a similar system starting at 10 points, *but* we will actively recognise the efforts and results of our Lightning paddlers by maintaining a separate award just for Lightnings. Lightning points will also count towards the main trophy for members who are moving between Lightnings and the Senior race.

I'm going to go back and correct the table based on these changes to the rules as it was felt that the Gailey results unfairly penalised a number of our K2 teams. An event where there are a large number of out-of-region paddlers (such as you get at an assessment race or as happened at Worcester) would also skew the numbers from what we are trying to do with this award - "To encourage consistent successful paddling which contributes to the standing of the club nationally and recognises personal achievement".

We appreciate that this may cause some changes in the middle of the table (I don't think it will make any difference at the top) and that effectively we're changing the rules halfway through the game, but it seemed to us these were imnportant changes. If anyone has strong objections to these changes or they think that we've missed somethingthen please give Deb or I a call.

I'm confident that the race team will be guided by wanting to make the rules fair for everyone rather than requesting changes which improve their own particular standing in the table - remember we're only half way through the season so there is everything still to play for.

I've updated the personal and club championship lists after Worcester.

Rather than keep cluttering up the blog pages with them, I've set them up as a single page over here

In summary not a lot of change in the personal results, but we've dropped one place to equal 5th in the club championship. Well done to those who turned out on a bank holiday weekend to race, and well done to Ellie and Cam for getting back in and completing after an early swim.

Promoted to div 8 at Chester.

Well done Matt!

Update: Apologies, but I managed to forget to put Ellie and my K1 results into the table when I did the update on Sunday evening, and Deb also spotted an error in the way I calulate averages. Now fixed (I think)!

The new look leader board after the (provisional) results for Anker Valley. No change at the top of the table but some shuffling within the top 10.

The consolidated results for Chester are now up. Remember that because it's out of region these don't count for hasler points (either for individuals, the club or for our own Hasler Shield) but you can get promoted/demoted at an out-of-region race (although no-one did this time much to Deb's annoyance).

The usual suspects from Team SHP were out having a lovely paddle in the sunshine and performing as follows:

Deb - K1 Div 7 - 9th

Andy - K1 Div 8 - 7th

Connor & Joseph - K2 Div 7 - 2nd

Marcus & Cameron - K2 Div 7 - 3rd (yes, Cam making a huge jump from Lightning to Div 7 K2 !!)

Matt & Ellie - K2 Div 9 (Div 8/9 consolidated) - 2nd

Kate & Dave - K2 Div 9 - 4th

Just a reminder that this Sunday is the Anker Valley (near Nuneaton) Hasler race. This is a Midlands regional race at which we need to field a team and give it our best shot to ensure that we maintain (or improve) our place in the club league table. Just to remind you we are currently 8th and only the top 8 teams go to the hasler finals so there is currently NO margin for slippage. Over the rest of the summer we really need club members out on the water performing as well as we can.

You can register on the day if you must, but it would be helpful if you can let Deb know if you're racing or not before Friday so that she can put the race entry in on Friday evening
(e-mail: deb (at) thelemming.org tel: 07747 535341)

Where are we going?

The venue is Anker Valley Canoe Club, Apple Pie Lane, Hartshill, Nuneaton, CV10 0SU

Check in from 9.30 a.m.
Lightning race                    Briefing                10.45     Start   11.00
4 mile course                     Briefing                10.45     Start   11.30
8 & 12 mile courses           Briefing                12.30     Start    12.45

Race fees are Adults - £6.00, Juniors - £5.00, Lightning - £3.00

Race admin stuff

Please remember that:

1. If you want to race for the club (and we *really* want you to do so, then  you must have renenewed your membership by then (or else you'll have to race as an independent which doesn't win the club any points).

2. You need to have comprehensive membership of the BCU to race (or you can buy a day ticket if you are in div 7 and below, but only once each season)

3. You need to be wearing club colours - most of the race team have their own, but we have a number of club vests if you need to borrow one. Please let us know *before* Sunday morning.

Maria completed the final day of the DW this morning in time for breakfast. Her total time was 30:51:22.

Well done Maria.