shropshirepaddlesport.org - the blog

Yesterday's trip to Gailey ended up being a beautiful day in the sunshine despite a whole load of administrative mucking around which ended up with at least two of our crews missing their start time and one person not being able to race at all.

This was the first race in our region since the new rules came into play, and it's clear that the BCU are rigidly enforcing them, so to repeat them for clarity (taken from the updated Hasler rules document and the website)

Stronger rules will apply in future.
A current BCU membership card or a photocopy must be produced at race check in.  If not:
a)       paddlers ranked in divisions 1 to 6 will not be permitted to race.
b)       paddlers ranked in divisions 7, 8 and 9 may purchase an Event Ticket.
Race entries will be checked for BCU membership.   Hasler points will be deleted and the race will not count as a Hasler qualifying race for any paddler subsequently found not to have had current membership or to have purchased more than one Event Ticket in the season.
The rules will apply similarly for juniors ranked in divisions 7, 8 and 9 who must prove their membership of the Youth Section of their club.

So what this means is that:

1. If you're an adult you have to be a comprehensive member of the BCU and bring your card along to prove this. Full stop,no argument.

2. If you're a junior ranked in Div 7,8,9 or a Lightning paddler then you are exempt from this BUT you still have to show your membership card which shows you are a member of an affiliated club. We (Deb & I) have these cards and will be re-issuing them as soon as all the membership renewals are in (hint hint!)

3. If you're a junior ranked higher than Div 7 then you need to be a fully comprehensive member as though you were an adult.

4. If you are in Div 7,8,9 then you will be allowed ONE event ticket if you have forgotten your membership card. For higher divisions this is not permitted.

5. If you try to mess them around the BCU will disqualify you and take your points away!

Ok, admin stuff over - what about the race?

Well it was a typical Gailey race - very bouncy on the water and at times it seemed to be more about staying upright than moving forward. There were a few swims but our club came away relatively unscathed. We had a good entry from the club and individual results stacked up like this:

Sam & Emlyn came 1st in Div 9 K2

Dave & Kate came 6th in Div 9 K2 but they were paddling a rudderless bath tub with a specially designed skeg...

Phil & Alice came 2nd in Div 8 K2

Ellie & Matt came 7th in Div 8 K2

Deb & Will came 9th in Div 8 K2

The mopheads came 4th in Div 7 K2 in their first div 7 race

Andy came 14th in Div 8 K1

Tim came 6th in U12 Lightning

In terms of club points it was a bit disappointing as there was one very fast Div 8 K2 team who were so far ahead of everyone else that no other team in Div 8 got more than minimum points and something similar happened in Div 7 K2 so we came away with 5 club points (thank goodness for Emlyn, Sam, Kate, Dave, Andy and Tim) for the event which currently puts us 8th in the table (top 8 clubs go to the final).

I'll put the numbers into the spreadsheet and publish it over the next couple of days.

Thanks to everyone who came and raced and supported.

Before we go into Sunday's race at Gailey just a reminder of the current club leader board.

Race results after Fladbury - 2 races in

It's a Lambert / Jinks / Whittle / Barnes cluster at the top of the table at the moment, but lots and lots of space for everyone else to improve on their score - remember if you don't compete you can't earn points, either for yourself or for the club.

This Sunday (29 March) sees the first hasler race of 2009. Its Gailey which is close to home - and a great race for stable boats. Its a bit choppy otherwise - but can result in some fast times - its where Marcus & Jess got promoted last year.

Racing for the club means that we get points. Last year we got enough points to qualify for the hasler finals which were great. It would be brilliant to qualify again - BUT WE NEED BODIES ON THE WATER FOR THAT. You don't have to be good, you don't have to win - you just have to turn up, paddle and have fun!

Check in is 11am with div 7-9 and lightnings starting at 11:30 and divs 1-6 at 13:00 hours.

If you intend to race, or want more information, please let Deb know. I need to know:
What division you intend to race in
Whether its K1 or K2 (and if K2 who you're paddling with)
Which boat you intend to use if you're not using your own boat
Whether you need a race vest; the club has a limited supply of junior and senior colours for loan.

Please also remember club colours and BCU membership cards for seniors and juniors in div 6 and above.

Anita won the div 7,8,9 duathlon series following a silver medal at Burton!

Well done Anita!

In Gailey news - Bruce came second in the div 4-6 series and Grace won the lightning competition, with Rose 3rd.

Just a reminder that the re-scheduled Shropshire Duathlon (which was originally due to be run on Saturday 7th January) is being run on SUNDAY Feb 22nd i.e. this Sunday coming.

Apart from the change of day from a Saturday to a Sunday, all arrangements were as before. All offers of help and assistance (for car parking, turn-marshalls etc) gratefully received - please contact Bruce Blackman (race organiser) or one of the other members of the committee if you wish to volunteer your services.

Otherwise now that it's warmed up a bit, why not come along and give it a go - for the lower divisions it's only 2 km running + 4 km paddlling + 1 km running. Apparently this isn't very far at all (at least that's what they told Phil Bevan and I when we were talked into trying it a couple of weeks ago...)

This year's DW pre-race season got underway at the weekend with Waterside 'A' the first of the Waterside Series (an important race series in their own right). Waterside A is from Great Bedwyn to Newbury and covers 13.5 miles with 21 portages - effectively the second half of Day 1 for the DW 4-day event..

We were hoping for three teams from our club but Phil and Alice weren't able to start (after Phil injured himself at the pool session on Saturday) and I've not been able to find Emlyn on the lists at all, so I assume he didn't eventually compete.

This left Maria (supported by Nigel on the bank) to uphold the honour of the club, which she did logging a time of 3:35:01 (after that much paddling and portaging, the 1 second is clearly important).

Well Saturday morning dawned beautifully sunny up at Queens Head, but of course it was all still frozen. Despite the beautiful weather if we had gone ahead I think we'd have had quite a lot of teams chosing not to travel because of the bad weather forecast and also the sound of a large number of very expensive boats being chopped up by the icy waters of the Montgomery Canal.

The usual suspects turned up anyway to stand around and gossip in the sunshine and to turn away anyone who thought there might still have been a race on, but thanks to emails, the blog and some heroic 'phoning around by Bruce the message seemed to have got through to everyone that we'd cancelled.

It was very pretty up there though...

Winter view of the road bridge

Is the pub open yet...?

Sorry chaps - I've just heard from Bruce.  The canal is frozen and the duathlon has been postponed although a new date has yet to be fixed.

Folk will still be down tomorrow I imagine so we can see if conditions are suitable for taking out short boats, opens or the bell boat if anyone wants to meet up.

The club duathlon will be held at Queens Head rather than Shrewsbury due to river levels. It will start with registration from 9.30 with the lightning brief at 10.30 (race at 10:45) and the seniors brief is 11:15 starting to run at 11:30.

This means that there will be no club session on Saturday. However anyone who wants to take part in the race or is able to help is more than welcome to come down anyway!

Contact Deb or Bruce for more information.

The club session on Saturday morning with successful with almost all the lads (plus Gill Otto) chosing to trial the course for the duathlon (which they all did successfully; Cameron decided that the lightning option was a little short so added a couple more runs on to it and Andy has nearly stopped limping and wincing every time he stands up) leaving Caroline Bevan et al to go on a nature paddle to the rat pool spotting kingfishers, lambs and snowdrops.
Aww very pretty.