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.

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.

Dave Reevey, pictured right raced well both days.  With a much improved smoothness to his paddling style, finished 8th on Saturday & 6th on Sunday.

Daves efforts were however surpassed by Les, pictured left, who was 5th on Saturday and stormed into 2nd on Sunday, narrowly missing out on 1st place.

The event was enjoyed by all, aided by the beautiful surroundings and weather.

Next 3/4 slalom is Stone on June 5th & 6th, with team runs on the saturday

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.

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?

With lighter evenings comes the return of Wednesday Salom training, starting 31st March.

Training starts at 6 if you have your own boat & paddle please bring them along as I'm not sure how many slalom boats are available to use.

Bring a watch with a stopwatch on too if you have one.

See you on the canal, Anita

Most Improved Slalom Paddler - Matt Whittle

Hasler Marathon Shield - Dave Barnes and Kate Jinks

Karan Porter award for most improved whitewater paddler - Dave Reevy

Swimmer of the Year - the Wavehopper K5 team of Ellie Barnes, Tim Bevan, Will Bevan, Marcus Whittle & Hayden Gauge

Comedy Moment of the Year - Dave Barnes & Kate Jinks

Open Boater(s) of the Year - Christine Barstow and Dorothy Haughton

Young Boater of the Year - Florence Whittle

The club also recognised the achievements of all its paddlers across many disciplines - Slalom, Marathon, Sprint, White Water, Open boating, Bellboating and Recreational.

Finally, thanks were expressed to everyone who has been involved in the club during the course of the year - through coaching, fixing things, driving people around to races and training events, organising trips, raising money, working on the rebuild of the shed or just through coming out and enjoying their paddling!!