shropshirepaddlesport.org - the blog

We had a text from Paul yesterday to say that Harry Crisp was born at about quarter to four on Saturday morning weighing in at 8lb 7.  All are doing well. Congratulations to Paul and Natalie.

SHP seems to have had an amazingly successful day yesterday .

At Lincoln, Ellie came second in div 7 and Dave came second in div 8 - his first ever K1 race, and his first div 8 race.  Fortunately he wasn't promoted otherwise Kate might have ensured that it was his last race ever.  It looks like Dave is going for the club Hasler trophy again - somebody please stop him!!!

(Results page now updated to reflect Lincoln results)

Re friends in other clubs, Sarah Walters (Burton) came 5th in her first div 6 K1 race and was the fastest woman at the event and Tom Lusty (Solihull) came second in his frst div 6 k1 race and got promoted to div 5.  We remember the days when it was Tom's ambition to beat Kate and Dave with his parter Jenny Barber.  Go Tom!!

At Stone Slalom the club was very successful although I only have partial results.  Hopefully somebody who was there - and actually understands this spinny boat stuff - will write this up more fully.  Hoewever, I do know that Joseph Whittle came 1st in the men's K1 event and third with Will bevan in C2 juniors;  Matt Whittle came 2rd overall by 0.3 of a second, Marcus Whittle came first by 30 seconds in his race and Florence Whittle got first out of all the the div 4 women.

Well done all!

Can you believe it - we're already two races into the season. A small but perfectly formed Shropshire Paddlesport team went off to Fladbury and had a completely storming day.

Dave & Kate took a comfortable win in Div 9 K2 and finally bowed to the inevitable and have been promoted to Div 8. Ellie's K2 partner - Sarah Walters from Burton - was promoted to Div 6 at the Hasler Finals and so they were now both racing the 8 mile course. Unconfirmed rumour has it that Ellie was even seen to run a portage !

I've updated the results page to reflect Soar Valley and Fladbury - at this stage the leader board is completely up for grabs, but as a club we've got a lot to do if we're going to make to the cut before the Hasler Finals in 2010 (and yes, before anyone else points it out I know I've not been in a boat for months !)

Well it was a beautiful sunny day in Reading with a lot of good racing on, as usual, a fairly lumpy bit of river. Mixed fortunes for the SHP collective but Anita and Gari upheld the honour of the club taking silver in their K2 race. A cracking Lightning run for Tim Bevan as well in his last L1 race seeing off a number of the usual competition.

Full results when they're confirmed, but in the meantime a few pictures from the weekend

Gari & Anita collecting their silver

Matt powering off the start line

Dave & Kate in the bedlam of the Div 9 K2 start - it's quieter up in Div 8, honest !

Tim looking determined...

Sam and cam looking knackered

Well, it doesn't seem to have been the best race for SHP but sometimes things just don't go your way.  With Ellie and the mopheads having to retire through illness, Matt running into trouble part way round and Cam & Marcus being bounced into the bank the youngsters didn't have the best day out.

On the other hand Kate and Dave came 4th in a combined div 8/9 race beating a number of div 8 crews and the sun shone. That promotion has to be iminent.

Overall the club got 2 points.

Congratulations to Matthew Whittle winning Saturday's & Sunday's division 3 Men's K1 event & Gari Sumner for gaining 5th position on the Saturday which gave him enough points to be promoted to division 2!

Full results of this event are available from www.canoeslalom.co.uk

Further dates for your diary:  Bala Mill Div 2/3 (double) Sept 26 & 27 (1 event Sat, 1 event Sun)

                                              Stone  Div 3/4 Oct 11th

That then more or less is the end of the slalom season

Good luck to everyone competing in the interclubs in befford at the weekend - especially those doing their first ever paddlesport competition!

The national marathon championships took place this weekend with a strong team from Shropshire Paddlesport entered.  Amongst the juniors, Ellie Barnes came 10th in ladies U14 competition against top paddlers from all over the country, Matt Whittle came 19th in a strong field in the U14 men's race which included a number of paddlers who regularly race for Britain and Cameron Lambert came 13th in the U12's race.

In the crew races Ellie teamed up with Alice Russell to come 10th in the U14s K2 race and Cam & Matt finished just 19 seconds quicker than the girls - again coming 10th.  Ellie also raced in the U16 ladies K2 race with sprint partner Sarah Walters from Burton coming 11th out of 13.

The adults who were racing also had a very successful trip to Longridge with Kate & Dave taking silver in the national div 9 race and Anita and Gari taking bronze in the div 7 race.  Sam Rudd was also racing in div 8 K1 but her result appears to have got lost so this will updated when I've spoken to her or the website is amended!

Overall it was a very successful weekend's racing for Shropshire Paddlesport - well done guys!

Just to let you know Deb gave birth to Catherine Elizabeth just before 12 today. Both of them are doing fine but staying in hospital for a little while and I expect them to be home sometime over the weekend.

Andy

The clubs going to the Hasler final are:

1st Nottingham 90 points

2nd Worcester 89 points

3rd Gailey 64 points

4th Anker Valley 63 points

5th Solihull 62 points

6th Shropshire Paddlesport 60 points

7th Lincoln 55 points

8th Burton 53 points