Activities - Shropshire

There are still things going on at the club, like busy Friday nights with a good turn out each week from the juniors, several casual paddlers and a few seniors doing Round the Bridges time trials. Club members did well at Burton & Hereford Marathons too, as can be seen from the results on the club website. Lightning activity at Regattas has been the best ever, with good results in the Lightning, Hody K2 & Mini K4 events. Again details can be found via the club website & downloaded.

Perhaps because everyone is so busy paddling, we do have a shortage of people writing blog entries about it or taking photos, so to get it going again here are a few pictures from Burton, Hereford & Shropshire & a brief report.

Burton saw a good turn out by parents, supporters, veterans, juniors and Lightnings with excellent results. Hopefully there will be a few more pictures on the Gallery Blog before the end of the summer.

Two car loads made it to Hereford for a very windy day's racing.

Finally this weekend, the journey to Shropshire proved to be far easier than that to Hereford and although narrow, the racing there proved to be worth the Journey.

It was a bit tight for the Div 7 K2 start, but our two crews managed to stay out of trouble and get to the front group with little difficulty. The two Lightning paddlers each with their Div 7 junior partner, performed particularly well. Despite some interesting turning and an unfortunate collision, they finally finished in 2nd and 3rd places - an excellent result. Mick's Div 5 race was less crowded, but the younger ones shot off, leaving him to warm up on the first mile. After Matt (from Burton) dropped Mark (from Gailey) 2nd 3rd & 4th places came together in a group. By the finish, now fully warmed up and with fortune smiling on him at the 6th portage, Mick also managed to gain 2nd.

Hopefully there will be more photos on the Gallery of other activities soon.

Burton or not?

Not! Sadly the race on one of the most enjoyable courses in the Midlands was cancelled due to flooding! The message that the Hasler race was cancelled & a 10Km race would be run in its place was on their website and Kath, Beth & I were half way to there before the phone message, that it too was cancelled, stopped us in our tracks. We made our way reluctantly back to NKC & like most of the others who had planned to race at Burton, braved the conditions on our end of the Trent.
Most people headed upstream towards "the Pipe" which gave a similar sort of distance. Rumour has it that Matt F swam! Someone must have tipped him in, because the conditions were easier than some of the Friday night Mix & Match K2 sessions during the winter. With some hazy sun & a very rapid downstream leg, ours was a pleasant paddle. Beth had little difficulty & the paddle was lazy & relaxing.
Pity about the race though - we were all hoping to see the new Burton Clubhouse as well as enjoy the racing. Next year then ...
There is, however, a K1 10km race there on the evening of Friday 29th of June for those that can make it - sadly I don't think I can, unless all the Lightning paddlers want to go!
Details downloadable from the Burton website.