Watching the Clifton Race

George kept a watchful eye on the Clifton Race and for many years did all the timing himself. The rota was introduced and Norman handed that over to Kath after a few years. George continued to maintain the race records until the last set in February 2020.

Early days of  George running the Clifton Race (1980s)

 He still kept an eye on it till this year. This one is a 2015 Clifton Race

Hot race; cold air

Clifton time trial on a Tuesday night is turning into a spicy event. The number of top UK paddlers past and present seems to increase every week, despite cold, damp and general economic depression. This week saw Tim Brabants, Jonny Schofield & James Block all out in K1 together with the usual diehard club paddlers. You need to be pretty quick to get the washes, but they are there for those who want to try. It may be dark and chilly to the majority of the Nottingham population, but on the Trent at 6:00 on a Tuesday night it's scorching hot and illuminated by flashes of gold!

Just Another Tuesday

So after all that we return to just another Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. and just another Clifton 5 mile time trial. The only really notable performance came from Tadek who returned from holiday and produced a PB.

More photos on http://picasaweb.google.com/nottmkc/Clifton

Clifton - Tuesday

The nights are darkening, but the conditions (apart from the midges) were excellent for some serious racing! Younger juniors partnering old fogies and World Champions added to the interest. Tadek had the pleasure and privilege of paddling with Tim Brabants, World Champion and did 36:36. Great to see that the very best amongst us can spare a little time for the rising stars of tomorrow! Everyone else there was envious and would have swapped places with Tadek. Kath paddled with Tadek's brother Ziggy and Mick paddled with Ricky. A good time was had by all. The Chmiel family cheering section was on the bank to keep us all going & Geordie discovered the secret of how to get the best club boats, by paddling with The President! Marish paddled with Heather, thereby giving the cheerleaders plenty of crews to offer their encouragement to.

Tuesday - Clifton

A busy night with lots of people paddling, either the time trial or in Beth C's group or just paddling. The weather was good, warm, sunny & calm.
Tim Brabants raced tonight, powering past every one to do just over 32 minutes. From total beginner to World Champion paddling tonight. What other sports enjoy such a wide span at one club on just another late summer evening?

Clifton

The conditions were good & we had a timekeeper this week! Altogether there were 43 people racing in addition to Beth C's group which was the biggest yet. The club was the busiest as it has been all summer despite some obvious faces missing. Hayleigh is on her way to Hungary for the Worlds!
Shob confirmed her unofficial PB from last week with a slightly slower 44:58 & Beth took nearly 2 minutes off her time with a new PB of 45:26. Simon & Barry also managed new PBs in K1 while Jenny C & Adam did a new K2 PB for them.

Clifton

The Trent was at normal levels, there was no thunderstorm, it was fairly sunny if a bit breezy, in fact almost what we would expect for the time trial this time of year. This could account for the whole crop of PBs, Season's Bests & a World Record.
The straight PBs in K1 were from Michelle, Beth & Simon. The K2 PBs were from Dave & Alice, Martin & Minnie, Michael & Becky, Kath & Laura, Mick & Ricky.
The season's bests were Norman & Des who did a PB and now hold the Over 50s K2 time for this season. Paul & Shobhanaa took the Veteran Junior season's best with their PB of 35:50. Dave & Matt captured the Mens K2 time for this season.
The truly great performance came yet again from from Hayleigh, this time in K2 with Tina who now hold the all time World record for Ladies K2. Well done Tina that's a neat way to stay in the record books after Hayleigh broke your other World Records in the past few weeks.
Altogether there were 37 people paddling tonight.

Tuesday Night

Now the Times Book is available, it is possible to record just how successful the Tuesday evening Clifton race was this week!
At the top of the list is Hayleigh's outstanding result of 34:59 which is both a PB & a new "World Record" for Ladies K1. Well done Hayleigh from all of us.
Shobhanaa, now with a PB of 45:22 took over a minute off her time. Simon managed a PB of 43:48, Tom is now down to 36:44 & Michael, despite his aborted attempt on the White Water boat World Record, did manage a PB of 38:19. Perhaps he needs to approach it a little more "quietly" to get the result he wants!

Tuesday - Clifton & other things.

Had there not been a BT engineer fixing the club phone & the proximity of a fire engine, one wonders what the outcome would have been for the club & for Ray Sims! As it is, the disaster is confined to his workshop & we express our sympathy with him, but are grateful that it was just his workshop & not him that went up in smoke!
The river is back to normal & suddenly everyone was out in K1s again. Congratulations to Shobhanaa for taking over a minute off her PB.
Rumour has it that Hayleigh did a World Record too, but the times book is nowhere about to confirm it!
Beth C had a small select group out tonight too, with Laura in a K1 for the first time. Beth said she looked so comfortable in it that you wouldn't have guessed it was the first time.

Clifton & more high water

The weather looked & felt summery, but last night's Clifton Time Trial was done on winter level water again. Cathy & Martin, paddling together for the first time were the only PB, but Baggy & Alison deserve a mention for only being a couple of seconds short of theirs. Numbers were slightly depleted & most people opted for K2 or a White Water boat. Some turned at the Toll Bridge including Beth C who took Ricky, her one & only junior paddler in a K2.
The other juniors all turned in good times, with Shobhanaa & Lizzie doing a time that would have probably meant a PB at normal summer levels.
Well done to everyone for just being there.

Tuesday Night

The river is on its way up again & is back to the same level that it was 2 weeks ago, 3 inches above the "slalom pole boards" outside the club. Despite the conditions there were 3 PBs, from Michelle, Shobhanaa & Kath/Sarah. This obviously means more from them once the river gets back down to normal again. More torrential rain just after the race & more on the way suggests that this may not be for some time yet.
Big thanks go to Nick, who took the younger juniors up to the Toll Bridge in the absence of Beth.

Tuesday sessions - Clifton

Beth C had her growing group of young juniors down, eager to paddle again.
The river was nearly back to normal level, the breeze was not too strong & the temperature mild. There was a reasonable number of K1s & K2s down for the Clifton time trial. As always, there was some contentious handicapping & a little serious "chopping up" in the groups. Alison improved her PB by several minutes in her new K1 which she was able to get out and race at last. Beth W & I took nearly one and a half minutes off ours. It was my second fastest time in K2 with anyone since 1984. Thanks Beth!

Tuesday - Clifton

The rain held off until after the race, but the river remains fairly high.
It was again a night for K2s, with Steve & Alison yet again managing a PB. The earlier groups seemed to cope with the conditions a little better than last week. There was considerable hacking & hewing going on in the middle group & a few people had fairly bizzare start times. There was obviously a strong competitive streak amongst the faster crews, with boats being dug out of cobwebs & covers amidst strong suggestions that people were appropriating seats! Tom proved that paddling a K1 half a metre above the water is not his only aim in life, by approaching it from the same distance below the boat. He was the only paddler to attempt to negociate the 350 metres between Trent Bridge & the finish line, lying on the back deck of his boat!
Beth C had a good group who coped with the conditions well.

Clifton - Tuesday

The conditions were a bit extreme for June! The river was above the steps outside the club by several inches & was moving fast. It was a good night for K2s with 11 out & only 6 K1s. Steve & Alison managed a PB of 41:34 while mortals like us settled for survival.
Beth C's group stayed off the water in the circumstances.

Tuesday - Clifton

Not a memorable Clifton apart from Kat & Gilly taking nearly 3 minutes off their PB which was quite outstanding. It was a reasonable turnout with a few doing Beth's junior session too.

Tuesday - Clifton Race

The weather was not the best, with a stiff upstream wind. There were no memorable incidents. PBs of note were from Tim & Jody, Martin & Minnie in K2s & Giles in White Water Racer. It is worth mentioning that the 2 K2s were Dads & Daughters crews. Could this be a new emerging class? Despite a slightly dismal evening 30 paddlers still turned out and did the race.

Clifton

It was not a night for PBs. The wind was not really strong, the river was not really high despite the rain, but times seemed to be slow & the river felt like treakle. Kath & I started 30 seconds behind the 10 minute group & made very little impression on them until the embankment cross over before the Toll Bridge. We worked hard and caught a little more by the "power station" cross over where they crossed low & we crossed high. That halved the remaining distance in one go. The advantage of crossing in the deep water above the "shingle bar" was obviously quite significant in those conditions. There were only a few people down & several of them did K2. Craig & Beth W were the only juniors to turn up for Clifton although Beth C had 3 more in her group. Obviously half term holidays & revision reducing numbers there. Craig did K2 with George again doing about 40:30 with Dave & Geordie.

Tuesday Session

A beautiful evening, Beth C had 3 juniors for her session, 30 paddlers doing the time trial. Steve swam & still did a decent time, Wes retired sick. Cathy started late, but did a good time. Hayleigh did a PB! Kath did her best K1 time for years. The 14 minute group of 6 looked more like a Div 4 marathon start! I timed.
What else is there to say?

Tuesday Night

There were 36 doing Clifton time trial last night plus 4 on Beth C's session. It was the best part of the day & conditions were nearly ideal.
Fastest was Matt F on 36:00 minutes & Hayleigh was only 2 seconds short of her PB. Marysh was on track for a PB, but opted instead for a swimming demo outside the rowing clubs on the way back! For the rest there were 10 PBs
Beth & I took 40 odd seconds off ours & moved into the fastest Vet/Junior slot for this year. Kat/Gilly improved theirs & are now the fastest Ladies K2 for 2007. Mark H from Leicester, going faster all the time did a PB & has the fastest Junior K1 time so far (36:27). The other PBs were from Alison, Nick/Phil, Craig/George, Norman/Cathy from NKC plus Matt/Tom & Alex from the Leicester juniors. It was good to see the Leicester lads down again.

Clifton Presentation Photo's 2007

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Kath Nadal overall series winner.
Michael Simms Most improved junior.
Steve Bagshaw Veteran winner.

Pictures of the winners were meant to be taken but only a couple turned out, as our camera man Des was wasn't too good at pressing the button!