Shropshire Paddlesport Hasler Race

Only 4 paddlers from NKC went to Queen's Head in Shropshire to race on one of the narrowest and most picturesque course in the Midlands. We all came away with a mug and 77 points between us.

In the 4 mile race, there can be little doubt how much Mick and Kath enjoyed themselves even if they did only get a group of little girls to race against! Just look at the picture of them finishing. You can't tell me that Kath is just "out for a bit of a paddle!"

Congratulations to Robbie for getting promoted - following the NKC recent Div 4 tradition of turning the race into a triathlon and still winning and getting promoted.

Dave also had an interesting tussle with Phil from Gailey, leaving the young lads in Div 3 far behind. He did look fairly weary as he came to the finish just in 2nd place.

Some more photos from Shropshire

Shropshire Paddlesport Hasler Race

The Montgomery Canal at Queens Head near Oswestry was the venue for this week's Hasler race. As with Hereford, only a small group of Nottingham paddlers made the two and a bit hour trek to race. The weather was hot, the canal was narrow, but the welcome warm. The refurbishment of the old Green Barn is well under way, so facilites are likely to be much better in future years.
For a change there were no trophies for NKC, but the 4 of us managed to score 61 points, giving 4 Hasler points. The Host club scored the 10 points and Worcester scored 9 points leaving them only 5 points behind us on the Midlands Hasler Table.

For the rest of the details use the links below.
Race results.
More photos.

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.

Shropshire Results

Shropshire results can now be found on the NKC Website, the Marathon Website or click here.

Some more photos from Shropshire

Shropshire

The racing at Shropshire made another excellent day for the five of us that went from NKC. Plus, we had some pretty good results with 4th & 5th from Kath and I, and Beth and Sarah in the 7/8 k2 race. Perhaps the best result was Mick's win in his k1 in Division 5, which Beth and I predicted, even when we saw that he was out at the back of the group just after the sprint start! Kath and I had a very enjoyable race, and I'm glad that the start was split into two groups, as the turn seemed chaotic enough with only three boats there at the same time as us. Aside from that, both of us were happy that there was no need to go through any of the narrow bridges in a big group!

Shropshire Race

The Shropshire Paddlesport race is a new one on the Midlands Hasler calendar. It was worth a trip to see what it was like. The welcome was warm & friendly & they were generous with prizes.
Entries were mainly in the lower divisions with split starts for some classes. Beth & Sarah went off with the first 4 in Div 7/8 K2, while Kath & Shob took the second start.


The course for the lower divisions is a short 4 miles with a number of very narrow sections, but a wider area to turn. There were a few entries in Divs 4, 5, & 6 K1 with only 2 in the 5/6 The higher divisions did the same course as the lower ones & then carried on past the club over 3 locks to a turn again in a wider basin, before returning over the locks & back to the club. For people who have done Waterside they were easy, with only one slightly high (60cm) drop. Most of the mud on the course was around the clubhouse, so was no problem to the competitors, but like Glastonbury is all part of the fun for spectators.
Lightning paddlers did a shorter course which is ideal for young paddlers with access on the towpath for the entire length. The fun race & Lightnings got higher entries than most other Midlands events & they clearly have the foundations of a lively & successful racing club in the future.
Despite a few very heavy showers, the weather was mostly warm with quite a bit of sunshine.

The ladies did their race & managed a 4th & 5th place, then lazed around in the sunshine while I did mine.
I squeezed ahead of Mark Clive in a most enjoyable & civilized race. Having dropped the rest of the field, we did "bit & bit" until nearly the last lock & finished within a second of each other.
He just beat me at Leamington & it was a pleasure to race against him again. It shouldn't be long before he leaves me for "dead" & gets promoted to Div 4 and onward.

Despite the 200 mile round trip to Oswestry it was a good day out, yet again in excellent company.