2012 News
National Canoe Slalom Bib Numbers for 2013
The official rankings for the 2012 season, and bib numbers for the 2013 season were published at the end of November. Congratulations again to Patrick, Lizzie and Mark on their promotions to Division 1. A summary of our ranked paddlers is provided to the left.
Matlock Division 2/3 Canoe Slalom Competition
21/10/12 - We had an excellent weekend at this, the last canoe slalom competition of the year. The river was running high, but not so high as to wash out the features. We even had some sun once the fog lifted.
We achieved most of the results that we had been hoping for. Lizzie Collins came second in the Women's K1 class on the Saturday, and won on the Sunday, giving her promotion to Division 1. A near-faultless performance on the second day put her 8 seconds ahead of the competition - faster than most of the men! Joe Tallis came fifth on the Saturday and second on the Sunday in the Men's Division 3 K1 class, earning promotion to Division 2. In the C1 class Patrick Marriott came third on the Saturday, and second on the Sunday and was promoted, after less than four months in Division 2. Patrick is our second C1 paddler to be promoted to Division 1, and joins Matt Cook.
Our fastest paddler during the weekend was Robbie Cook. He put in two solid performances, but they weren't quite good enough to get him the promotion that he was looking for. Sam Pateman and Patrick Marriott won the Junior prize in the C2 class on the Sunday, and Kath Stoner won the Junior prize on the Saturday in Division 3. Our less experienced Division 3 paddlers had a challenging day on the Saturday (Chris Row, Isaac Taylor and Jack Perchard), but hopefully they found the experience useful, if a little wet! John didn't win anything, but did lose his trousers...again.
John Stoner and Patrick Marriott
Division 1 Promotions
30/09/12 - Congratulations to Patrick Marriott on his promotion to Division 1. His second place at the Washburn gave him the points needed. Patrick is our third, and youngest member to make it into this division.
Congratulations also to Mark Stoner, who after two wins at Cardington and a fifth place at West Tanfield has also won promotion to Division 1.
John Stoner
Mark Stoner winning at Cardington in September
Our Inter-Clubs Team 2012
National Inter-Club Championships 2012
An excellent 11th place! Thanks to the support team of Ruth Tallis, Nick Collins, Lyn Courtney and Craig Pateman for contributing to a very successful weekend at Cardington near Bedford. And a special thankyou to Di for making up our womens team, and doing it very successfully!
We were up against many of the most successful clubs in the country - so 11th place should be considered to be something very special.
It was good to see Mark, Louis and Matt return from their universities and jobs in far-flung places to compete for us, and remind us how good they are!
Well done to everybody. And Katherine's video is worth a look!
John Stoner
Cardington Division 2/3/4 Canoe Slalom Competition
24/06/12 - Eight of our members competed at this weekend event near Bedford. We had some excellent results on the first day, and some not-so-good results on the second! Lizzie kept up her unbeaten record by winning her first Division 2 competition on the Saturday. Patrick Marriott put in an excellent performance in both K1 and C1, getting a second place in Division 2 K1, and promotion points in Division 3 C1. Joe Tallis also had a good day, coming second in the Men's K1 Division 3 class.
Things didn't go so well on the Sunday. One might have concluded that we'd had a night on the town the evening before - but I can assure you that we hadn't! Our best result was probably Patrick's - he again obtained very good points in the C1 class and was promoted to Division 2.
John Stoner
Abbey Rapids
02/06/12 - Some good results were achieved at this slalom near Barnard Castle - inspite of the appalling weather. Patrick, Sam, Mark and Joe all achieved their best results of the season so far. On the Saturday Katherine won the Women's Division 3 K1 class and on the Sunday Joe won the Under 16 prize in the Men's Division 3 K1 class. Well done all.
Our team at Orton Mere
Orton Mere and Llandysul Canoe Slalom Competitions
27/05/12 - Congratulations to Lizzie on her two wins at Orton Mere - she's now unbeaten in six races, and is promoted to Division 2. Well done also to Sam Swinfen and Jack Perchard on their promotions to Division 3, and to Patrick on his 2nd place and 800 points in the C1 class. And, not sure why he kept it a secret, but Robbie was at Llandysul racking up the points while we were at Peterborough. On the Sunday he achieved his best result ever with a 4th place in the Men's Division 2 K1 class.
Many thanks to Nick and Diane for their help with the transport, catering and camping at Orton Mere. It was great to get such good weather for a change!
Holme Pierrepont Division 4 Canoe Slalom
17/03/12 - Some of our younger paddlers attended the first Division 4 canoe slalom competition of the year at Holme Pierrepont on 17th March. All did very well. We were up against some very stiff competition - the winner of the Division 4 men's class put in a time that would have beaten some Division 2 paddlers! Our youngest competitor, Sam was awarded the Junior under-12 prize. Chris Row tried out our brand new C1 and seemed to enjoy it, although after a few hours of kneeling down, he did express interest in getting back into a seated position!
The weather was very kind to us - not a drop of rain, inspite of a forecast earlier in the week that was predicting heavy rain all day. We even had some sunshine for a while! Thanks to Jo Gutteridge, Matt Cook, and all the parents for helping out.
John Stoner
Our Junior competitors at the National Watersports Centre, Holme Pierrepont
Patrick at the Shepperton Division 2 Slalom
Shepperton Division 2 Canoe Slalom
11/03/12 - John, Patrick and Sam spent the weekend at the first Division 2 slalom of the season. The Division 1 competition that had been scheduled to run at the same time was cancelled due to lack of water. However, there was still enough of a flow to make a reasonably interesting course (sufficiently difficult to enable John to get more than 100 penalties on his first run on the Sunday). Being the start of the season, it was a high quality field. Even so, Patrick managed to get two top-half results.
The weather was very good for the time of year, with a fair amount of sunshine. Fearing the worst, we had booked some cheap hotel rooms well in advance; as things turned out, we could quite easily have camped. Craig and Patricia accompanied Sam and Patrick. John's Mum stayed at home!
John Stoner
Wales White Water Weekend
26/02/12 - In late February, some of our more advanced paddlers ventured to Wales for some whitewater kayaking. An excellent time was had by all. The weather was good, the water challenging, and we only had two swimmers the entire weekend.
Jake did a great job of leading on the second day, and Matt can confirm that it's not wise to wear shorts when swimming in a very cold river - even if it is sunny!
We stayed in a bunkhouse just north of Rhayader. Craig did a greate job of supporting us with transport and catering - best spotted dick I've had in a while. And thanks to Cambike Snaps for some great photographs.
John Stoner
