The weekend of the 29th – 30th June was a busy one for the club, with members racing all across Europe. We had a good representation at the Washburn Div 1 race on Saturday, a team out in Germany racing at the ECA in Augsburg and GB Team member Joe Clarke racing at the World Cup Race 3 in Tacen, Slovenia. But the main event of the weekend has to have been the Div3/4 race at Stone. It’s these grass-root events that allow everyone to take their first step onto the racing stage and hopefully onto bigger things. This weekend was no exception and as the thermometer started to rise early on Saturday so did the action.
We had a good team of paddlers across both divisions and all classes over the weekend. Competing were George Harratt, Rufus McGreary, Pete Appleton, Isaac & Theo Wright, Harry McKenna, Gabriel Rawlings-Croft, Nigel & Jacob Ogden, Sebastian & Amelia White, Peter Ridgeway, Alice & Lucy Williamson, Chloe Olivant, Finley, Jess, Adrian & Louise Croome, Millie Austin, Harvey Davies and Oliver Carney. As always they all paddled really well, here are some of the highlights.
Saturdays racing saw Harry McKenna come 6th in Div3 K1 with two clean runs, Gabriel Rawlings-Croft was just a few seconds behind and gaining 9th place. For the girls it was the twins Alice & Lucy coming 3rd & 4th respectively, both gaining valuable points for promotion.
Harry was on the water again in C1 and with another two clean runs took 2nd place, just beating Theo Wright by 0.6 of a second! A good effort from both of them.
Div4 K1 Jacob Ogden took the win and promotion to Div3. Oliver Carney competed in Div4 C1 and did really well taking 2nd place.
C2 was a popular choice with Harry & Jess and Amelia & Millie teaming up and giving it a go. It paid off with Harry & Jess coming 1st and Amelia & Millie in 2nd, both significantly ahead of 3rd place.
On Sunday we were joined by Finley Croome and Isaac Wright fresh from racing at Washburn. Finley decided to do a C1 run and managed to win narrowly beating Theo by 1 second, with Harry only a few seconds behind them in third.
Isaac had opted for a C2 run with Oliver and after a rather ragged first run, got it all together for their second run improving by 11 seconds and taking 1st place from Jess and Harry also by just 1 second. C2 proved a popular choice with Amelia and Millie taking third again by 1 second from Louise and Adrian Croome.
It was a fun class and provided much entertainment for the crowds with everyone appreciating the effort being put in and more importantly no major arguments!!
Harry had another good day in K1 Div3 coming 2nd, only missing out on the top spot by half a second! Newly promoted Jacob was now racing his dad, much to Nigel’s relief he managed to keep ahead of Jacob, just and for how much longer? For the girls the twins Alice & Lucy took a step up each with 2nd & 3rd place with Alice only .4 of a second off the 1st place time.
The twins also competed for the first time in Div4 C1. It was Lucy’s who came in first with an impressive win, with Alice in 3rd place.
Oliver also took to the course again in Div4 C1 and this time took the win. So it looks like we will have some future C1 contenders to chase Adam Burgess.
Harvey was our only Div4 K1 with two good runs with only one touch on each run gaining him 2nd place.
It wasn’t all about the children. Pete Appleton had a good weekend taking the win on Saturday as an official and again on Sunday in the Vets class. Pete and Rufus’s coaching had obviously worked with their adult group as Louise Croome entered her first race and in a field of one, she came 1st. Joking aside, she did really well having only had a few lessons and had never run the whole course before.
It was looking like it was going to be a tough weekend for the organisers, due to so much else going on and lots of key people being away. But the training the week before helped people step into new positions and as ever everyone worked really hard to make the event a big success. A huge thanks has to go to the kitchen team, who worked tirelessly in what had to the hottest kitchen known to man on Saturday. Their effort was greatly appreciated.
Results can be found here: Saturday & Sunday
Words – Adrian Croome
Pictures – Darren Ship
