BSCC - News

Bedford Hasler (24 May 2026)

24/5/2026

A combination of factors - probably including half term holidays and a late change of date - caused some major clubs to send reduced teams to this race. It made a change for the Stortford team of 20 not to find itself vastly outnumbered by those from bigger clubs. Nevertheless, the total turnout of 89 competitors was still enough for a good day's racing.

The country was experiencing a record-breaking May heatwave, with temperatures in Bedford reaching 28 degrees C. Despite these sweltering conditions, the whole Stortford team gave their all and nobody from Stortford was timed out.

Gold medals were won by

David G. who paired up with Cassian Payne of Chelmsford CC to tackle the long course as the only Div 2 double.
João in Div 4 - his second successive win in this class.
Ben T. partnered Rob to win the Div 5 K2, so Rob now gets a double promotion to join Ben in Div 4
Rupert won Div 8.
Petr and son Joshua scored valuable points by being the only boat in Div 9 doubles.
Summer too won a gold in GS-A

These together with solid performances from the rest of the team brought the BSCC team 591 points and victory at this race. Norwich CC were second with 590 and Leighton Buzzard CC third with 586.

SINGLES -
12.9km, 2 portages
Div 4: Joao Spinola 1st (1:13:49)
Div 6: Zoe Norford 5th (1:27:36)
6.8km
Div 8: Rupert Kirtland 1st (46:45)
Div 9: Scott Norford 8th (49:49)

Under 14s (Geoff Sanders)
2.5km
GS-A: Summer Norford 1st (20:51)

DOUBLES -
19.7km, 4 portages
Div 2: David Gurney & Cassian Payne [CLM] 1st (1:42:21)
12.9km, 2 portages
Div 4: Eddie Kirtland & Oleh Kuzmenko 3rd (1:12:45)
Div 5: Ben Tubby & Robert Gough 1st (1:12:55), Libby Gaulton & Kerstin Queeney 5th (1:16:53), Kerry Tubby & Claudia Redeker 6th (1:18:39)
Div 6: Christine Meula & Karen Bradley 2nd (1:19:46)
6.5km
Div 7: Dave Cayford & Jacque Cayford 4th (43:38)
Div 9: Petr Luksan & Joshua Luksan 1st (57:59)

Bishops Stortford Canoe Club now stand second in the Eastern Regional league behind Norwich CC but ahead of Chelmsford CC.

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Norwich Hasler (17 May 2026)

17/5/2026

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There were 19 Stortford paddlers amongst the 144 competitors at Norwich. The heavy rain expected barely fell.

Maintenance works prevented the usual portage beside the clubhouse, so the Div 1-3 and Div 4-6 courses each had an additional beach portage added at the far end.

Joao, racing in Div 4, settled into a group of three leaders towards the end of the first lap, but then nearly came unstuck when he dropped his boat while emptying it at the second portage. However, he went on to win in spectacular style with a photo finish with Norwich CC's Thomas Russell.

Other winners for Stortford were Jamie B & Tom in Div 6 K2, and Petr partnered for the first time by Jaroslav in Div 9 C2.

David G. won silver in Div 2, only just beaten by Cassian Payne of Chelmsford.

Bronze awards went to Mark & Kerstin in Div 5 and Jacque & Dave in Div 7. In Geoff Sanders, Summer added another silver to her medal collection.

There were some new faces in the team for this race. Alice entered her first race, as also did new member Leo. They both completed their respective courses (Div 9 and Geoff Sanders C) with apparent ease.

SINGLES -
19.5km, 3 portages
Div 2: David Gurney 2nd (1:33:13)
Div 3: Joe Fitzpatrick 7th (1:55:38)
13km, 2 portages
Div 4: Joao Spinola 1st (1:08:43), Jasper Kirtland 7th (1:12:14)
6.5km
Div 7: James Breeze 12th (40:31)
Div 9: Scott Norford 9th (44:09), Alice Parker 12th (47:24)

Under 14s (Geoff Sanders)
3.5km
GS-A: Summer Norford 2nd (22:18)
GS-C: Leo Chapman 7th (30:15)

DOUBLES -
13km, 2 portages
Div 5: Mark Adams & Kerstin Queeney 3rd (1:10:49)
Div 6: Jamie Bond & Thomas Holloway 1st (1:12:06), Christine Meula & Karen Bradley 4th (1:16:00)
6.5km
Div 7: Dave Cayford & Jacque Cayford 3rd (37:50)
Div 9: Petr Luksan & Jaroslav Klumpler 1st (43:57)

Stortford came a very close third at this race, with 585 points to Chelmsford CC's 587. Norwich CC of course dominated the race, and won with a perfect 600 points. The net result of this was to further cement the the club's third position at the top of the Eastern Region league.

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Cambridge Hasler (26 Apr 2026)

26/4/2026

The lovely spring weather meant even more leisure craft than normal were out on the Cam during the Hasler race, increasing the challenge for the 150+ competitors. In places the river was so solid with punts that racers simply had to queue up and wait.

David G was the only BSCC competitor on the 21km course. He finished just 12 seconds behind the winner, taking 2nd place in Div 2.

There can often be quite a number of promotions after the winter break, and this may be particularly so in division 8 where, though 9th, Rupert must have been close to the promotion time.

Daniel T lost a significant amount of time by taking a swim at the tight turn at the Grantchester end of the course.

Scott was making his racing debut but finished a very creditable 9th place against a large field of Division 9 paddlers.

SINGLES -
21km, 4 portages
Div 2: David Gurney 2nd (1:46:29)
14km, 4 portages
Div 4: Joao Spinola 4th (1:24:32)
Div 6: Zoe Norford 6th (1:40:03)
7km
Div 7: Jack Law 9th (41:15), Daniel Thompson 13th (42:44)
Div 8: Rupert Kirtland 9th (41:34)
Div 9: Scott Norford 9th (46:40)

Well done to Summer and Benjamin S, both of whom were third in the GS-A and GS-C respectively. Alex T was only fractionally behind.

Under 14s (Geoff Sanders)
3km
GS-A: Summer Norford 3rd (23:44)
GS-C: Benjamin Spinola 3rd (24:22), Alex Thompson 4th (24:41)

Ben & Kerry reported a near miss when they just managed to shoot through a rapidly-closing gap between two punts. They went on to win Div 5 K2 in a photo finish with a pair the host club. Third place went to Kerstin & Catherine.

Stortford also took 1st and 3rd in Div 6 K2: Jamie B & Tom were first and Christine & Karen third. Another third place went to David & Jacqueline in Div 7 K2.

Jasper & Oleh were amongst several boats caught out by confusion over the location of the buoy at the second turn.

DOUBLES -
14km, 4 portages
Div 4: Jasper Kirtland & Oleh Kuzmenko (DQ)
Div 5: Ben Tubby & Kerry Tubby 1st (1:23:46), Kerstin Queeney & Catherine Shirley [EAL] 3rd (1:24:16)
Div 6: Jamie Bond & Thomas Holloway 1st (1:30:04), Christine Meula & Karen Bradley 3rd (1:32:51)
7km
Div 7: Dave Cayford & Jacque Cayford 3rd (41:17)

The results from the Cambridge Hasler have now been finalised. There was never any doubt that Norwich CC were the winners with 594 points. BSCC have now been confirmed as taking second place with 582 points, ahead of Cambridge CC and Chelmsford CC in joint third with 581.

This leaves Stortford in a strong third place in the region, some way clear of the rest, with four more races to come in rapid succession

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Leighton Buzzard Winter Series Marathon (25 Jan 2026)

25/1/2026

Fifteen Stortford club members raced in the final event of the 2025-26 Winter Series. The weather was damp and overcast but not cold for the time of year. The team secured 4 silver medals and 8 bronzes, and was placed third overall (84 points) behind Chelmsford CC (100) and Leighton Buzzard CC (92).

8 miles:
K2 Men - Rich Winstanley & Jamie Winstanley 3rd (1:04:09)
K2 Mixed - Ben Tubby & Kerry Tubby 3rd (1:16:36), Dave Cayford & Jacque Cayford 5th (1:33:29)

K2 Ladies - Kerstin Queeney & Catherine Shirley [EAL] 2nd (1:16:54)
K1 Senior Men - Joe Fitzpatrick 2nd (1:18:07, Jamie Bond 3rd (1:26:18)
K1 Vet Men - Robert Gough 6th (1:25:55)
K1 Vet Ladies - Zoe Norford 2nd (1:30:39)
K1 u18 Men - Eddie Kirtland 2nd (1:18:01)

2.5 miles:
K1 u12 Boys - Rupert Kirtland 3rd (27:20)
K1 u12 Girls - Summer Norford 3rd (33:44)
K1 Open - Connie Colgate 3rd (32:27)

See

BSCC SERIES AWARD WINNERS:
Petr Luksan - winner C1 Advanced
Kerstin Queeney & Catherine Shirley (EAL) - 2nd place in Ladies K2
Ben & Kerry Tubby - 2nd Mixed K2
Zoe Norford - 2nd Vet Ladies
Summer Norford - 2nd u12 Girls

Over the course of the series, 31 BSCC members took part in at least one race. Nobody made it to all six races, but Petr and Ben competed in 5.

BSCC did not make it onto the top three teams this year, which were Chelmsford CC (60 points), Leighton Buzzard CC (47) and Cambridge CC (45). Stortford ended the season with 44 points.

BSCC did win The Dick Grieve Trophy, which is based on a separate league table calculated exclusively on the the points won by unranked juniors (i.e. Div 9 and below), thanks to a long-standing rule that the trophy cannot go to the club which wins the overall cup. Therefore, although Chelmsford won 46 DG points, the cup goes to Bishops Stortford (42 points).

The other club cup in the WS - the Bob Porter Trophy - goes to the club with the greatest participation in the under 12s classes across the series. Stortford were second (11 seats taken by under-12 across the series), behind Chelmsford CC (14).

Chelmsford Winter Series Marathon (11 Jan 2026)

11/1/2026

Given the recent weather conditions it was not entirely surprising that it was only the most dedicated Stortford racers who elected to take part in the penultimate Winter Series race at Chelmsford, and this number was reduced further by several members falling ill.

After a couple of weeks of extremely cold temperatures which saw many rivers around the region iced up, there was a risk that the race might have to be postponed. However, slightly warmer temperatures and rain in the days leading up to the race cleared the ice from the River Can which runs through Chelmsford, and there was sufficient flow to ensure that even sub-zero temperatures on Saturday night did not cause it to re-freeze.

As a safety precaution the courses had each been modified to a larger number of shorter loops, with total race distances also being slightly reduced on each of three courses.

Even so, the conditions in the narrow channel through the town were extremely choppy, with a tight turn at the far end.

A total of eighty-nine competitors took part, some travelling from considerable distances.

7 miles:
K2 16+ Mixed - Ben Tubby & Kerry Tubby 1st (1:04:10)
K2 16+ Ladies - Kerstin Queeney & Catherine Shirley [EAL] 2nd (1:03:38)

4 miles:
C1 Advanced - Petr Luksan 2nd (52:09)

2.5 miles:
K1 u12 Girls - Summer Norford 2nd (36:21)

Despite Stortford's two golds and three silver medals, having only five club members taking part had an inevitable impact on the total team score (47), and the Stortford paddlers had to settle for overall 4th place.

Photo credit: Ben T

The day naturally went to Chelmsford CC who made up the vast majority of the competitors (100 points), followed by Cambridge CC 2nd (58) and Leighton Buzzard CC 3rd (55).

Petr is now guaranteed to win the C1 advanced trophy, while the Tubbys and Summer are both level-pegging with their respective rivals for the Mixed K2 and u12 Girls trophies.

See

Cambridge Winter Series Marathon (7 Dec 2025)

7/12/2025

Cambridge CC welcomed the largest turn-out of the season so far, with 128 competitors taking to the water, including 17 from BSCC.

Especially well done to Rupert who has been in a close contest all through the series with three higher-ranked lads from Leighton Buzzard and and Chelmsford clubs. At each race he has been getting closer and closer to Gold, which he won at the Cambridge race by two seconds!

Summer has her own nemesis in 12 Girls, but despite having to settle for silver on this occasion, Summer already has two golds under her belt so remains in the lead overall.

3 miles (2 portages):
K1 u12 Boys - Rupert Kirtland 1st (29:22)
K1 u12 Girls - Summer Norford 2nd (40:48)
K1 Open - Connie Colgate 6th (36:07)

Petr was using his high-kneel boat for this race but could not outpace the two sit-down C1s, so won bronze on this occasion. However, he remains (just) in the lead for the Advanced C1/Sup series overall.

A silver for Jasper and bronze for Libby completed the medals on the 5-mile course.

5 miles (4 portages):
K1 SuperVet Men - Mark Adams (ret)
K1 u16 Boys - Jasper Kirtland 2nd (56:04)
K1 u16 Girls - Libby Gaulton 3rd (1:04:56)
C1 Advanced - Petr Luksan 3rd (1:15:49)

The familiar pairing of Kerstin & Catherine clocked up the fastest time for an at least partially Stortford K2, winning Silver in the Ladies' race. BSCC also took both the Gold and Silver positions in Mixed K2, thanks to Rich & Hannah and Kerry & Ben.

Eddie was our fastest K1 (Silver in u18 M) and Zoe also won Silver in Vet Ladies.

7 miles (4 portages):
K2 16+ Mixed - Rich Winstanley & Hannah Crofts 1st (1:11:29), Ben Tubby & Kerry Tubby 2nd (1:11:50)
K2 16+ Ladies - Kerstin Queeney & Catherine Shirley [EAL] 2nd (1:11:24)
K1 Sen Men - James Breeze 4th (1:36:05)
K1 Vet Men - Robert Gough 6th (1:19:02), Jack Law 8th (1:36:12)
K1 Vet Ladies - Zoe Norford 2nd (1:28:06)
K1 u18 Men - Edward Kirtland 2nd (1:11:55)

Well done also to James Breeze and Jack Law who bravely pitted themselves against some of the cream of the regions top-division racers in the Men's Senior and Vet races.

Stortford's 17 paddlers brought the club 93 points and a very respectable 3rd place overall, behind Chelmsford CC (100) and Cambridge CC (95). This means that, despite the poor showing at Barking, BSCC is clinging on to an equal third position in the league, behind Chelmsford and Leighton Buzzard, both of whom are still to have their home races.

Also, thanks to the late entry from Connie boosting the Dick Grieve points from Summer, BSCC also came third in the Dick Grieve competition (based on the performance of juniors ranked Div 9 and below). This in turn has put us in joint lead for the Dick Grieve series trophy

See

Barking Winter Series Marathon (23 November 2025)

23/11/2025

It was a record-breaking performance at Barking - but not in a good way, as the club achieved its lowest turnout at a Winter Series race ever.

Stortford's only competitor in this race was Petr, who was glad to have a race on a wide river with no portages so that he could bring his outrigger C1.

Temperatures were not as cold as they had been for the previous few days, and the rain gave way to sunshine for the duration of the race.

Entries were low all round, giving those who did attend a significant boost to their series total.

Petr won C1 advanced on the 8 km course with a time of 57:37 - five minutes ahead of Robert Passmore of Tonbridge CC. When these two were head to head at Maidstone the previous week, it was Robert who took gold by a narrow margin.

The race was won by Chelmsford CC (100 points), with Cambridge CC second (58) and Leighton Buzzard CC third (35). BSCC were joint 8th (10). This leaves Stortford in third position overall at this half-way point through the series.

Thanks to Petr (without whom BSCC would have sunk to 6th overall) Stortford is still in third position at this half-way point through the series, so there is still a chance of ending the season in the top three. However, with Cambridge and Leighton Buzzard's races still to come, this is by no means a foregone conclusion.

See

Full race results (FRA website)
League table
Photos: Rimantas's Dropbox folder and Angela's Google album

Maidstone Winter Series Marathon (16 Nov 2025)

16/11/2025

It was a day for silver medals, with half of the Stortford entries coming second in their respective classes. Rupert, Claudia and Jamie gained bronze, while Summer was Stortford's only gold medalist.

The points for each paddler/crew accumulate across the season, so those who have paddled in the same class in both races are already in a strong position: Kerstin & Catherine are in second place for the Ladies K2 trophy, with Christine & Karen third. Summer is leading u12 Girls and Rupert is joint third in the u12 Boys.

7 miles (2 portages):
K2 16+ Men - David Gurney & Scott Leblanche [BAD] 5th (1:14:02)
K2 16+ Mixed - Ben Tubby & Kerry Tubby 2nd (1:22:37), Claudia Redeker & Jamie Bond 3rd (1:26:49)
K2 16+ Ladies - Kerstin Queeney & Catherine Shirley [EAL] 2nd (1:22:16), Christine Meula & Karen Bradley 4th (1:32:46)
K1 Vet Ladies - Zoe Norford 2nd (1:46:21)

5 miles:
K1 u16 Boys - Jasper Kirtland 2nd (48:36)
C1 Advanced - Petr Luksan 2nd (1:04:50)

2 miles:
K1 u12 Boys - Rupert Kirtland 3rd (21:31)
K1 u12 Girls - Summer Norford 1st (26:07)

Though Stortford only fielded 13 paddlers this time, we still managed to come second overall.

See

Full race results (FRA website)
League table
Photos in Angela's Google album and more on Maidstone CC FaceBook page

B. Stortford Winter Series Marathon (2 Nov 2025)

2/11/2025

The rain held off and there was even a fair bit of autumn sunshine for the opening race of Winter Series 2025-26. We welcomed teams from 11 other clubs, making a total 118 competitors.

On the 7 mile course, Rich & Hannah were gold medalists in the mixed K2. Kerstin and Ealing's Catherine were silver in Ladies K2, and faster still were Jasper & Harry from Wey who took silver in Mens K2.

Both the Mens K1 and Ladies K1 course records were broken. William Stroud of (CLM) shaved 30 seconds off the previous best time set in 2014 by Keith Moule by finishing in 53:17. Ladies races only moved to this distance in 2023, with the fastest time of 1:19:08 set by Tori Elliott-Moulden (CLM) last year. Two paddlers beat that this year. Rebecca Perrin (CLM) finished in 1:17:40, but the new record holder is Lauren Avery (CLM) with a time of 1:13:23.

Joao was our fastest singles paddler, winning gold in Vet Men K1.

7 miles (6 portages):
K2 16+ Men - Jasper Kirtland & Harry Luck [WEY] 2nd (1:00:37), David Gurney & Robert Gough 4th (1:03:47), Ben Tubby & Tom Kelly [TON] 5th (1:04:57)
K2 16+ Mixed - Richard Winstanley & Hannah Crofts 1st (1:10:52), Claudia Redeker & Paul Lane [MAI] 3rd (1:23:45)
K2 16+ Ladies - Kerstin Queeney & Catherine Shirley [EAL] 2nd (1:09:23), Christine Meula & Karen Bradley 5th (1:16:58)
K1 Senior Men - Jamie Bond 4th (1:19:24)
K1 Veteran Men - Joao Spinola 1st (1:07:51), Jack Law 8th (1:28:09)
K1 Veteran Ladies - Zoe Norford 1st (1:23:13)

On the 5 mile course, gold medals were won by Zoe in SuperVet Ladies, Libby in u16 Girls and Petr in C1.

5 miles (3 portages):
K1 u16 Boys - Jamie Winstanley 5th (57:03), Shehan Sheikh 6th (1:10:42)
K1 u16 Girls - Libby Gaulton 1st (57:02), Stella Thompson 4th (1:12:14)
C1 Advanced - Petr Luksan 1st (1:05:47)

The Boys' K1 record on the 3 mile course also fell - Marco Mangiantini of Royal CC beat the time of 25:57 set by Ali Kabeer in 2019, by finishing in 25:15. Summer won gold in u12 Girls, Clio took silver in u14 Girls and Rupert was joint third in the hotly-contested Boys u12 race. In the same race, Alex T won the medal for fastest under-10.

3 miles (1 portage):
K1 u14 Boys - Joshua Luksan 6th (41:46)
K1 u14 Girls - Clio Thompson 2nd (40:57)
K1 u12 Boys - Rupert Kirtland 3rd (32:09), Alex Thompson 5th (40:44), Benjamin Spinola 6th (44:37)
K1 u12 Girls - Summer Norford 1st (40:38)
K1 Open - Sebastian Lane-Watkins 5th (38:21), Connie Colgate 6th (39:07), Georgia Leisegang 7th (43:52)

The overall winners were Chelmsford Canoe Club (100 points), with Bishops Stortford CC second (97) and Leighton Buzzard CC third (70).

Big thanks are due to the club's volunteers who turned out to marshal the starts/finishes, turns and road crossings, as well as to the catering team who kept everyone fed and watered throughout the day.

It was good to see so many members taking part - 27 in total. This included a large number of novice juniors. This was reflected in the club scoring the most "Dick Grieve" points by a long way.

Especially well done to all those who were taking part in their first marathon race: Joshua, Sebastian, Connie and Georgia.

See

Chelmer Hasler (19 Oct 2025)

19/10/2025

Despite getting the exact same total score as last year (582) which was enough to take second place on that occasion, Norwich pipped us to the 2nd place spot with 584 and we were third. Still a very good result to go over the winter with and some very good performances throughout the team.

Daniel - one of this year's recruits to the club - was one of the team's stand-out performers. Daniel managed to manoeuvre his way to a good position on the Div 9 start line and was able to get away ahead of the pack. He was soon locked in a battle for first place with a Chelmsford paddler, which continued as they portaged over Barnes Mill Lock, turned at Sandford Lock and returned across Barnes Mill Lock. Daniel eventually managed to draw ahead and crossed the finish line as the winner, 19sec clear of his rival. Not only did Daniel win the trophy for first place but was also awarded a double promotion to Division 7.

Daniel's daughter Stella was also in Div 9, racing for the first time and achieved a very creditable 11th place. Over the same course, there was an excellent performance from Rupert.

On the 8 mile course (8 portages), there were some great results from Stortford's doubles crews. Eddie & Robert won the Div 5, with Ben T & Kerry 4th. Jamie B & Kerstin took 2nd in Div 6. Joao's 6th place in the highly competitive Div 4 singles was also noteworthy, four of the paddlers ahead of him being promoted.

Those on the 12 mile course had to go all the way to Paper Mill with a total of 10 gruelling portages. In Div 3 doubles, Rich (Div 2) paired with Jasper (Div 4) to win. Meanwhile, in Div 3 singles, David G came second and was rewarded with a well-deserved promotion to Div 2.

DOUBLES -
12 miles, 10 portages
Div 3: Jasper Kirtland & Richard Winstanley 1st (1:32:08)
8 miles, 8 portages
Div 5: Edward Kirtland & Robert Gouth 1st (1:19:53), Ben Tubby & Kerry Tubby 4th (1:20:38), Jamie Winstanley & Mark Adams 10th (1:28:35)
Div 6: Jamie Bond & Kerstin Queeney 2nd (1:26:03)
3 miles, 2 portages
Div 7: Dave Cayford & Jacque Cayford 4th (33:38)

SINGLES -
12 miles, 10 portages
Div 3: David Gurney 2nd (1:32:38)
8 miles, 8 portages
Div 4: Joao Spinola 6th (1:16:54)
Div 6: Zoe Norford 10th (1:40:37), Karen Bradley 11th (1:40:43)
3 miles, 2 portages
Div 7: James Breeze 9th (35:49), Jack Law 10th (36:18)
Div 8: Rupert Kirtland 4th (35:41)
Div 9: Daniel Thompson 1st (34:06), Stella Thompson 11th (39:41)