Category: Marathon Racing

B. Stortford Hasler (10 July 2022)

10/7/2022

After the interruption of Covid it was good to finally be able to hold the Hasler at the club again - the 5th time it has been held on the Stort. The total number of 168 competitors was not too far below pre-Covid levels, and larger than most races in our circuit this season, which is extremely encouraging. There was a particularly good turnout of 20 Geoff Sanders (u14s) entries.

Many thanks are due to all the members and their families who gave their time to make this event happen - as starters, marshals, safety boats, car park marshals, or serving the refreshments; also not forgetting the bakers who donated delicious cakes and those who cleaned up both before and afterwards. The intense heat made the day an especially demanding one for everyone involved, perhaps especially those who were doubling up by acting both as volunteers and competitors.

The racing was conducted in two halves. In the morning, the Div 7/8/9s raced down to Sawbridgeworth and back (11.5km and 6 locks), while the Geoff Sanders classses went in the opposite direction to the town centre and back (2.5km). In the afternoon the Div 1/2/3s went down to Sawbridgeworth but with an extra loop to make a course of 19km and 8 portages. The were followed by the Div/7/8/9s who turned at Spellbrook to create a course of 6.5km with 2 portages.

There was a welcome return to the club for Tony Brett who, despite an absence from the sport of ten years partnered Ella to victory in Div 6 doubles, beating not only the other Div 6 boat but also all the boats in Div 5. BSCC continued to dominate the Division 6 races, with Ben K and Tom H taking gold and silver in the singles class.

Finlay Sandall was the club's star paddler in the Geoff Sanders races, winning gold in class B, and promoted to class A.

Stortford Mayor Dave Anderson kindly attended the event, and the Geoff Sanders prizegiving was brought forwards so that he could make the presentations before he had to leave.

In the afternoon there were gold and silver medals in Div 7 singles for Tom B and Ben T respectively. In doubles, Jacque & Dave took silver in Div 8 and Libby & Kayleigh took bronze in Div 9.

Ben K, Tom H, Tony and Ella have all been promoted to Div 5, while Tom B and Ben T will take their places in Div 6.

DOUBLES -
11.5km, 6 portages
Div 5: Kerstin Queeney & Catherine Ayling [MAI] 4th (1:09:36)
Div 6: Ella Beatty & Tony Brett 1st (1:06:36)
6.5km, 2 portages
Div 8: David Cayford & Jacqueline Cayford 2nd (37:27)
Div 9: Kayleigh Gaulton & Libby Gaulton 3rd (39:17)

SINGLES -
11.5km, 6 portages
Div 4: Eddie Kirtland 11th (1:18:01), Mark Adams (rtd)
Div 6: Ben Kelly 1st (1:12:22), Tom Holloway 2nd (1:13:04)
6.5km, 2 portages
Div 7: Tom Barton 1st (34:30), Ben Tubby 2nd (35:03), Jaroslav Klumpler 4th (36:39), Jack Gaulton (rtd)
Div 9: Arthur Catmur 4th (41:10), John Catmur 5th (42:17), Eilidh White 8th (43:25), Karen Bradley 10th (44:49), Ewan Gowing 11th (45:37), Christine Meula 13th (46:05), Daniel Baines 14th (46:21), Tamzin Catmur 16th (57:21)

Under 14s (Geoff Sanders)
2.5km
Div A: Zuzanna Madeja 4th (18:32), Ananya Bhusari 5th (21:42)
Div B: Finlay Sandall 1st (17:43), Jasper Kirtland 4th (19:41), Rupert Kirtland =7th (21:23), Oliver Klumpler =7th (21:23)
Div C: Emilie Klumpler 4th (25:42)

BSCC achieved 4th position at this race with a total score of 587 points - just one point behind Norwich CC. Leighton Buzzard CC were 2nd (594 points), narrowly beaten by Chelmsford CC (595). This was the last regional Hasler in the Eastern Region for the current season.

As Bishops Stortford have ended the season in 4th position in the Eastern Region, we should have secured our place at the prestigious National Hasler Final to be held at Runnymede on the Thames (hosted by Wey CC) on 25 September. Those who wish to compete in Hasler divisions at the finals must have taken part in three Hasler races during the season (which started at Chelmsford last year), whether in our region or elsewhere.

See also

Leighton Buzzard Hasler (19 Jun 2022)

19/6/2022

Twenty-three paddlers from Stortford took part in the Leighton Buzzard race with largely excellent results. The warm weather had brought out all the recreational paddlers and narrowboats on the Grand Union Canal, causing a significant extra challenge, especially at the second turn, where there were a particularly large number of narrrowboats.

Joe and Eddie won Division 4 doubles race with ease.

Most of our team were racing on the 4.5 mile course. Libby and Kayleigh paddled together in the Division 9 doubles race and won silver. A good start kept them in the lead to the first turn and although a minor mishap here saw them finish in second, they were very happy with their performance as they had never crewed a boat together before!

Ewan & Arthur entered the Division 8 doubles race (paddling up) where they came in hard on the heels of Jacque & Dave, who won bronze.

The best singles result of the day came from Tom B, who won the Div 7 race in a close finish.

The new members of the team - John, Tamzin and Miller, all successfully finished the race. John did especially well, sprinting across the line in a dramatic photo finish with a Chelmsford paddler to take joint 5th place.

DOUBLES -
8 miles, 2 portages
Div 4: Joe Fitzpatrick & Eddie Kirtland 1st (1:05:22), Mark Adams & Kerstin Queeney 5th (1:08:58)
4.5 miles
Div 8: David Cayford & Jacqueline Cayford 3rd (42:18), Ewan Gowing & Arthur Catmur 4th (42:27)
Div 9: Kayleigh Gaulton & Libby Gaulton 2nd (42:59), Jasper Kirtland & Finlay Sandall 4th (48:57)

SINGLES -
4.5 miles
Div 7: Tom Barton 1st (40:32), Jack Gaulton 6th (42:44), Jaroslav Klumpler 7th (42:51)
Div 8: Petr Luksan 11th (45:53)
Div 9: John Catmur 5th (46:55), Karen Bradley 7th (47:53), Miller Kitchener 13th (53:28), Tamzin Catmur 14th (54:20)

Under 14s (Geoff Sanders)
2 miles
Div B: Rupert Kirtland 6th (22:52), Oliver Klumpler 7th (24:41)
Div C: Emilie Klumpler 6th (28:13)

Bishops Stortford CC were fourth overall at this race, behind Leighton Buzzard CC (1st) and Norwich CC and Chelmsford CC who tied for second place. This left Leighton Buzzard and Norwich in equal top position in the Eastern Region league - the winner of the Eastern Region trophy will be resolved at the final race of the season at Bishops Stortford. The final positions after the Stortford race will also determine which four clubs from the region will qualify to go to the National Finals in September.

See also

Norwich Hasler (22 May 2022)

22/5/2022

The race at Norwich was the best attended of the series so far. The home team turned out in force and comprised almost exactly half of the 141 competitors taking part. Norwich CC clocked up their third win of the four races so far, with a maximum score of 600.

Although Stortford's Hasler team was much more modest in size (19 in the Hasler divisions), they were distributed across the singles and doubles divisions to give the maximum opportunity for points scoring, bringing the club its best overall result since 2018 - Stortford finished second with 587 points, ahead of both Leighton Buzzard CC (581) and Chelmsford CC (568).

Joe and Mark formed a very effective crew to take second place in Div 4 doubles in a photo-finish, one second ahead of the third-placed crew and just 30s behind the winners.

Tom H and Jamie G led Division 7 doubles from the start and refused to be overtaken, making them the fastest boat on the 6.5km course despite some serious competition. Both have been promoted to Div 6.

In singles, there was another photo finish in Div 7. Jack broke free quickly leaving Ben T in the melee of the start line. However, Ben was able to catch up and take the lead to become the eventual winner. The next three places were closely contested right up to the line, with Jack missing out on the silver spot by a single second. Ben and Jack have both been promoted.

Despite being an under-14, Libby paddled in the Div 9 race. She executed an impressive start and achieved an extremely creditable finish time in her longest race to date, and as a result has been permanently promoted to Div 9.

The day's most notable racing début was the appearance of club chairman Kevin Short partnered by Mick Hussey in an open canoe in Division 9 doubles.

Although still fourth in the Eastern Region League behind Norwich CC, Leighton Buzzard CC and Chelsmford CC, there is now a much wider gap between BSCC and the rest of the clubs.

In the under-14s races, Nadim did exceptionally well, taking second place in Div C in only his first Geoff Sanders race.

DOUBLES -
13km, 2 portages
Div 4: Joe Fitzpatrick & Mark Adams 2nd (1:03:39), Chris Sze & Eddie Kirtland 7th (1:09:27)
Div 5: Kerstin Queeney & Catherine Ayling [MAI] 7th (1:12:19)
6.5km
Div 7: Tom Holloway & Jamie Gaulton 1st (33:26)
Div 8: David Cayford & Jacqueline Cayford 5th (37:04)
Div 9: Ewan Gowing & Arthur Catmur 1st (41:25), Mick Hussey & Kevin Short 2nd (57:40)

SINGLES -
6.5km
Div 7: Tom Barton 4th (37:03), Jaroslav Klumpler 5th (37:29)
Div 8: Ben Tubby 1st (36:34), Jack Gaulton 3rd (37:23), Petr Luksan 9th (38:49)
Div 9: Libby Gaulton 6th (41:22)

Under 14s (Geoff Sanders)
3.5km
Div A: Oliver Klumpler 4th (26:02)
Div B: Rupert Kirtland 5th (25:31)
Div C: Nadim Shawky 2nd (25:34), Emilie Klumpler 6th (30:00)

See also

Bedford Hasler (1 May 2022)

6/5/2022

As usual at Bedford, the high man-made banks caused choppy water in places, and this combined on the day with a stiff breeze along the wide river to create demanding conditions for the club's youngest paddles.

Despite this there were excellent results from our seven under-14s competitors. Five of them made a clean sweep of the gold medals in the Geoff Sanders Divisions on the 2.5km course. Libby, Jasper and Rupert won Div A, B and C respectively. Rupert's time was especially good, and he now joins his brother in Div B.

Zuzanna and Emilie gained Silver in A and C. In the afternoon Libby and Jasper went on to crew a doubles boat in the under-14s K2 race over the same course, and won two more gold medals.

Under 14s (Geoff Sanders)
2.5km
Div A: Libby Gaulton 1st (29:31), Zuzanna Madeja 3rd (33:08)
Div B: Jasper Kirtland 1st (23:13)
Div C: Rupert Kirtland 1st (22:30), Emilie Klumpler 3rd (27:05)
GS K2: Libby Gaulton & Jasper Kirtland 1st (18:55)

Oliver and Finlay, also both u14s, entered the Hasler Div 9 doubles race and were rewarded for undertaking this challenge with Silver medals.

The rest of the Stortford team also brought home a good haul of medals, particularly in the doubles races. Jacqueline and Dave were competing in Division 8 doubles on the 2-lap 7km course. After getting a good start and taking an initial lead, they were overtaken by a Norwich CC boat as they approached the first turn. However, they were able to see off the challenge and regain their position for the rest of the race to win, 49s ahead of their rivals.

BSCC had two doubles boats on the 3-lap 13km course, both taking part in the Division 5 race. This course included two "false portages" where paddlers have to disembark and run with their boats. Mark partnered Kirsten to second place. Their time of 1:08:45 being faster than all the competitors in the Division 4 doubles race, it is not surprising that they have both now been promoted to Div 4.

Also paddling in Div 5 doubles were Eddie (Div 7) with Chris (Div 4). They finished only fractionally behind Mark and Kerstin, so Eddie too has been promoted to Div 4.

DOUBLES -
13km, 2 portages
Div 5: Mark Adams & Kerstin Queeney 2nd (1:08:45), Chris Sze & Eddie Kirtland 3rd (1:09:19)
7km
Div 8: David Cayford & Jacqueline Cayford 1st (44:51)
Div 9: Oliver Klumpler & Finlay Sandal 2nd (1:02:32)

Most of the singles competitors from BSCC were on the 7km course. Division 8 included two Stortford entrants: Jaroslav (Jay) and Ben. Ben took the lead from the start while Jay, though initially forced to drop back by the press of boats, was soon able to catch up and the pair were in first and second place as they went around the first turn. However, Ben took a swim at the second turn, and although he was able to finish the race and make up a lot of the lost time had to settle for 6th place. Jay was overtaken by two other boats, so finished third - however, his excellent time sees him promoted to Division 7.

Stortford's highest-placed singles paddler was Eilidh, who won silver in Div 9. Also in this race, Arthur put in an impressive performance to finish 4th in his first Hasler.

SINGLES -
13km, 2 portages
Div 4: Joe Fitzpatrick 4th (1:12:43)
7km
Div 7: Tom Barton 7th (43:38), Jack Gaulton 10th (45:31)
Div 8: Jaroslav Klumpler 3rd (44:10), Ben Tubby 6th (45:40)
Div 9: Eilidh White 2nd (47:39), Arthur Catmur 4th (48:24), Karen Bradley 7th (52:32)

The Stortford team came fourth out of the nine Eastern region clubs represented, with a score of 583 points, tantalisingly close to 3rd-placed Chelmsford CC's total of 588. Leighton Buzzard CC and Norwich were joint winners with 595 each. Bishops Stortford CC now sit fourth in the Eastern Region League.

See also

Waterside A (20 Feb 2022)

22/2/2022

Three members of BSCC took part in the 13.5 mile Waterside A race with 21 portages, from Great Bedwyn to Newbury.

Chris Sze and Gordon Bullock (paddling for BAD) were 18th in K2 Vets in 2:31:38.

However, the star of the day was Kerstin Queeney who again crewed up with Maidstone's Catherine Ayling. The pair completed the race in 2:21:20 to take 3rd position in Ladies K2.

Provisional results of the race on online.

Photo courtesy Chris Sze

Cambridge Hasler (13 Feb 2022)

13/2/2022

This report has been updated 28/2/22 (for the 2nd time) in the light of further revisions to the provisional results. Further changes to the points and promotions are still possible.

A small BSCC team was amongst the 188 competitors who flocked to Cambridge from all over the country for the first Hasler race of 2022. After two years of interrupted racing, no fewer than twenty different clubs took advantage of this unusually early start to the Hasler season. As well as the usual faces from within the region, the list of out-of-region clubs read like a Who's Who of flatwater racing, with members of Pangbourne, Reading, Nottingham, Elmbridge and many other well known clubs represented, and Richmond and Lincoln particularly in evidence. Needless to say, the standard of paddling was high.

Whenever there has been a long break between races, and also whenever paddlers from different regions compete together, there tends to be a great deal of movement between divisions as the discrepancies between regions are levelled out. Perhaps for this reason it proved impossible to calculate the promotions on the day, and thus the points due to each of the six Eastern Region clubs present.

All the BSCC competitors gave it their all with some spectacular individual results. Tom B had a start that he himself described as awful, but after going round the tight turn at the first buoy he recovered to catch up with the Division 9 leaders. From this point, he and three other paddlers (two from Chelmsford and one L. Buzzard) remained in tight competition for the rest of the race. All four sprinted across the line with only a second between each of them, with Tom in gold position. For this he has received a double promotion and will now race in Div 7.

Also in Div 9, Jaroslav (Jay) demonstrated how much he has improved through the winter by finishing only 2:15 behind Tom to take 8th place out of 21 entries - and wins a promotion to Div 8.

In Division 7 Eddie took second place from the start line and retained it all the way but with a Norwich paddler on his tail throughout, so he too had to sprint for the line to take his silver award in close finish. Eddie too has been promoted.

Also in this race were Jack and Tom H, both of whom were racing for first time in Div 7 following promotions from Div 9 at Chelmsford last October. Jack finished a very comfortable 7th. Tom got off to a great start and was going well at the first turn but had to pull out with an injury soon after.

Our only paddlers on the 14km course, Kerstin & Mark, unfortunately also fell victim to injury after a promising start. But it was still good to see Mark back in a BSCC vest!

DOUBLES -
14km, 4 portages
Div 5: Kerstin Queeney & Mark Adams (retired)

SINGLES -
7km
Div 7: Edward Kirtland 2nd (39:47), Jack Gaulton 7th (43:22), Thomas Holloway (retired)
Div 9: Thomas Barton 1st (39:58), Jaroslav Klumpler 8th (42:13)

The other Eastern teams Norwich, Leighton Buzzard, Chelmsford, as well as the Cambridge home team, were all out in force. As only four BSCC paddlers finished the race out of an already undersized team of seven, and only three of these scored points (no points are awarded if the paddler is promoted more than one division) BSCC inevitably finished in last place in the main Hasler race.

BSCC was much better represented in the Geoff Sanders under-14 competition, where BSCC's team of five paddlers was equalled only by the home team.

The youngsters found the start of the race very difficult as they headed into a stiff breeze, but it paid off on the way back with the wind behind them.

Libby Gaulton put in another excellent performance to take first place in Div B. She was the fastest girl on the course and is being promoted to Div A. Oliver Klumpler won the club's other Geoff Sanders medal for 2nd place in Div A.

Under 14s (Geoff Sanders)
3km
Div A: Oliver Klumpler 2nd (57:18)
Div B: Libby Gaulton 1st (40:41), Jasper Kirtland 5th (49:35)
Div C: Rupert Kirtland 5th (58:40), Emilie Klumpler 6th (59:17)

See also

L. Buzzard Winter Series marathon (30 Jan 2022)

30/1/2022

Although the race had been rescheduled at short notice (the original date being cancelled due to ice on the canal) most of Stortford's original team were able to get to the final race of the Winter Series, held at Leighton Buzzard.

Kerstin paired up with Catherine Ayling again for the K2 race on the long course and this time were able to secure silver medals. On the middle-distance course, Oliver & Finlay took silver in the junior K2 event, Karen won bronze in the Ladies K1 race, and Eilidh bronze in u16 girls.

All three of Stortford's gold medals came on the short course, where Dave won the GP race, and Libby and Jasper came first and second respectively in the u12 race to win first girl and first boy. Also in u12s, Nadim and Emilie took silver as second boy and second girl. Meanwhile, Eddie came in a close second to Chelmsford's Cassian Payne in u14 Boys, but had to settle for the silver medal, while Ewan took bronze.

8 miles (2 portages):
Senior K2 - Kerstin Queeney & Catherine Ayling 2nd (1:15:57)
Vet Mens K1 - Petr Luksan 7th (1:28:50), Jaroslav Klumpler 9th (1:30:35)

6 miles (2 portages):
u16 M - Jack Gaulton 5th (1:08:36)
Ladies K1 - Karen Bradley 3rd (1:13:16)
u16 K2 - Oliver Klumpler & Finlay Sandall 2nd (1:36:00)
u16 F - Eilidh White 3rd (1:13:12)

4 miles:
u14 Boys K1 - Edward Kirtland 2nd (40:16), Ewan Gowing 3rd (45:54)
GP - Dave Cayford 1st (53:22), Jacque Cayford 5th (1:05:57)
u12 K1 - Libby Gaulton 1st (49:25), Jasper Kirtland 2nd (57:59), Nadim Shawky 3rd (1:15:10), Emilie Klumpler 4th (1:18:30)

Full race & series results are on the FRA website.

BSCC SERIES RESULTS:
Senior K2: 3rd overall & 1st Ladies Trophy Kerstin Queeney & Catherine Ayling
Ladies u18/Sen/Vet K1: 3rd overall & Veteran Trophy Karen Bradley
Junior K2: 2nd Oliver Klumpler & Finlay Sandall
u16 F K1: 2nd Eilidh White
u14 M K1: 2nd Edward Kirtland, joint 3rd Ewan Gowing
u12 M K1: 1st Jasper Kirtland, 2nd Nadim Shawky
u12 F K1: 1st Libby Gaulton, 2nd Emilie Klumpler

The club were second overall in the series (which was won by Chelmsford CC), but won both the Dick Grieve Trophy (based on points scored by unranked juniors), and the Bob Porter Trophy (for the greatest participation by u12s).

Many thanks to everyone who took part in this series - including the parents who have given up their Sundays to bring their children to the events and those who have driven the trailer.

See Angela's Flickr page for some photos of the Leighton Buzzard race and awards.

Chelmsford Winter Series Marathon (9 Jan 2022)

9/1/2022

The race at Chelmsford was held in the channels that run through the town, where the water can get very choppy. On the positive side, there were no portages to contend with.

There was the biggest field of paddlers in the Men's Vets race seen at the series so far. Rich W got off to an excellent start and narrowly missed out on a bronze position.

Kerstin & Catherine yet again won the Ladies medal in the K2 race and also came 4th overall.

Well done to Karen on winning her first Winter Series medal in the Ladies K1 race.

On the 3-mile course, Eddie was narrowly outpaced in the Boys u14 K1 race by the winning Chelmsford boat and brought back a silver, and the same thing happened to Dave in the GPs by an even tighter margin.

Despite a capsize at the start of the mixed u12s race, Libby was able to make up much of the lost time to take 4th overall and 1st Girl.

Photo: Flora K

8 miles:
16+ K2 - Kerstin Queeney & Catherine Ayling 4th (1:07:48)
Vet Mens K1 - Richard Winstanley 4th (1:08:03), Petr Luksan 16th (1:22:21), Jaroslav Klumpler 18th (1:24:36)
u18 Boys K1 - Tom Barton 4th (1:18:59)

5 miles:
u16 Boys K1 - Jack Gaulton 6th (54:44)
Ladies K1 - Karen Bradley 3rd (1:00:35)
u16 K2 - Oliver Klumpler & Finlay Sandall 2nd (1:11:23)
u16 Girls K1 - Eilidh White 2nd (1:00:09)

3 miles:
u14 Boys K1 - Edward Kirtland 2nd (22:22)
u14 Girls K1 - Zuzanna Madeja 5th (34:56)
GP - Dave Cayford 2nd (30:50), Jacque Cayford 5th (36:30)
u12 K1 - Libby Gaulton 4th (30:23), Nadim Shawky 7th (39:00), Emilie Klumpler 8th (42:18)

Full race results are on the FRA website, and photos in Angela's Flickr album.

Please note that due to late notice of the eligibility of some participating paddlers, the Dick Grieve points for this race have had to be recalculated. The club has had good support from our novice juniors throughout the series to date, and although the home team put out a number of their own novice juniors and overtook us on this occasion, the points scored for Stortford by Oliver, Finlay, Eilidh, Zuzanna, Libby and Emilie have ensured that we are still in the lead and remain favourites to win the Dick Grieve Trophy.

In total points, the club came second at this race, behind the winners Chelmsford. Although still second in the Winter Series league at this point, this position could still slip away from us if Leighton Buzzard pull out all the stops for their home race on 23rd. See the league table here.

Many thanks to Jacque for the prizegiving photos

B. Stortford Winter Series Marathon (7 Nov 2021)

7/11/2021

For the first time in two years, canoe racing came back to the Stort. Although the total number of competitors was somewhat reduced at 109, the presence of a loyal core of top-class paddlers ensured that the standard was as high as ever.

On the 7 mile course highlights included Kerstin partnered by Catherine Ayling taking the medals for first ladies crew in the K2 race in a time of 1:09:59 - tantalisingly close to the Ladies' course record of 1:09:20 set in 2015 by Ella Beatty & Maia Wallace-Loizou. The pair were 11th overall out of 21 boats. The Mens Vet race was also popular, with 16 competitors - Dave H. was the fastest UltraVet.

On the 5 mile course Catherine R won the first Paddleability medal in the ladies race, and Eilidh won gold in Girls u16. Jack G was Stortford's fastest paddler over this distance.

On the 3-mile course Eddie unfortunately capsized within a few paddlestrokes of the start line following a collision with another paddler and it took some time before he could climb back into his boat and continue the race. Nevertheless, he managed to regain enough time to win a bronze medal in u14M. Libby and Emilie won the girls gold and silver u12 medals, while Jasper and Rupert won the boys silver and bronze medals.

7 miles (6 portages):
Senior K2 - Chris Sze & Mark Adams 9th (1:06:26), Kerstin Queeney & Catherine Ayling 11th (1:09:59), Jamie Gaulton & Jamie McAdam 15th (1:17:02)
Senior K1 - Adam Beaumont 5th (1:06:05 including 10m penalty)
Vet Mens K1 - Dave Hallam 5th (1:12:05), Mike Toomey 9th (1:16:58), Jaroslav Klumpler 15th (1:30:46), Ben Tubby 16th (1:33:34)

5 miles (3 portages):
u16 Boys K1 - Jack Gaulton 5th (58:48)
Ladies K1 - Karen Bradley 4th (1:07:50), Christine Meula 6th (1:11:50), Catherine Robinson 7th (1:24:51)
u16 Girls K1 - Eilidh White 1st (1:05:40)

3 miles (1 portage):
u14 Boys K1 - Edward Kirtland 3rd (33:16), Ewan Gowing 5th (35:09), Finlay Sandall 6th (38:22), Oliver Klumpler 8th (40:59)
u14 Girls K1 - Madeja Zuzanna 5th (46:39)
u12 K1 - Libby Gaulton 2nd (35:53), Jasper Kirtland 3rd (36:58), Rupert Kirtland 4th (48:03), Nadim Shawky 5th (49:31), Emilie Klumpler 6th (50:30)

A good turnout of ten novice juniors in the u12s, u14s and u16s together accrued 74 points, putting BSCC in pole position in the Dick Grieve league. Two of these - Zuzanna and Nadeem - were racing for the first time.

Competitors were drawn from eleven clubs. Stortford came second overall (119 points), behind Chelmsford (210) and ahead of Leighton Buzzard (83).

Full race results are on the FRA website. See photos of the Stortford race in Angela's Flickr album

Big thanks are due to members, past members, family and friends who turned out to help with the race - as marshals, safety boats, car park marshals, and to work on the BBQ and refreshments, as well as the racers who helped with the setting up and tidying up - and not forgetting all those who made cakes for sale.

Chelmer Hasler (17 Oct 2021)

18/10/2021

With the start of the new Hasler season, there were excellent results for the 13 BSCC paddlers who competed in the main divisions of the Chelmer Hasler, with 6 taking podium positions.

It was also a day of many promotions, as the effects of there having been much improvement over the summer months, but with little opportunity to compete against other clubs, worked its way through the system.

There was a good turnout for the race, with 176 competitors in total. Div 9 was given a split start. Eddie and Tom H each led their respective groups to the finish, and ended in overall first and second place, with Jack not far behind them. All three received a double promotion to Div 7. Petr, racing for the first time, was promoted to Div 8 after finishing 7th.

Another club member paddling for us for the first time was Ben K, who came 2nd in the Div 7 race and was promoted to Div 6. Jamie M, finishing 4th, was also promoted to Div 6.

Chris and Alasdair partnered in Div 4 K2 to take 3rd place, but the undoubted hero of the doubles racing was Kerstin who partnered Mark (the latter paddling for Broadlands) to win the Div 6 K2 race. As the pair finished with a faster time than all of the Div 5 K2 boats, it is no surprise that Kerstin has been promoted from Div 7 to Div 5.

Those awarded double promotions in K1 races do not score Hasler points for the club. Although other clubs also experienced a large number of double promotions, the impact upon them was less damaging as they were fielding larger teams in the first place. Given this context, BSCC's total score of 461 was very respectable, and left us in 4th place behind Leighton Buzzard CC (596), Chelmsford (595) and Norwich (589).

DOUBLES -
8 miles, 8 portages
Div 4: Alasdair Bruce & Chris Sze 3rd (1:18:35)
Div 6: Kerstin Queeney & Mark Adams [BPS] 1st (1:17:27)

SINGLES -
3 miles, 2 portages
Div 7: Ben Kelly 2nd (30:52), Jamie McAdam 4th (32:13), Jamie Gaulton 9th (34:02)
Div 9: Edward Kirtland 1st (33:03), Thomas Holloway 2nd (33:15); Jack Gaulton 4th (33:56), Petr Luksan 7th (35:22), Ewan Gowing 11th (37:38), Jaroslav Klumpler 13th (38:04), Karen Bradley 20th (40:27)

Six of Stortford's youngest team members competed in the under-14s Divisions on the 2km course. Libby Gaulton, only just 11, was the second fastest girl over this distance and finished 4th overall in the fastest group (Div A).

The other five were all racing in Div B. Jasper and Finlay (5th and 7th respectively) have now been officially promoted to Division B for their performances.

Under 14s (Geoff Sanders)
2km
Div A: Libby Gaulton 4th (17:45)
Div B: Jasper Kirtland 5th (18:52), Finlay Sandal 7th (19:05), Rupert Kirtland 9th (20:16), Oliver Klumpler 10th (21:25), Emilie Klumpler 13th (24:11)

See also

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B. Stortford Hasler (10 July 2022)

Leighton Buzzard Hasler (19 Jun 2022)

Norwich Hasler (22 May 2022)

Bedford Hasler (1 May 2022)

Waterside A (20 Feb 2022)

Cambridge Hasler (13 Feb 2022)

L. Buzzard Winter Series marathon (30 Jan 2022)

Chelmsford Winter Series Marathon (9 Jan 2022)

B. Stortford Winter Series Marathon (7 Nov 2021)

Chelmer Hasler (17 Oct 2021)

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