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).

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.

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

• Results on the Marathon website
  
• Eastern Region Hasler League to date
• Race photos in Angela's Flickr album
  

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.

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)

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.

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.

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

• Provisional results on Cambridge website
  
• Eastern Region Hasler League to date
• Race photos in Angela's Flickr album
  

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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)

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

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).

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

• Official results
  
• Race photos in Angela's Flickr album

Two members of BSCC were amongst the four-strong GB team for the ICF Canoe Marathon World Masters Championships.

Chris Sze and Gordon Bullock travelled to Bascov in Romania to compete in the two-day event that precedes the main Canoe Marathon World Championships for Juniors and Seniors.

Over 120 Masters athletes representing 29 countries took part.

Chris achieved a silver medal paddling with Colin Simpkins of South Africa in the Mens 60-64 K2 race. They completed the 19km course with 4 portages in 1:34:38, just 28 seconds behind the winners.

Both BSCC paddlers had competed in the singles events on the previous day over the 15.4km course, Chris finishing in 1:52:47 (10th, Mens K1 60-64) and Gordon in 1:29:52 (4th, Mens K1 65-69).

The fourth member of the GB team, Chris Tatam, brought back the country’s other Masters medal of the competition, winning Gold in Mens K1 70-74 with a time of 1:26:33 over the same distance.

See full results here: https://pitesti2021.spotfokus.com/

A dozen Stortford paddlers faced fiercely hot weather to compete at the Leighton Buzzard Hasler, and came back with seven gold medals and two silvers.

On the 12 mile course, Joe won Div 2 in a time which was less than a minute under the promotion time to Div 1.

Mike & Chris won their doubles race on the 8 mile course, and Jacque & Dave repeated their success at Norwich to do the same on the 4 mile course.

Tom B and Edward took the top two positions in Div 9, despite Tom stopping to help Edward recover from a capsize, in a perfect demonstration of the sportmanship which runs through kayak racing. Edward's finishing time confirmed his transition into Div 9, despite being under 14.

Three members of the Klumpler family were competing for the first time, with particular success for Oliver who won the remaining gold medal of the day for the club in Div C, one of the new u14s divisions. As a consequence he has now been promoted to Div B.

Others taking part in their first race to great credit were Karen (Div 9) and Jasper (Div C). Oliver and Jasper also raced a second time to take bronze in the mini-K2 race.

There were 89 competitors at the event, drawn from 7 Eastern Region clubs and 5 clubs from further afield, including a strong showing from Banbury.

The full race results have now been published.