Banbury & District Canoe Club Newsletter          
BASINGSTOKE MARATHON  Sunday 17^th May
The first Southern Region race of the year is coming up soon. After the autumn races, the leading placings were:

1. Reading                    37
2. Falcon                      31
3. Banbury                  30
4=Basingstoke              29
4=Pangbourne              29
6. Southampton            18

With only the first four teams qualifying for the Hasler final, we can’t afford to drop any points, so we need to get as strong a team as possible out for this race, to lift us up the league table. Basingstoke will be strong in their home race, and Reading will score well, so the aim for us must be to finish ahead of Falcon and Pangbourne.

If you are able to race, please sign up on the sheet in the clubhouse, or contact Lisa Stone patchworktatty[at]btopenworld.com . Entries are sent off on the Tuesday before the race, so make sure you’re in time.

READING MARATHON Sunday 24^th May
Races are like buses: none for ages, and then lots of them. Once again, a good entry needed, so come and have a go if you are available.

TRAINING TIMES AND SESSIONS
It’s lovely to see so many people down at the club at the moment. The place is really buzzing. Training group times are as follows: please make sure that you are there in plenty of time because start time means on the water for that time. If you are late, the session will start without you.

 PROGRESSION GROUP TRAINING/RACING DAY
Many of the people in the progression group will soon be ready to try their first race. We have targeted the Oxford Marathon (Sunday 21^st June) as an ideal first race, both for Under 12s and for older paddlers. Prior to this, we are hoping to have a training and racing session on the Thames at Oxford, probably on a Saturday, and hopefully with novice paddlers from a couple of other clubs, too.
More details soon.

 HELP NEEDED WITH COACHING
On Monday 1st June and Monday 8^th June, we are running coaching sessions for Guide groups in the evening; on Monday 22^nd June, we are holding an all day session for pupils at Chenderit School as part of their activities week and on the afternoon/evening of Monday 29^th June, we hope to hold some “Come and Try it” sessions as par of National School Sports Week. Help from qualified coaches and from other paddlers, junior and senior, would be very much appreciated. Please e-mail Irene Irene[at]gtrollright.fsnet.co.uk if you can help with the Guides; Graham graham.warland[at]coopermenvier.co.uk if you can help with the Chenderit school and Dom banburypaddler[at]yahoo.co.uk if you can help with the Come and Try It session.

DOGGY PADDLE Sunday 10^th May
One of the best paddles of the year. 19 miles on the River Avon, from Leamington Spa to Stratford. It’s the only day of the year that canoeists are permitted to paddle this entire route, and it really is lovely. There will be more different types of boat on the water than you’ll have ever seen; you get to paddle past Warwick Castle and Charlecote House, plus some beautiful scenery.

It’s not a race, so do it how you like. Take a racing boat and treat it like a time trial, or take an open canoe, lunch and a bottle of wine and meander your way along. Or take something plastic and hurl it down the five weirs en route.

If you are interested in taking part, contact Dom banburypaddler[at]yahoo.co.uk. If you want more details, there is a link from our club website.

 NENE WILDWATER RACE Saturday 16^th May
Come and hurl a wavehopper or europa down the Nene course as fast as you can. Practice is from 4:40 to 5:30 pm, with racing from 5:30 to 7:30pm. If you’ve never tried WWR before, it’s and excellent chance to practice on the course.

If you are interested in taking part, please contact Ian Warren icwarren[at]tiscali.co.uk

 WHITSUN TOUR Thursday 28^th May
Something nice for half-term. A nine mile morning tour on the River Cherwell, from Thrupp to Marston, in North Oxford. The finish is at the Victoria Arms pub for lunch – nice chips, nice beer. The tour is nine miles, and isn’t suitable for understern rudders unless they’re protected, like the hody K2s for example. Other than that, use anything – plastics, whoppers, Canadians, oversterns.  If you’d like to take part, please contact Graham Warland graham.warland[at]coopermenvier.co.uk

 STRATFORD TO CROPREDY CHALLENGE
On Sunday June 14^th, we’re planning to run a race/tour/relay, call it what you will, from Stratford-on-Avon to Cropredy. Any money raised through fees of sponsorship will be donated to Myeloma UK in memory of Hilary Thomas.
Irene will be sending out full details of the event very soon, but, briefly: it’s 52 miles with 100 locks and takes in the River Avon, the Stratford Canal, the Grand Union and the Oxford Canal. As with Neville’s birthday paddle from Guildford to Cropredy, the relay should make it perfectly feasible for all club members to take part, whatever their ability or experience.

 CLUB BARBEQUE
On Sunday 31st May, after morning training, there will be a club barbeque. More details soon.

 INCOMMUNICADO
Julie Wood’s computer is currently broken, so if you need to contact her, please do so by phone, rather than by e-mail. A reminder that club membership fees are now overdue, and should be deposited, along with the forms, in the Treasurer’s box in the clubhouse.

PROMOTIONS
Congratulations to the following, who have all been promoted this month:
Mickey White               Div 9 à Div 7
Catherine Caton           Div 9 à Div 8
Steve Flynn                  Div 7 à Div 6
Alice Murphy               Div 7 à Div 6

April 17th 2009

CANOE CLUB NEWS.

CLUB CLEAN UP
There will be a club clean-up this Saturday morning from 9:45am. Please come along and lend a hand to get the place tidied up.

BEGINNER COURSE COACHING
Thank you to everyone who has helped with coaching the beginner courses so far. It has been wonderful to have so many people assisting: as well as paddlers getting almost one-to-one coaching, it's helped to integrate the newcomers with club members. Lots of them have taken membership forms, so hopefully, we'll be seeing an influx of paddlers in Division 9 and lightnings this season.

The last two sessions of the second junior course are this Saturday (18th) 11:00am-12:30pm and next Wednesday (22nd) 5:00-6:00pm, and the first session of the next adult course is next Wednesday (22nd) 6:15-7:45pm. Irene and I would be very grateful for any offers of help with either of these courses.

AVON WILDWATER RACE 25th APRIL
Our own little wildwater race is coming up very quickly - next Saturday, in fact. It's not exactly very wild water, being flat water with a weir in the middle, but it's a fun event and a good introduction to racing on moving water. Unfortunately, a number of the people who normally help with the event are unavailable, so I would be very grateful for offers of help with timekeeping and recording. We normally manage to arrange it so that people can officiate and take part as well.
If you can help, and/or you'd like to enter the race, please reply to this e-mail.

WHITSUN TOUR
On the Thursday of Whitsun half-term (May 28^th), there will be a tour on the River Cherwell round North Oxford. Starting from the British Waterways depot at Thrupp, it weaves its way through nine miles of woodland and watermeadows, passing the beautiful Woodeaton Manor and (via a slight detour) straight through Richard Branson’s back garden, before ending up at the Victoria Arms at Marston, where the food is good, the beer is better and canoeists are welcome. This is Graham’s old stomping ground (the whole area, I mean, not just the pub) ad he’ll be giving a guided tour for anyone willing to listen (“Of course, it was all in black & white in those days…”).

Because of the shallow water in places, the tour is best suited to non-ruddered boats, or those with oversterns, though boats like the hodys, which have protected rudders, would be fine.

We will be leaving the club at 9:00am. Boats will be left at Thrupp whilst cars are shuttled to the finish. The intention is for the first group to be on the water by 10am. We should arrive at the Victoria Arms around 1pm. Please reply to this e-mail if you’d like to take part.

SUMMER TRIP
We are hoping to arrange a summer canoe camping trip to the Lake District in the first week of August, probably for four days in midweek. Rachel has found a promising campsite on the banks of Windemere, and ex-club member Cress Allwood, who lives up that way, is going to check it out for us before we make any bookings. If you think you might be interested in going on the trip, could you contact Rachel  rachelermurphy@hotmail.com so that she can get a rough idea of numbers, please.

FUN DAY AND BARBEQUE
On Sunday May 31^st, after training we will be having a fun day and barbeque at the club. It will be a chance for new members to get to know the more established faces, and there will be the usual messing about in odd varieties of boat. Graham will do his normal party trick of one-legged blindfolded stand-up C1paddling. The club will be providing the food, but offers of salads and puddings will be gratefully accepted. Bring your own drink. Please let Rachel know if you are able to come rachelermurphy@hotmail.com so we know how many to cater for.

CANOE SAFETY TEST
Congratulations to Phredd, Matthew, Julie, Katie, Megan, Alice, Jason, Sophie, Chris H., Vicky, Debbie and Julian who all passed their Canoe Safety Test at Willen Lake, Milton Keynes, recently. This is the first step toward achieving coaching qualifications. Thank you to Neville for organising this.