 Greetings! The Christmas and New Year pies & parties are far behind now and we are in the middle of the Watersides. I hope preparations for the DW paddlers amongst us are going well. I'll be out at Easter... but on the bank I am afraid. Our old friend Sonja has been spotted on the canals recently and will be racing at Easter. I hear Peter Stanway and Richard Tuck as well as some Batchelors will be out too. Good luck to all of you.
Some strong winter training performances would suggest that this year will be as successful as ever for Reading Canoe Club, both at home and away. It's a big one this month - so read on. |
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Articles in this issue: Boat Racking; World Class; Thameside 1. |
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World Class
The winter saw the start of the new "World Class Start" programme. Many Reading paddlers are recognised in it. See the article below for more. Abigail Cattle remains recognised in the World Class Performance plan. *Security*
AGAIN I write to you all begging you to be careful and lock the doors/windows, set the alarm etc. This winter we have had many thefts, break-ins and an increasing instance of car crime in the canoe club area. Do not to leave valuables in your cars, or in the canoe club for that matter. The club has written to the Police to ask for more active policing in the area, but have not received any response as yet. Slalom season starts 2nd March at Shepperton
The slalom season fast approaches, first races are this weekend at Shepperton and after a hard winter the slalom squad will be representing Reading Canoe Club in force. The event will be a Division 2 Slalom on the Saturday and a Division 1 Slalom on the Sunday. Training Sessions: Tuesdays - Beginners session (Novices to Division 2 standard) - Coached Nigel Winters and Dave Lomas. Wednesdays - Advanced session (Div 2 to Premier) - Coached by Chris Masters and Nigel Winters. DW Help Plea!
DW currently needs help to man the checkpoint at Marlow. Currently Eric Blake and Jacqui Mullins are available, is anyone willing to help at any time from Friday-Monday over Easter with the computer side of things? If you can, please contact Tony Roberts JuRb839@aol.com. Any help would be gratefully received. Wiki, Paul, Tamsin & Brian will also be out there helping over Easter. Youth Leader
Coaches
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ShortsThe changing room door code is changing on 9th March "A massive thank you to everybody who contributed to my 21st birthday present of a CD changer for my car. The pressie came as a fabulous surprise and I am reminded of my good friends every time I get in the car. Thank you all so much." Abi. Journalist: Mark Haynes has volunteered to be our report-writer. If you have any news or other stories, please get in touch with him. He's also our club scrubber and doing a great job keeping the building clean
Congratulations also to our Chairman, David Sackman, and his new wife, Carleen. Please pay your membership on time to avoid problems with the accounts. Delay in payment WILL results in your keycard being de-activated. The Committee: can be all contacted on reading-canoe-committee And remember: PLEASE turn the lights off & lock up if you're last out. |
Gail Battison leaves this post after sterling service with our younger members. Never fear: she has not left us all together and is still on the river often. We now look for someone to try to fill her hole.
Three of the club coaches will be attending a level 3 racing coach course at the end of March: David Coulson; Andy Rawson; Brian Greenham. This will strengthen our coaching situation at Reading. Anyone interested in coaching at whatever level are encouraged to do a course, speak to the committee or Brian Greenham.
Congratulations! to Andy & Lucy Cruse who have a new addition to their family. 'Emma' joined us last month and will surely be keeping her parents and Ruby busy.
Events coming up...
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BOAT RACKING
If you have a boat stored at the club this does affect you!
Over the course of last summer we (thanks to Brian C and Dan) rebuilt the K1 and K2 racks to increase the storage capacity and smarten the place up a bit. We now have a capacity for 105 K1's and 60 K2's in the racks used for private boats (+ club K2's).
All the new racks (well, nearly all) have individual foam padding whilst the horizontal bars are positioned at the optimal distance apart, so storage without damage is now a reality. A numbering system has been devised which identifies each space by bay, by row and by column. We hope to make similar improvements to the club racks this summer.
CHANGES TO RACKING FEES
The committee has agreed that the existing flat fee structure (£30 per rack) does not encourage honesty and maximise club income. A revised fee structure has been agreed as follows; first 2 boats £30 each, thereafter £15 each. Families pay as 2 adults. So an individual with 3 racks pays £75 and a family with 5 racks pays £135. This remains in place only as long as we have excess capacity in the boatshed.
BOAT SHED AUDIT
An audit of the racks was completed in January identifying the owners of all boats on the racks. This information has been used to build a database listing for every member with a boat in the shed, which racks they are using and therefore how many boats they should be paying for.
Very shortly a new noticeboard in the boatshed will illustrate the racks and list member's dues. The new fees are applicable from your next renewal date. If you have more boats than you are paying for it is your responsibility to either remove some of them or see me (David Coulson) or Sean Simmons and make a pro-rata payment to cover those racks for the months until you next renew. Conversely you can ask for a refund if you have overpaid!
Over the course of the next year as members renew, we shall be building more accurate records of which racks people have paid for. We do intend the system to be self-certified, thus relying on all our honesty, however, spot checks will be made!
Please let me know if you add/remove boats or even just move racks. Any queries whatever, please ask me.
Thanks - David Coulson.
Sport England Lottery Fund, World Class Start Programme and Reading Canoe Club
You may ask what is World Class Start?
Currently, there are five World Class Programmes supported by the Sport England Lottery Fund:
· World Class Performance,
· World Class Potential,
· World Class Start,
· 2002 Commonwealth Games, and
· World Class Events.
The programmes are designed to help England's most talented Sports Men and Women improve their performance and win more medals in major international competitions. The World Class Programme enables national governing bodies of sport to establish comprehensive frameworks to support talented performers.
The World Class Start Programme aims to help in the identification and nurturing of performers who have the necessary talent to achieve future World Class Success. Of the 40 sports that currently receive World Class performance funding only 25 receive funding for Start programmes.
The Sport England Lottery Fund has agreed to support the British Canoe Union World Class Start Plan. This plan aims to identify and nurture talented athletes in both canoe slalom and flat water racing. In all there are 111 athletes (principally in the age range 13-18 years old) included within the World Class Start programme. To be accepted on to the programme they have had to meet strict performance levels. For example, in flat water racing an 18 year old junior K1man must be able to do 500m in under 1.50 or be leading Division 2, while for slalom he would have to be in Premier Division.
The idea being behind this is to give encouragement to up and coming paddlers, by inviting local coaching to help this alleviate the problems with local coaches being left out or in the dark. The squad director for West Thames is Trevor Wetherall of Richmond canoe club. So far training days have been arranged at Elmbridge, Wokingham and Wey. One is due at Richmond shortly.
Juniors from Reading have been very successful in gaining places on the World Class Start. Those accepted for 2002 are:
Tom Daniels- Dan Buggy
- Aynsley Buggy
- Martyn Pickett
- Zach Pillinger
- Andrew Vineer
- Naomi Winters
These youngsters will now participate in a national and regional programme of competitions and training. In sprint/marathon, Rohan Battison, Allison Galloway and Leander Ede have all gone along as potential candidates.
Hopefully as the year goes on we will hear more of their successes. In the mean time if you would like to know what being part of this programme means to any of the paddlers why not ask them, I'm sure they have more to say than me.
Assisting in the programme delivery from Reading as coaches with World Class Start are Chris Masters, Ian Masters, Dave Lomas, Nigel Winters, Nick Daniels and Brian Greenham.
Nigel Winters
Co-ordinator (Slalom), Southern England Performance Region World Class Start
World Class Training camp
Tom Daniels and I went to Temple-sur-Lot near Bordeaux for ten days in February on a training camp as part of the World Class Start and Performance plans respectively. The French national team training facilities are used by a number of international canoeing teams including the Germans and Canadians. The centre also attracts French gymnastics and basketball teams too.
The river is excellent for flat water training as there is a 70km section of wide river blighted by neither weir nor lock, so excellent for those of us who do not enjoy portaging!
Other facilities on site included a fully equipped gym, and sauna and relaxation pool. There is a training pool nearby too. The centre offers full board accommodation in basic but pleasant, newly built blocks for, I believe, around £25 per night.
The training was excellent though tiring and we particularly benefited from the flat water to work on technique. The weather was mainly kind.
Abigail Cattle
Thameside 1
The week before the race is normally calm, however emails where flying around about locks being out of action canal closed et all.
Saturday saw a large group paddle to the Oracle and back, just to too what the fuss was all about, yes Caversham lock was closed, but this solved all problems of any body trying to go the wrong way. The flood conditions did make coming in slightly tricky.
Come Sunday, a westerly wind made going down the canal easy but cold up the Thames. First to go off was Wiki then David and his new young lady closely followed by Nick.
The canal has been refurbished, locks and footpath, this makes cycling along very much easier than it used to be, the lock now have good landing points making portages very clean and easy. Not like in the past, jumping into the canal and taking a hunk of vegetation with you.
Upton lock became a new portage, this being due to bridgework, Then on with a clear run to Reading.
County lock can always cause problems not least with the landing pontoon being at an angle and nicely splintered ply top. And getting back in just after the lock gates with water swirling against you made it a tricky lock. With Ian's help, lifelines and all we set up shop. With all crews being directed round the back into the channel and portaging across the island to the landing grid by the traffic light. Only one crew actually capsized.
The race being run as a time trial basis made judging anybody's position very difficult, one notable point was the three K1 Leaside paddlers Hallam, Hogan and Issac all coming in together, obviously working as a team.
With Paul T acting as the last boat marshal, after a long wait Ian decided to give Paul a ring to find out where he was and loo under the bridge he appears with an Artist crew with a broken rudder, so into action go the Toomey/Greenham repair squad. Before long the crew are back on the water for the last bit to the club.
The Club had no senior K2 but 4 out of the 8 entries in the mixed doubles and Dan/Anita narrowly beat Sue/Peter by 14 seconds. Dave Coulson paddling with his new bau came in 7th and Gail paired up with Leander in Nigel's absence got the wooden spoon.
Nick obviously having a bad race came 5th in the VetK1, Meanwhile Tom and Mark where having a private battle in the men's K1, Mark getting the better of Tom by 97 seconds. Meanwhile in the kitchen Mary and Martin Watson where doing a fine trade in bacon butties, hidden away in the office Dave was fiddling about on the computer. Finally it was prize-giving time, unfortunately by now quite a few of the winners had disappeared home.
With thanks to Martin L, Dave S, Mary, Martin, Ian, Paul for all the hard work.
Brian Greenham
The End! Thank you for reading. Contributions are always welcome. Peter Burbridge. peter.burbridge@kcl.ac.uk
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