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Halifax Canoe Club |
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Competition NEW!
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Paddlefest Yorkshire11th September 2004Up at 6.30, and out the house with no breakfast to meet at the club at 7.30. Matt, John, Ian, James, Debbie, Olli, Stuart, Duncan and his dad, Tom, Adam, Gemma and me piled into cars and a van with some boats and set off for Rotherham. When we eventually got there we pulled up into the car park, wile everyone ran to the loo, I was wondering why we didn’t call in at McDonald’s - I swear it said on the letter we would be having breakfast there. Anyway tired and starving we found a café. The poor woman in the café was bombarded with orders of toast, bacon rolls, sausage rolls tea and coffee - so overloaded with orders that we had to wait another ½ hour before we were fed. Next we organised what we would be doing while we were there. Activities included bell boat racing, diamond slalom, K1 lightning challenge and canoe polo. We lost John (he was tearing up and down in a speedboat), so we all got changed and waited for Debbie to get things organised. The bell boat race was first and the Halifax team got split into two group’s D and L. Group L being made up of people from different clubs including Ian, Olli and me. Group D came a close second in their race, but group L came through to win their race. Next we had to wait a while for our turn at the lightning challenge. Only a couple of people capsized (including Stuart) and it took about five minutes to turn the boats round - even with the rudder! Next up was lunch and swimming (swimming was optional) before we moved on to canoe polo. We got told the rules and the safety part and then it was straight into the boats and on to the water. It was a tense match, Stuart had a very close shot from a corner throw, but it missed. The match ended two nil - but we were playing a team that played all the time in competitions, so Halifax played spectacularly!! We had a bit of a wait next so John and I got our playboats out, John drawing a lot of attention with his boat. I capsized and Matt thought I was at last on the swim chart - but I rolled back up. Our final event was the Diamond Slalom (hosted by Les and Sarah). The event proved more difficult than it looked. People got the chance to get the Bronze or Blue awards, the Bronze proving to be more difficult to achieve. On going throughout the day was the Ergo Challenge. The club got three medals for the fastest time in specific age groups (Matt U18’s silver, Duncan U12’s gold, and Jessica U12 girls gold). We also got a trophy for the bell boat race thanks to Group L - the trophy will be on display in the cabinet. Can also say thanks to everyone who provided transport, help and support and to Debbie for organising us on the day. Next time I’d like to see more people from the club at these events. PS everyone went how with a spectacular green baseball cap - except John! (Editors note: I didn’t get one either!) Tom |
