A creative reflection from our Secratary Richard Carter
Newbury Canoe Club, in the distinguished guise of Ted, Rachel, Andy, Rob, Jak, Mike, Andrew, Rebecca, Richard, Andrew and Paul, our super-duper captain, went out to paddle the Southampton Hasler on the 21st July. Steve was there supporting! Good man!
Those of a geographic bent will be aware that three rivers empty their waters into Southampton Estuary. There’s the beautiful and clean River Test, home to watercress farms and wild trout. Then there’s the River Hamble where so many pretty marina’s ring to the clink of champagne flutes. We however paddled on the River Itchen, famous for the post-industrial reality of discarded mattresses, the hulks of half sunk boats, and down and outs fishing for fish? Sewage? Hope? That’s where we were and given the gritty realism of Newbury that coach Kieron has instilled in us (I’m thinking here of drinking at Weatherspoons and eating a Gregg’s sausage roll without a knife and fork) we fitted in just perfectly.
Div 7, 8 & 9 had to go from the start to buoy C, then B, C, D and A before returning to C. Andrew who does strange things like listen at the race briefing told me that Div’s 4, 5 & 6 had to go around buoys A, C, D, E, D, J, Q, C, A, A, D, !, C and then just to the finish line. The organisers described the course as a somewhat complicated circuit remembering always to go clockwise around the red buoy. During the briefing I spent my time focusing on the refreshment stand: it’s always good to know what cake is available...chocolate muffins in this case. Yum!
From the shore the water looked placid, Up close not so placid. Choppy is a polite description and the safety boats tried their hardest to add to the wake. Ted, Rob and Andy elected to take our trusty club Hobby’s out and what a good decision!
There were terrific performances in the 1st race. Jak paddled the dubs C2 with Mike and came 3rd in Div 8_8. Rob and Rachel zoomed around and Ted – well Ted had to hang around to stand on the podium having won! Ooo! Give that man a mug (or a water bottle or a neck warmer).
In the second race Andrew and I elected to let all the other crews paddle off into the post industrial grime before we joined in. While this had the disadvantage of frothing up the already choppy water into a café macchiato it did give us a fairly clear picture of where to go. We played ‘follow that boat’ for an hour and 20 minutes, up and down, down and up, round and round. I saw the marine scrapyard 7 times, the park at least twice and I will have nightmares about that red buoy. Andy as always paddled with elegance in his race and Paul and Rebecca fought for 1st place throughout their race.
Coalporters Rowing Club, built in part under the arches of the A3025 was a super venue. There was all manner of burgers and cakes to eat, warm showers and get this – just down the road was a Chinese food wholesaler. Noodles were bought! It doesn’t get much better than that!
Well done to all. Thanks especially to Paul as Team Captain for his tireless organisation. Ted promoted to Div 7..... if he can, we can!