Bishop's Stortford Canoe Club
BSCC is a kayak and canoe racing club on the River Stort Navigation, Hertfordshire. We compete in the Eastern Region Hasler and Essex Winter Series marathons, and in national and local sprint regattas.
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Interested in taking up this Olympic sport? - see our JOIN US page to find out how to book a free taster session.
GREAT OUSE HASLER MARATHON - HUNTINGDON - 15th June - see details
CHELMSFORD
REGATTA (27/5/12)
A strong team of 15 Stortford paddlers put on
a good show at the Chelmsford regatta. Medal winners were
GOLD - Isabelle Gurney (u14F), Megan Scott (u10F), Toby Booth
(u10M), Josh Young (u23M), Melanie Bennett (23+F)
SILVER - Aisha Solars (u16F), Oliver Paine (u12M)
BRONZE - Cameron Goold (u14M), Emily Scott (u14F)
There were also notable performances from Megan Kenny (4th, u16F)
and Matt Parkes (4th, u16M). Well done to Ella Beatty, who was
participating in her first competition.
See full results.
NORWICH HASLER MARATHON (20/5/12)
Great results from Matt and Simeon, who were both promoted to Div 4. Outstanding results also from Toby (placed second in his first marathon race), and Paul & Richard who flew round the division 9 course in C2.
Doubles -
Div 5: Ant Wright & Mike Panrucker 6th (1:13:11)
Div 7: Emily Gurney & Megan Kenny 2nd (39:52)
Div 9: Richard Baker & Paul Surrage 2nd (42:09), Gary Aldam & Malcolm Duckworth 7th (46:05)
Singles -
Div 3: Josh Young (rtd)
Div 5: Matt Parkes 2nd (1:09:48), Simeon English 3rd (1:10:16)
Div 8: Aisha Sollars 8th (42:25), Isabelle Gurney 10th (44:20)
Div 9: Melanie Bennett 8th (43:12)
u12 boys: Oliver Paine 4th (17:00)
u10 boys: Toby Booth 2nd (20:26)
Stortford were 4th overall and remain 5th in the Eastern Region league. See photos, full results and league table.
Five Stortford paddlers took part in the National Canoe Sprint Racing Regatta at Holme Pierrepont, Nottingham on 12th and 13th May. Jake O'Sullivan had a particularly rewarding weekend. Paddling in Boys C, Jake was second in 500m K1 with a time of 2:25.46 and fourth in 1000m (4:33.25). He also partnered Matt Parkes in K2 1000m (2nd, 4:08.07) and 500m (3rd, 2:12.88). Jake has been promoted to Boys B. There was also an excellent result from Megan Scott, who was part of a mixed Lightning K4 crew which came 2nd in the 500m race in a time of 2:54.01. Full results can be seen here.
Building
of the club's new boathouse is going well and it is expected
that it will be completed ahead of schedule. The much-needed
new storage facility is begining to take shape on the area of
rough ground beside the existing clubhouse at Southmill Lock.
BSCC are deeply grateful to all our our sponsors, to those in the club who have raised money and contributed their professional expertise towards this project, and to everyone from the groups we have worked with whose letters of support have helped us to gain planning permission and secure grants.
The fundraising continues, and we hope that as a result of this improvement to our facilities, many more members of the local community will be able to come along and have a go at this exciting and enjoyable olympic sport.
MORE...
DEVIZES TO WESTMINSTER
(6 to 9/4/12)
Well done to BSCC member Alasdair Bruce and his
father William for successfully completing the 125-mile Devizes
to Westminster canoe marathon. The DW, which takes place every
Easter, is reckoned to be one of the toughest endurance events
in the world. The course follows the Kennet & Avon canal
and on to the Thames. The lack of rainfall this year made the
river sluggish and resulted in particularly large number of retirements.
Roughly one third of the crews participating pulled out, including
Sir Steve Redgrave and two other crews of Olympians. Alasdair
and William were amongst the crews participating in the Endeavour
class, completing the course in stages across four days. They
finished at Westminster Bridge in the heart of London after a
total of 24h 50m 31s paddling, placing them 9th in their class
out of 23 starters. See full results.
Huge congratulations to Josh Young for completing all of this year's Waterside marathon series. The final, and longest, of the races (Waterside D) took him from Devizes in Wiltshire to Newbury in Berkshire - 35 miles along the Kennet and Avon canal. Setting off at 8am in temperatures only just above 2 degrees, he completed the grueling course and its 35 portages, in 5hrs 17min, earning him 3rd place in Senior K1. His time was the 6th fastest of all the 42 single kayaks participating, and was also 6 minutes faster than the time he achieved when he undertook this race 2 years ago. His cumulated time also earned him 3rd position in K1 Senior over the whole series. See full results
BSCC helped Furneux
Pelham Junior School celebrate 200 days to go to the Olympic
Games by introducing 60 pupils to sprint kayaking using state-of-the-art
paddling machines kindly loaned by the Eastern Region Development
Team. On-board computers enabled each of the youngsters to record
a 100m time and each received a Canoe 2012 certificate. Two of
the best young performers staged a paddle-off in front of the
whole school and the winner then went head to head against their
PE teacher.
LITTER-PICK ON THE STORT (12/11/11)Seventeen paddlers from Bishops Stortford Canoe Club took to the water in canoes and kayaks to collect litter from the river between the club premises at Southmill Lock and the head of the navigation in the town centre. The club's endeavors were supported by British Waterways, who provided litter-pickers and bags.
The club also involved volunteers from TUBS (Tidy Up Bishops Stortford), a group of local residents who hold bi-monthly litter-picks around the town. TUBS responded enthusiastically when the club suggested a river litter pick and the two groups were able to coordinate their efforts on the same day.
Working in parallel, the canoeists collected litter from the river while TUBS cleared the towpath. The scores of bags of rubbish collected were then removed by BW staff on the "Pride of Stortford", the town's new cleansing boat. Mark Prisk, MP for Stortford, joined in with the work, as did Councillors John Barfoot and Colin Woodward, who are active members of TUBS. The Lea & Stort Inland Waterways Association was also represented.
Coordinating the efforts of BSCC and TUBS enabled the job to be done much more effectively than either group could have done alone, and the support from British Waterways was very encouraging. MORE PHOTOS