A select group of Winter Series devotees, plus a few from Ealing CC and Tonbridge CC, took part in the inaugural WS race at Maidstone - a total of 76 competitors in all.

The river levels had reduced since the previous week, enabling the postponed race to go ahead, but a rolling start was used because of the amount of flow.

The race was run very efficiently by the organising team at Maidstone, and everything went off smoothly. We hope that WS "regulars" from the Eastern Region clubs enjoyed the change of scenery, and that Maidstone will have us back again next year!

The next race will be the held at Cambridge on Sunday 3rd December.  The online entry system will close on Friday 1st.

Despite the after-effects of Storm Ciarán, which put both the usual parking field and the upstream section of the river out of action, the race was able to go ahead with 136 paddlers participating.

The largest class was the Veteran Men with 14 entries - this was in addition to the new SuperVet class which attracted a further 8.

Matthew Johnson & Leah Falltrick achieved an impressively speedy time of 53:15 on the 7-mile course. Although 53s faster than the course record set by Kat Wilson & Mark Wilkes in 2016, the original record still stands because on this occasion the turn was moved significantly short of Sawbridgeworth Lock to avoid works taking place there.  [Edited]

The new class structure put ladies' singles races on the 7-mile course for the first time. The fastest lady was Sienna Payne in 1:02:40, but this is not being recorded as a course record for the same reason as above. [Edited]

Class winners were:
Class 1 (K2 16+ M) - Scott Leblanche & Domas Malinauskas (BAD)
Class 2 (K2 16+ Mixed) - Matthew Johnson & Leah Falltrick (CLM)
Class 3 (K2 16+ F) - Kerstin Queeney & Catherine Ayling (BSF/EAL)
Class 5 (K1 Sen M) - Tim Gannicott-Porter (CLM)
Class 6 (K1 Sen F) - Megan Kenny (EXE)
Class 7 (K1 Vet M) - Richard Winstanley (BSF)
Class 8 (K1 Vet F) - Kat Wilson (BSF)
Class 9 (K1 u18 M) - Ali Kabeer (WOK)
Class 10 (K1 u18 F) - Sienna Payne (CLM)
Class 20 (K1 SuperVet M) - Ben Tubby (BSF)
Class 21 (K1 SuperVet F) - Tammy Edwards (NOR)
Class 22 (K2 u16) - Rebecca Perrin & James Johnson (CLM)
Class 23 (K1 u16 M) -  Cassian Payne (CLM)
Class 24 (K1 u16 F) -  May Perrin (CLM)
Class 25 (C1 Adv) - Tan Shanzheng (CAM)
Class 30 (Touring C2) - Adrian Pyke & Chris Howe (CAM)
Class 31 (K1 u14 M) - Matteo Bose (CLM)
Class 32 (K1 u14 F) - Libby Gaulton (BSF)
Class 33 (C1 novice) - Petr Luksan (BSF)
Class 34 (GP 16+ M) - Tim Chamberlin (CLM)
Class 34 (GP 16+ F) - Deborah Wilkes (CLM)
Class 38 (K1 u12 M) - Alessio Bose (CLM)
Class 39 (K1 u12 F) - Lucy Myers (LBZ)

The medals were presented by Richard Townsend, the Mayor of Bishops Stortford.

Chelmsford were the winners with 338 points, followed by Stortford (183) and Leighton Buzzard (125). Stortford won the most Dick Grieve points (based on performance of juniors Div 9 or below), Chelmsford second and Leighton Buzzard third. The full results are included on the end of the main results.

See

• the full race results on the Winter Series results page
  
• a few other photos of the race on Google Photos
  

The next race will be the inaugural Winter Series race at Maidstone on Sunday 19th November.  The online entry system will close on Friday 17th.