The race attracted 120 competitors, many of them of an extremely high standard. The men's and women's SuperVet (50+) classes introduced last year proved even more popular than before, with the men's race having the most entries of any class at this event.

Matthew Johnson & Leah Falltrick of Chelmsford CC were again the fastest K2 on the 7-mile course (55:14), one of three doubles boats to finish in under an hour.

Promotions have been awarded by the MRC on the basis of these results:

• Neale Gregory (TON) to Division 2
  
• Matthew Villaruel (EAL) to Division 3
  
• Matteo Bose (CLM) to Division 3
• Jasper Nielsen (CLM) to Division 4

The next race will be at Maidstone on Sunday 17th November.  The online entry system will close on Friday 15th.

Forty six paddlers competed in the regatta, drawn from Chelmsford CC, Cambridge CC, Lee Valley Paddlesports, Hemel Hempstead CC, LYR Boat Club, and of course Bishops Stortford CC.

Racing in groups of three, everyone completed two runs down the 500m course, followed by two at 200m and one of 1000m.

After the lunchbreak, good use was made of the K4s (two of which were kindly brought over by Chelmsford).

The weather remained  warm and dry through to the prizegiving.

The full results from the day's racing can be found on the Summer Series results page.

A selection of photos can be found here.

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.

The Stortford Regatta was again a stand-alone event in 2023, so BSCC decided to try running it as an SRC Local Sprint Regatta in the hope that this would give the event a wider reach. Members of  Chelmsford CC, Cambridge CC, Lee Valley PS and Maidstone CC attended, but the majority of the competitors were from the home club.

Although attendance was small, the programme of races was non-stop during the morning with 500m, 200m and 1000m events. In the afternoon there were optional fun relay races and the opportunity to have a go in a K4.

During the lunch break, we were delighted to be joined by reigning KL3 World Champion and Paralympic gold medallist Laura Sugar MBE, who chatted to competitors and stayed to present the medals.

The class winners on the day were:

The full results from the day's racing can be found on the Summer Series results page.

Persistent rain did not deter a good number of competitors from coming to the opening race of the 2022-2023 Winter Series at Bishops Stortford - 130 competitors took part.

The senior doubles class, which has been steadily increasing in popularity over the last few years attracted 23 entries, making for a packed start line, to which the increased flow caused by the rain added an additional challenge. Leah Falltrick & Kat Wilson, who came third in this class, completed the 7-mile 6-portage course in 1:02:04 and thus beat the record of 1:09:20 for an all-female crew set by Ella Beatty & Maia Wallace-Loizou in 2015.

The other course record to fall this year was that for a C1 on the 3-mile 1-portage course. Shan Zheng Tan (4th overall in the Red class for Novice C1 & u14 Girls K1) finished in 34:33 - the previous fastest time (35:06) was achieved by Robin Dromard in 2006.

Class winners were:
Class 9 (Senior K2/MC2) - Sienna Payne & William Stroud (CLM)
Class 8 (K1 Open) - James How (NOR)
Class 7 (Vet M K1) - Rich Winstanley (BSF)
Class 6 (u18 M K1) - Ali Kabeer (WOK)
Class 5 (u16 M K1) -  Jack Rayment (LBZ)
Class 4 (16+ K1 & Adv C1) - Rachael Hampton (CLM)
Class 3 (u16 K2) - Eddie Kirtland & Libby Gaulton (BSF)
Class 2 (u16 F K1)  - May Perrin (CLM)
Class 1 (TC2) - Dora Goupil & Hadar Ben Gal (IND)
Class Blue (u14 M K1) - Matteo Bose (CLM)
Class Red (u14 F K1 & C1) - Johanna Milbradt (CAM)
Class GP - Tim Chamberlin (CLM)
Class Yellow (u12 K1) - Noah Nobbs (NOR)

The Mayor of Bishops Storford, Dave Anderson, kindly attended to present the medals.

Eight teams took part. Chelmsford CC were the overall winners (271 points), with B. Stortford CC second (114), followed by Leighton Buzzard CC, Cambridge CC and Norwich CC.

See

• the full race results on the Winter Series results page
• the photos taken by Amanda Roberts of P3T Photography
• a few other photos of the race on Google Photos
  

The next race will be at Cambridge on 4th December.

Although only one FRA regatta took place this year, the attendance of 49 paddlers was in line with pre-covid numbers. All the clubs in the FRA sent teams, and it was also pleasing to see a small group  from Hemel.

The full results from the day's racing can be found on the Summer Series results page.

After missing an entire season due to the pandemic, it was good to see the Winter Series running again -  especially as this is 2021, the 40th anniversary of the series being formalised. It was therefore particularly appropriate that the start and finish marshals for the day were Ron and Alison Thorogood, winners respectively of the Senior Mens K1 and Senior Ladies K1 series trophies back in  the 1981/82 season!

The trend towards doubles racing continued, with 20 K2s  and one C2 entering Class 9. Women are increasingly well represented, with the gold, silver and bronze medals in Class 9 all going to mixed crews. There were also three all-female crews in this class.

The Mens Veterans race (Class 7) was the second biggest class with 16 entrants, so that taken together with Class 9, these two classes made up over half the competitors present.

Ali Kabeer from Wokingham, won Class 5 (u16 MK1) in a time of 44:43 and thus came quite close to beating the 5-mile course record for the Stortford race, which was set at 43:03 in 2010 by Lewis Duffield.

A total of 109 competitors took part, drawn from twelve different clubs. Despite sending a much smaller team than usual, Chelmsford were still dominated the event and won easily (210 points), with Stortford second (119) and Leighton Buzzard third (83).

The full race results are on the Winter Series results page. There are also a few photos of the race on Flickr here. The next race will be at Cambridge on 5th December.

Despite Stortford having to announce that it was unable to provide on-site parking for everyone this year, the opening race of the Winter Series still attracted 131 competitors. Ten clubs participated as teams, and 6 more were represented amongst the Independent entries.

Canoes were very much in evidence, thanks to a healthy 6 entries in the TC2 class, where numbers have been dwindling for the past few years.

One of the stand-out performances of the day came from Wokingham CC paddler Ali Kabeer paddling as an Independent, who smashed the boys K1 record for the short course with his time of 25:57.  The record previously stood at 27:52, set in 2013 by Tim Gannicott Porter of Chelmsford. Ali of course won gold in the u14MK1 class. See the updated list of course records.

The full race results are on the Winter Series results page. There are also a few photos of the race on Flickr here. The next race will be at Cambridge on 1st December.

The full results from the day's racing and for the series can be found on the Summer Series results page.

Emma Russell and James Walkington's (CLM) time of 56:26 in the 7 mile K2 race was not after all (as reported earlier in error) a course record for mixed K2 (that was set at 53:08 by Mark Wilkes and Kat Wilson in 2016), but was nevertheless an excellent time. 

Ten clubs were represented. Chelmsford were the winning team with Stortford 2nd and Leighton Buzzard 3rd. In the Dick Grieve table (based on performance by novice juniors only) the result also Chelmsford 1st and Stortford 2nd, but Leaside CC in third place. The full race results can be seen on the Winter Series results page.

The next race will be at Cambridge on 25th November - see Cambridge race details.