Leighton Buzzard Canoe Club
1 December 2019
Cambridge Winter series race.
A team from Leighton Buzzard travelled to Cambridge for a winter series race on the River Cam through the centre of town. In cold bright weather but with little wind conditions were good. They were also good for a large outing of punts hired by tourists which made racing something like Grand Theft Auto.
The winter series has races mostly shorter than Hasler races and an age and gender classification rather than speed class for the Hasler series. The challenges of portages remain.
A highlight of the day for LBCC was coach Mike Martin’s winning the veteran men’s K1 race with Brian Handsley in third and Paul Murphy 7th. In the senior ladies Beth Goodlad was second with Amy Carter closely following in third and Amanda Morris 6th. In the senior men’s race Sam Legg came in a creditable 8th and did it in his tippy new boat.
In crew boats Paul Stenning and Nigel Dixon were 12th in the Mens K2/C2 event but were the second C2. In the Open C2 class Jeremy Stratford and David Shipway were 5th. Stand out performance though was Ollie Power and Joe Galliers in U16M K2 who were a creditable second.
It fell to the juniors to win most of the club points with Ben Stratford second in U18 M K1 and Josh Power 4th in U16K1. Leon Dixon was 4th in the U14K1M, whilst Kayleigh Dixon was 3rd in U14K1F.
