News

If you have any news or photos you’d like to share with other members.  We’d be delighted to include them on the website. Please use the contact us link or speak to Shirley Boyt

When the Thames is on ‘red boards’  all members are reminded of the need for caution.

The Environment Agency makes the following recommendations:
RED BOARDS
Caution strong stream
We advise users of all boats not to navigate because the strong flows make it difficult and dangerous.
YELLOW BOARDS
Caution stream increasing (up arrow)
We advise users of all un-powered boats not to navigate and users of powered boats to find a safe mooring. This is because river flows are likely to strengthen and red boards could be displayed very soon and without warning.
Caution stream decreasing (down arrow)
We advise users of all un-powered boats not to navigate and users of powered boats to navigate with caution.

The following is an extract from the club rules:
Water Activities During Strong Stream Warnings
Section E3.16 Members must acquaint themselves with the information on Environment Agency Strong Stream Warnings - displayed on the notice board **
Section E3.17 Whenever Cautions or Strong Stream conditions exist, the Club advises that:
1) Adult members, inexperienced on moving water, should not launch
2) Adult members, experienced on moving water, launch at their own risk
3) Junior members should not launch unless they have previous written consent from a parent or guardian
4) All members deciding to launch, wear buoyancy aids, irrespective of their competency
5) No members should launch during hours of darkness

**There is a link to the EA website on the home page of this site, to enable members to check the current situation.

Club sessions are likely to be affected by the prevailing river conditions and may be subject to a change of venue or cancellation. We will try to give notice of any changes on the club website – so please check before setting out. Alternatively please phone our Sessions Officer, Lindsay Askew on 07803 943818

Congratulations to Darren Crocker, Earl Hewett and Hafsa Kabeer who won WBSP awards this year.  The awards ceremony took place on Friday 27th November at Loddon Valley Leisure Centre. Guest of honour was Jo Ellis, a member of England’s Olympic hockey team, who presented the awards.

Hafsa won the Ivor Baker Award for U14 Girls , in recognition of her winning the U10 National Championship. This category had a large number of nominees from a wide range of sports and Hafsa was the youngest of those nominees.

Darren and Earl won the Spirit of Sport Award for their success in finishing third in the epic Yukon 1000 race. Unfortunately Darren was unable to attend the ceremony so Earl collected the award for both of them.  The club had two other nominees, Sam Rippington and Aaron Thompson who were mentioned but did not win on this occasion.

It was not exactly a brilliant turn out for the AGM but thanks to those who made the effort to attend. Thanks also to all those who have agreed or were press-ganged into standing for the Committee. There are however, a couple of  posts which remain vacant ~ Youth Development Officer and Events & Trips co-ordinator – If you are interested please contact Marion Quemby for more detalis.

Your Committee for the coming year is:

Chairman ~ Earl Hewett

Secretary ~ Marion Quemby

Treasurer ~ Mike Pateman

Membership Secretary ~ Hilary Pearson

Recreation Officer ~ Steve Finch

Racing Officer ~ Sam Rippington

Sessions Officer ~ Lindsay Askew

Publicity Officer ~ Shirley Boyt

Social Secretary ~ Sandy Goatham

Health & Safety ~ Rod Hart

Bosun ~ Phil Millman

Youth Representative ~ Sarah Burness

A new sheet of Committee contact details will be put on the noticeboard shortly. In the meantime if you wish to contact any Committee member please do so via the ‘contact us’ button on this website.

Finally, don’t forget to put in your nominations for the ‘Club Award’ ~ you should have received an email about this.

Our first ever race began with a mixture of nerves and excitement as we kitted up and took our places in the boat.  After a brief warm-up we were the first boat off and enjoyed our time holding the lead position!  Gradually we got overtaken by the other contenders of the race but it certainly didn’t dampen the spirits, Kathi was fantastic keeping up the encouragement even when we were battling the autumn wind and our brilliant rate-keepers, Clare and Jen ensured that we all pulled together to give it our all.  Our helm, Paul expertly guided us around the 7km course, taking the turns in his stride.  As we slogged under the bridge for the last time, Zoë, Mike and Clare’s family were there to encourage us on and finally the end was in sight – together with all the teams cheering us on till the finish, what a great feeling!  We even got a mention during the prize-giving at the end, welcoming us to our first ever competition – it certainly won’t be the last.

Thanks to our team: Jenny F, Jenny T, Sue, Mel, Karen, Clare and Katie with special guests Gary, Aaron and Sarah for achieving a fantastic time of 44min 31secs.

Hot off the press ~ Wokingham Dragons in awesome form at the Longridge Dragon Boat Regatta and proudly showing off their medals and the magnificent trophy.  Watch this space for a full report and more pictures.

A big well done to Aaron Thompson who competed in the World Dragon Boat Championships in Prague.
Aaron has been training with the GB junior team since being selected in April.
During the four days of competition the team took part in junior ‘open’ and ‘mixed’ events over 1000m, 500m and 200m. They won through to the major final in the ‘mixed 200m’ event and paddled brilliantly to win the bronze medal. 
It is the first time in six years that the team has won a medal at the world championships and the juniors were the only GB team to win a medal at the event! So it really is a fantastic achievement.

If you look carefully you can just see the top of Aaron’s head, third from the back.

Congratulations to Hafsa Kabeer on becoming U10 Lightning Champion at the National Championships at Longridge on Saturday 29th August.  It was a hard fought race with 16 starters on the backwater.  Hafsa narrowly beat Madi Barnicoat of Longridge by one tenth of a second.

 (Courtesy of Reading Post 3/9/09)

Well done to all Wokingham paddlers who took part in the event.

This year at the Sprint World Championships in Canada, Women’s C1 and C2  races featured as exhibition races. The GB Women’s canoe team consisted of our very own Sam Rippington  and her C2 partner, Lisa Suttle from Chelmsford Canoe Club.  Both put up very creditable performances in the C1 races with Sam finishing 7th in the 200m event and Lisa finishing 6th in the 500m.  However in the C2 events they really showed the competition a thing or two winning silver in the 500m and bronze in the 200m.

Well done Sam and Lisa on a brilliant set of results.