The Club welcomed 70 people to their annual awards night on 11th November, the theme this year being ‘International’ – a celebration of how many of our paddlers had been racing abroad this year.

Imogen was kindly hosting the evening and she, along with a team of helpers, had done a wonderful job of dressing up the hall and terrace into a wonderland of lights and glamour.

Immi did a terrific round up of all that had been going on this year – from hard training, to racing sprints and marathons, at home and abroad, to all the many social events. Miriam told us about her Improver Group, awarding her PIG (paddler improver group) of the Year, as Charlotte Bell.

Nigel gave us a round up of the many spheres he’s involved with – Under 10s group, ergo training, NITs (Nigel Intensive Training) sessions, naming his NIT of the Year as Nikki!

Then came the announcement of the serious Trophy winners, listed below. Congratulations to them all:

Trophy Winners:

Cruise Cup (most points scored in haslers) – Aidan Teeuwen

Sprint Paddler of the Year – Oli Mazur

Paddler of the Year – Harry Freeland

Veteran Paddler of the Year – Edgar Boehm

Junior Paddler of the Year – Tilla Kubisch-Wiles

Most Improved Junior Paddler of the Year – Tyler (Bob) Kinder

Most Improved Adult Paddler of the Year – Jeremy Harmsworth

K2 of the Year – Trevor Mills and whoever is brave enough to K2 with him!

Ashes Trophy (for going above and beyond in volunteering) – Sabine Kirschstein

Bill Mowbray (for DW performance) – Aidan Teeuwen and Max Prins-Mills

Swimmer of the Year – Beni Nagy

Thank you very much to Lynn, who bravely did the catering for us all, and to the many people who brought puddings. Thanks also to Becky for all the photos and the many other members who helped put the event on. It was a fun and colourful evening.

Saturday 30th September 2023

Due to the high number of entries, we have had to split classes and revise all timings.

Parking has also changed and will now be at Rivermead Leisure Centre RG1 8EQ

For full details of both, please go to the race page on the Reading Races tab of the website:

http://reading-canoe.org.uk/reading-k4-10km/

The first weekend of September sees the special Macgregor Cup Interclubs sprint regatta in Nottingham, a key racing date in the year. We were delighted this year to field a team of 26, competing in 70 races. That took quite some organisation – well done Team Leader, Julia Mazur!

We had two members new to sprint competing – brothers Balazs and Benedek Nagy – and three returnees – Amber Owen, Immi Collins and Evan Shephard.

Great team work from all, with some superb racing meant Reading Canoe Club came second overall, with 442 points, out of a total of 50+ clubs. A phenomenal result. Well done Reading sprinters.

July 29th, 2023

Weren’t we lucky! With all the wet weather we’ve had this summer, plus the odd clap of thunder and lightning crackle, we were truly blessed to enjoy blue skies and sunshine on our Fun Day.

There was a great turn out – 47 in total, all ages … some just watching and bbqing, others doing it all. Nigel had done a great job with the games, starting with the Rescue Relay – a hugely competitive race to and fro across the river.

Next was the River Clean up – all very environmentally friendly, with points for the most (carefully planted) litter collected.

Tug-of-war is always a terrific spectacle of sinking canoes and this year’s didn’t fail to entertain. Impressive tugging Team 2!

Fill the Boat was a new game – just how many people could you fit in a Canadian? Chose them small and it can be plenty. 12 was the max.

Penultimately, there was a game requiring a little artistic interpretation … just how imaginative could you get with group poses in a Canadian? We had handstands, splits, beautifully balanced head dunkings … terrific.

Finale was the nappy race swim, beautifully illustrated below by Levente, and won by a determinedly by Trevor, floating triumphantly below.

Quick change and it was bbq time – thank you Darren and Mili for making that happen. It was a great end to truly fun afternoon.

Surprisingly there were some club paddlers, who didn’t feel they’d gone far enough on the water this year. So it was decided to do a longer outing: 19 km on a different section of the river Thames.

Fourteen club members drove up to Oxford and launched in canoes for a new adventure. There was a light sprinkling of rain first thing and a usual morning chill, but we didn’t let that deter us. Our perseverance had its reward: the sun shone and stayed with us for our whole journey.

We quickly passed the cows as they tried to cross at the ford – a new sight for us, for sure; swans and ducks looked much the same. Passing through a town and a couple of locks, we found ourselves in the Kings Arms just in time for a delicious lunch.

Post lunch, we carried on our paddling journey to Abingdon, enjoying the views on our way down the river. We observed nice, peaceful sections, then a surprisingly loud display: motorcycles racing up the hills. By the time we got to our destination we were all nicely tired and grateful to our lovely, talented coach, Nigel, who organised such a great event and made it possible to enjoy this beautiful day.
By Timi Muszkáné Paczolay

RCC will be holding their Thameside races this year on Sunday 19th February (T1) and Sunday 5th March (T2).

Please note, Race Control number for T1 has been changed to 07974 227362

For full details, go to the Reading Races tab on our website or find the link below.

http://reading-canoe.org.uk/thamesides/

12th November, 2022

Last night, the Club welcomed 85 members and their guests to the Club’s annual Awards Dinner. It was a great evening, with a round up of the year’s events, compered expertly by Nigel, with contributions from team leaders and coaches.

This year’s Trophy winners were announced:

Veteran of the Year – Brian Greenham
K2 of the Year – Erika Hutchinson & Cath Drummond
Paddler of the Year – Harry Freeland
Junior Paddler of the Year – Olivier Mazur
Cruse Cup Trophy – for highest points at haslers – Olivier Mazur
Sprint Paddler of the Year – Annabel Hutchinson
Most Improved Junior Paddler of the Year – Charlotte Fulford
Most Improved Adult Paddler of the Year – Cath Drummond
Ashes Trophy – for going above and beyond the call of duty – Jo & Evan Shephard
Bill Mowbray Trophy – for achievement in the DW race – Nick King
Slalom Paddler of the Year – Matthew Perry
Swimmer of the Year (because he loves it!) – Jack/Bean

Well done to all the winners, plus all those nominated. It was a tough field.

Natalia, with an army of helpers, cooked a fabulous three course dinner – the best any of us can remember. It was a really enjoyable evening. A huge thank you to all helpers who made the evening happen so effortlessly.

Early October, a small, perfectly formed group of RCC paddlers entered an end of season Division 4 and Open competition at Sharks Canoe Club. Harefield is a lovely little setting and fabulous autumn sunshine set us up for a great day out on moving water!

Matthew Perry did brilliantly, easily topping the table in Div 4 K1 men, winning him a nice commemorative T-shirt and a promotion to Div 3.

Jake Didcock also did really well and was tied in 3rd place in the Div 4 K1 event and also gained a promotion to Div 3.

A long way out in front of the K1 Women’s Open class was Emily Neville, who also won herself a new t-shirt. More importantly however … the prizes were all being handed out by slalom superstar Mallory Franklin (Tokyo Olympics C1 sliver medalist).

Well done, Team Reading!

Saturday, 16th July 2022, by Erika

As you’ll see from the photos, no one enjoyed the Fun Day on Saturday!  It had to be the hottest Fun Day we had ever held – temperatures in the high 20s – and had the most capsizes too. I wonder why?

We had 8 teams with 6/7 people in each team … it was pretty busy and took a lot of shouting to keep everyone up to date with what they were doing. We had the pop-the-balloon ‘death’ race, racing circuits, the chariot race and, of course, tug of war … more like, sink the canoe. The grand finale was the nappy race. What a hoot!

Thanks Brian, it wasn’t an easy job to keep so many people entertained.

It was brilliant!

Sunday June 10^th, the sunniest day of the year so far, and Reading Canoe Club held their biannual K4 race day. Eight clubs took part and we proudly put out 12 out of 21 crews, taking 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place in Race C, plus 2^nd and 3^rd with our junior boys in Race A/B.

Well done Shreyas for doing his first race ever, having only just finished his beginner’s course. And big thanks to Brian and crew for putting on such a great event.