A head wind greeted us on the paddle up river with a normal river flow making a slightly harder up stream paddle but plenty of potential for speed on the return journey. We welcomed a new paddler, Chris, and had a first race for the season for Phil Nelson. Paul set off at a cracking pace in defence of his title from last year and had a great paddle to gain a 1:40 PB and first place, Rodney wasn’t far behind however with a 1:20 PB. Phil Wadley, Pete and Myself also gained on our best times by 35, 28 and 17 seconds respectively, well done to all PB paddlers. A tight race to get over the line with Beth just holding James off, Tim missed the lead group from last week and had to work hard all the way while Ken and Richard were a bit off the pace. Chris set a solid time trial pace which even included an excursion past the turn around point due to a poor course explanation. Phil went around in time well off his normal pace while putting his recreational boat through its paces.
Race times and next weeks handicaps are below. Big thanks to Phil Barratt for coming out and sitting in the wind timing while feeling under the weather.
| Paddler | Handicap | Gun Time | Actual Time | Position | Handicap |
| Paul Walker | 21:22 | 58:27 | 37:05 | 1 | 23:06 |
| Rodney Youd | 15:47 | 58:52 | 43:05 | 2 | 17:08 |
| Phil Wadley | 50:11 | 59:28 | 9:17* | 3 | 50:46* |
| Pete Sebbage | 17:06 | 59:45 | 42:39 | 4 | 17:34 |
| Adam Rolls | 21:22 | 59:55 | 38:33 | 5 | 21:39 |
| Beth Wadley | 49:40 | 60:17 | 10:37* | 6 | 49:40* |
| James Caspar | 17:06 | 60:18 | 43:12 | 7 | 17:06 |
| Tim Chilcott | 25:06 | 60:42 | 35:36 | 8 | 25:06 |
| Ken Mclean | 23:56 | 60:55 | 36:59 | 9 | 23:56 |
| Richard Pearson | 42:30 | 82:14 | 39:44 | 10 | 21:25 |
| Chris Bates | 15:47 | 57:00 | 41:13 | TT | 18:59 |
| Phil Nelson | 21:22 | 65:56 | 44:34 | TT | 15:39 |
Guntime for next week will be at 6:30pm, to be safe be ready to race at 6:40pm. If you miss your start time you can still race, have your time recorded and score points. New paddlers will be able to set their handicap time. If you are starting more than 20 minutes after your handicap you may be asked to race a shorter course to ensure on water safety.
Check the main Hadspen page for more details.
See you all on Tuesday.
