Saturday 14th April saw many club members being swung around the dance floor under instruction from John "the caller " from the Ceilidh band "Wooden Leg". Can honestly say not all of his instructions were followed to the letter but still a great night was enjoyed by all who attended the dance held at Urswick church hall.
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Friday 30th March saw DCC sessions return to the evenings now the clocks have changed and the nights are getting lighter. This session was well attended by several families with many taking to the water for a paddle up to the bulls nose to play several games or just have a look around. The SUP's were also out which gave some of the younger members a chance to practise their skills on them.The weather was kind to us for once. Long may it continue.
Sunday 25th March saw DCC race team attend The Burrs WWR. These are pictures about a day that was successful for DCC with Brandon coming 1st overall closely followed by Scott. Jannik came 1st in the under 16's and Keiran 2nd. Ryan and Connor won their age catergories as well as Owen and Kirsty. Well done to all who raced and supported the team especially those that made their debut at white water racing.
On Wednesday evening at the RDT AGM, club secretary Carol collected an award on behalf of DCC Head Coach John Sherwen. He was awarded the regional winner of the category “Community Coach of 2017” The award was made by BC Cumbria Regional Development Team who recognised John for his dedication and commitment to the sport of canoeing in the community.
For those of you that haven’t met John yet, he is a dedicated member and volunteer of DCC for over 30 years, working his way up to Head Coach. Congratulations John from all at DCC and thanks for all you do for the club. pictures by Ryan Bentley.
Cumbria polo tournament 27th Jan at kendal Duddon had a definite 8 players up for this so we decided to put in one team into the open league as there was no novice league this time, but we had two last minute players deciding to come along making it up to ten.... When the team arrived we were asked if we had any spare numbers to help make up the numbers of two Penrith teams..so Joel and Yanik (German exchange student ) volunteered to put them self's forward. Joel played for Penrith C, who came 7th over all. He did a lot of great defending for the team and even scored one goal... Yanik played for Penrith A who came 3rd over all Yanik has only ever done two sessions in the pool then gone on to play in an open tournament that needs a medal alone. Yanik did a brilliant job keeping up with a fast team mainly defending and getting the odd shot in and missing by a margin... Yanik did capsize a few times but held his own and got up and carried on playing well done lads .... That left Duddons team with 8 players taking turns.. first up was Scott, Harvey, Trevor, Keiron and Kirsty... losing to a strong Lakeland 4/0, this could of been a higher score if it won't for Kirsty saving a few and Keiron putting top effort in on defence, taking on Penrith A next was shell, lee, Scott, Harvey and Trevor losing 6/1 with the long shots missing the team had to change tactic and eventually harvey scored. The 3rd match was Conner,Lee,Harvey,Shell,Scott, a lot of quick passing and team effort still going getting the ball to conner for him to put some shots in but missing.. Harvey scores 1 but that's no excuse for the teams only green card in the tournament. 4th game Lee took goals and Conner and Keiron took on defence with the 3 at the back hardly letting the attack through they manage to only let the ball through once and let in one goal. This left Harvey and Scott to fight at the front with Scott scoring 1 and Harvey scoring 2 they won 3/1. Conner, Keiron, Kirsty,Harvey, Trevor taking the next match harvey getting tired took goals Trevor in defence leaving Kirsty mid way having shots on target but getting saved left the two juniors up front the lads did a top job looking for space Keiron managing to get the ball to conner setting him up for two goals... losing out on a close 4/2 the final game was left to the oldies Trevor in goals Lee Scott in defence supporting shell and Kirsty up front.. a lot of long shots going astray the score being 3/0 the team makes a quick change and goes for quick short passes, Scott manages to get the ball through to shell under the net to take a shot after the whole team shouting shoooooooot she scores, you would of thought we won the tournament the way we cheered (she doesn't normally shot) but we lost 3/1... this left our team coming 6th place out of 7...all team players did a brilliant job and our team spirit can't be faulted wether we played for Duddon or Penrith well done all. Scorers top Harvey=3 Connor=2 Scott=1 Shell=1...... Joel=1 Pictures and video taken by Ryan Bentley.. (The video is of Yanik, thanks has to go out to the players who took their time to help him rather than carrying on) Michelle and Trevor DCC polo coaches On November 25th DCC polo team played up at Penrith.
“With having a few players missing... the novice players teamed up with penrith and the remaining Trevor, Chris, Harvey, Lee and Michelle decided just to go and have fun and see how they do in the open league....the first game was against cygnets an penrith team... with a lot of great defending from Chris, goal saving from Michelle and breaks from Lee, Trevor getting the ball up front to harvey he managed to score 2 goals and 1 penalty.. helping the team win 3/0.... Second game Keiron decided to give it a go against a strong Lakeland team with Harvey only scoring 1 and the team trying hard in defence lost out 4/1, but could of been more if keiron didn't step in for Michelle when she got pushed out of goals. The 3rd game was yet another challenge against the Eagles a penrith team, Conner this time stepped up for Lee,, with the other teams keeping an eye on Harvey and his shooting he decided to fake a shot pass the ball to Conner for him to score.. twice this way... getting a very well deserved 2/2.. 4th games result came in at Harvey scoring 1 leaving the result at a loss 3/1 against a strong tigers a Penrith team with the team battling to the end. The last game Connor stepped up for Michelle, against a very strong unbeaten Pyranhas Losing out on a 4/0. All players did really well never giving up and ended coming a respectable joint 3rd over all.. Well done all... “ Michelle “It went well . Kieron and and Conner did very well .We came joint 3rd in the end but I think we won by a mile in the team spirit department. “ Trevor A fantastic time was had by DCC members, of all ages and abilities, who went with Andy and Scott on a stretch of the River Leven to practice their skills on white water. As you can see by the pictures not all kept dry that day but it didnt stop them from getting in and trying again. The fun of the day was captured by Sue. Thanks also to Scott and Andy for arranging the day.
Despite the wind and cold many DCC members turned up for the Family paddle at the docks on Saturday tea time. Afterwards everyone enjoyed a great buffet supplied by all members attending followed by some fantastic fireworks. As usual a great time was had by all giving us a chance to catch up with friends old and new. Thanks go to Scott for his great selection of fireworks and Andy for keeping the bonfire going.
Please feel free to send in any that you may have taken so I can add them to the club album. Thanks.  When I first started coming down the club Kirsty would hardly step a foot in a boat due to her fears of water... not even being able to put her head under... but with a lot of begging I encourage her to do the marathons in a k2 with myself. Kirsty then started to get the bug for racing doing the marathon on her own as well as trying out wild water. Kirsty started to become a regular getting on the water on a club night, getting coaching from Andy & Carol and even a winter session with John S. on marathon kayaks.
With more encouragement from Duddon coaches Trevor, Lee, Scott and myself we managed to get her in a polo boat. With help from Fran Kirsty started a new whole level for herself with simply putting her head under the water at the baths... With coaching from Trevor, Scott, Lee, Chris and myself Kirsty with a few months of trying on Thurs 2nd November managed to hand roll in a kayak... well done Kirsty. If I do say so myself it has been great to see a person over come their fears and get great fun from it at the same time.. just goes to show what us coaches can do with a little patience. Well done team Duddon from Michelle Sanderson Duddon Wildwater racing team took a relatively small team to the recent Wildwater race on the river Irwell at the Burrs country park in Bury. After the normal sprint race the inaugural Wavehopper club team championships was to be held with a prize of a new Wavehopper racing boat for the winning team kindly donated by wavesport. The Wildwater racing committee decided to develop team racing after recent successes in the world championship.
Boats were loaded on the trailer Saturday in the pouring rain and it kept raining until the early hours of Sunday morning, everyone kept an eye on the river gauges and they peaked at 1.9 metres in the early hours 1.6m above the normal water level. Luckily water levels had dropped sufficiently by the morning so the race could go ahead however half of the Duddon team had never raced in such high water levels. There was a coaches meeting in the morning and it was decided to shorten the race course because of a fallen tree towards the bottom of the course, then it was time for the practice runs and trying to find the fastest route down a familiar course that now has over double the usual amount of water. The first paddler away was 10 year old Ryan Bentley who got into the fast flowing water and paddled straight over the top of the first wave train killing his speed and spinning him out of the flow he turned his boat and completed the race without any more mishaps. Next up was an apprehensive Conner Bentley who had never paddled a wavehopper in such challenging conditions however he paddled well both runs and posted a time of 2:08 on his second run. After the junior racers had paddled it was the turn of the older paddlers and Duddon had Lee Bentley who paddled well on his first run setting a good time of 1:51, however in his second run he got pushed onto the wave train was hit by a big stopper that killed his speed so was unable to improve on his tie in the second run. Scott Wilson was next; he raced well however lost the fast flowing water towards the end of the river but still set a competitive time that he was unable to improve on in his second run. Andy Longstaff was the final Duddon paddler he paddled his C1 well and completed both runs with his fastest time being 2:34. Two of Duddons paddlers are now attending universities in the north of England and they both turned up to paddle the Irwell the first was Brandon Wilson who paddled really well in his first run setting the second fastest time of the day in a wavehopper sadly he was unable to improve on this time in his second run. Emily Longstaff also took time out of her learning to race a C1 boat, sadly conditions on the day were too rough and her boat swamped giving the safety team some rescue practice. Duddon only had enough paddlers to enter 1 team in the team race, the boats were taken to the start as quickly as possible to try and make the most of the quickly dropping water levels. Duddon were the second team down the course, Wilson senior lead the way followed by Lee Bentley and Brandon Wilson at the back, they put a good solid run in and then stayed at the finish to watch the other teams. The racing was very close and when the results were worked out Duddon were in joint first place with Banbury canoe club, this gave the organisers a headache as they only had one first prize, the organisers added up the individual times from the sprint race and this meant that Banbury canoe club won the 1st prize. The whole team raced really well however outstanding paddler of the day was Ryan Bentley who had never paddled in conditions as high as they were; even when he made mistakes it didn’t put him off he just got back on track and carried on. By Scott Wilson Results 1st Under 12 Ryan Bentley 2nd under 14 Conner Bentley 2nd under 18 Brandon Wilson 1st veteran Scott Wilson |