Editorial

Mike Allen

This is my last newsletter as editor. I have enjoyed preparing and assembling the issues and am sad to be stopping but no longer have the time or close enough involvement in the club to produce the best-informed result.

This means that the AGM on the 9th December is your chance to stick your hand up and be the club's next editor. Before you jump in with both feet I'll outline what the job entails. It Is not difficult, the newsletter's function is to publicise events that are coming up, give results and comments on events that have already taken place and also to give readers an Insight into trips, courses & holidays that individual members think would be of general interest. At the moment about half the information is sent to me by email, some is faxed and a small amount are handwritten reports. Anyone with access to PC or Mac will be able to produce the final pages ready to be photocopied without too much effort. Programmes such as Quark Express make it easy to flow one page of text into the next, if you want to insert a small article between two large ones or place a bit of clip art. There Is no need to continue the current format, you could simply have A4 sheets stapled together if you prefer, however I am still quite happy to photocopy, collate and staple the newsletters before dropping them off with Pete Mansell who posts them out If anyone wants to phone me for more Info please do.

I'll still be out in my boat as and when.

See you around - Mike.

P.S. Congratulations to Mark Burch and Lorna on their engagement.

Chairman's Chat

Tim Deykin

I must first of all say a big big thank you to Pete King and members of the committee who have supported me and duly taken on my responsibilities as Chairman whilst I have been unwell over the past ten/twelve months. I am very grateful Indeed and I know that they have done an excellent Job. We are ever closer to finalising the Lottery Award for our club house, although I do not have the latest news yet.

I hope everyone has been able to make the most of the exceptional weather we've been having.

The River Govt has reached levels covering the path and up to the 6th step from the path on the middle pool. In my thirty years at the club I've never seen it that high.

Of course the high levels have taken out most of the gates and wires for slalom training and the force of the water has moved the rock filled gabions as well as some of the riverbank reinforcement.

This Is a shame really as we'd just put up 25 new gates & bearers and had adjusted the wires to a suitable level (obviously the wrong level!) so there will be plenty of work need on site to unravel and reinstate the wires and gates.

For most of us the higher river levels have meant some excellent river running although some rivers were washed out and were fast & fiat. However, I think we should spend a moment to consider what is happening in the bigger scale of things. Only a couple of years ago we were experiencing record drought levels; may be we all need to do our little bit In reducing our own contributions to global warming and the devastating effects It's already having worldwide.

Finally just a word of concern, remember that even If you know a stretch of river well, don't be tempted to run it on your own, or without adequate backup/company, and let someone know where you're going.

Anyway, have a nice Christmas!

A (Cray) Fishy Tale

Helen Fotheringham

Out of the corner of my eye something moved - something had escaped from a Dr Who show. It shouldn't have been there - lobsters- even mucky green lobsters do not live on the banks of the Goyt. I opened my mouth and pointed -no sound came out. Gill assumed a log of gigantic proportions was coming down the river and we had better move. But then she looked at it, and looked a bit closer and then it fell into the river -swept away - phew.

We moved down to the looping wave, which Gill was enjoying surfing - till her face also lost its composure. She collected herself in the eddy and pointed out the creature climbing up some plastic that had caught itself amongst the tree roots. Gill decided to help and the creature climbed onto her paddle covering more than half of the blade area and wrapping its tail round the other side. The rescue attempt failed however as it slid off, down the Govt.

Research was called for. The white-clawed crayfish - Austropotamobius pallipes is just under 10cm in length making it the smallest of the crayfish found in the UK's rivers - and the only native species, our memories suggest the crayfish we saw was bigger than this - but maybe we were using fishermen's rulers. There are lots of pictures on the web, and the Environmental Agency has produced a detailed brochure and a waterproof leaflet to help In Identification. We are still not sure.

Unfortunately all other species In the UK are invasive brought In to serve the restaurant trade which either escaped or were released into the wild (cheap farming). These invasive crayfish damage riverbeds with their burrowing, spread a plague deadly to the native species and out-compete them when it comes to food. The plague causes the crayfish to act abnormally- i.e. be out in daylight and spend more time on land - which the one we saw was doing - but the river was in spate and it could have just been washed ashore.

It is suggested that the crayfish plague is spread through wet gear (such as fishermen's waders. and therefore also canoeing gear), but there isn't hard evidence to prove this. Despite this Mark had an email in his shop requesting people Who paddle on the Ribble to disinfect their gear before paddling on other rivers to attempt to stop the spread of the disease from there.

Serpent's Tail

21st & 22nd OCTOBER 2000

Ashley Dack

This is the event I had heard so much about in the two years I have been living and canoeing in the North-West, with a countless number of people all asking the same question "Are you doing the tail this year?". Followed by horrifying descriptions of this wide fast following Welsh River, which towards the bottom end of the course is cramped through a channel of no more than a few feet. On the right side of the channel is a vertical cliff face and on the other side a granite ledge ideal for spectators, producing a very scary stretch of water.

The open event held on the Saturday was delayed slightly due to the river level dropping over night. Which meant adjustments had to be made to all the gates. There was still plenty of time for practice before the rescheduled start. The river Dee was still well above the average level, which the course designer took to his advantage by providing a challenging course. The top section started off with an 'S' gate followed by a selection of staggers and breakouts, which were rewarding when cleared. There was a difficult stagger guiding you down the standing waves into the tall section of the course. This was followed by a down stream gate and a very nasty looking breakout on the left-hand side, which was very difficult to get any where close to and was costly if missed as there was very little chance of paddling back for It. The exit from this gate back into the main flow was also daunting and required 100% committal to survive. The final three gates on the tail comprised two down stream gates and another breakout on the left. These were also quite hard to hit as the current took you to the right of the second down stream gate and broke you out well before the breakout.

The paddlers representing MCC In the open event were Paul Webb in the C1, Hazel Scaife and Caroline Gerritsen in KIW, Tim Meyrick, Dave Bradshaw and myself In the KI men.

I had a successful couple of practice runs managing to complete all the gates in one or the other of them, but unfortunately messed up my first run by taking a bad line Into the tall section, hitting the first gate and bobbing straight passed the breakout. Tim, Dave and Hazel all put in competitive times, with Tim finishing his first run In second place and Hazel in third. Paul decided swimming was the way forward and was fished out by the rescue team; Caroline also missed a couple of gates. No one from the club improved on their second runs with Dave becoming a victim on his own course at the first breakout on the tail section by rolling and missing a number of gates. All of us slipped down the results table apart from Tim who retained his second place.

After the presentation it was time to move the gates for Sunday's Div 2 event. The nasty first breakout on the tall was changed to a downstream gate and a merano introduced to the top section which could gain or lose you time. The course was made slightly easier, but was still the most challenging Div 2 course I have paddled this year, which is no bad thing.

Saturday evening saw a party of MCC members head off into Llangollen town, which already had a large gathering of canoeists due to the Town Falls event, for a curry. I was the last one to arrive at the curry house due to my lack of navigation skills (which I also demonstrated in the 'carry the can' event), to a table of hungry people all waiting to order. After a very fine and much deserved curry, it would have been rude not to visit a few local public houses afterwards, so we did.

Sunday morning was cold with a light mist over the river, but the event after the practice runs was under way on time and the mist cleared, to leave us with another perfect day for canoeing. The club had two people competing In the Dlv 2 event Caroline KIW and myself KIM. James Cordon, Chris Taylor (C1) Dave and Hazel were all competing In the Judges event.

After again a successful practice run I managed to mess up my first official run, it was going fine and reasonably quickly until I reached the tail, I then missed the second gate by capsizing, I recovered with a roll only to miss the next two as well. Caroline was having a much better day finishing in first place after her first run. My second run was no better this time, being spun half way down the tall section and being forced to navigate the two down stream gates on the last fall backwards, resulting in being tipped over again. On rolling back up I found my self entangled in the safety throw rope. Hearing cries of "Take a re-run", I decided this was a good Idea as I was going nowhere in the current situation. The re-run was all right with only one hit and another roll half way down the tail.

Caroline was not able to Improve on her first run, but had done enough to hold on to first place, heading towards promotion again. James easily won the Judge's event with two quick clear runs and Dave took second place.

An enjoyable event was had by all and special thanks has to go out to the organisers Frank Kay, Dave Bradshaw and everybody else who helped with course erection, Judging, safety/rescue and official duties.

Time Trial Triathlon

Alex Rubin

Carry The Can

It's a big thumb's up! to Angus and all for organising a truly excellent event. Canoeing, running and cycling, what a combination to help keep us fit as we enter into the darker months of the year.

The course was challenging with everybody starting off at Brabyns Park above and including both weirs and paddling down to the slalom site where we left our boats behind us and started our ascent up the hill above the club site (we all know what that's like) and back to Brabyns Park where you collected your bike still armed with your can full! Set off up a rather rugged and well-weathered course round the hills of Strlnes. Might I now point out for those people who attempted this in wet suite sorties, chaffing! The course weaved on passing the Fox Inn and back down a wild and rugged descent to the park where exhausted, we passed the finish line and downed our 500ml can of beer.

In first place Angus

First lady Joint Viv and Lorna

First Team British mountaineers young offenders Institute.

Commiserations to Jonathan whose chain broke on his bike at the furthest point away. It took a crane to rescue Bruce as he pirouetted his car into a ditch along with his team members' bikes and subject to a breath test from the law was allowed to continue. Again thanks to Angus, Debbie for time keeping and security, Janet and Peter King for Rescue, Roy Bradshaw land support and collecting all our boats and returning them to the start. Long may there be another one with a bigger can of lager. Looking forward to doing it again paddles and pedals at the ready. Many Thanks....

Carry the Can Results

14th October 2000

	Start	Finish	Elapsed	Penalties	Result
Angus	4.38.00	6.06.54	1.28.54		1.28.54
Pete Adams	4.34.00	6.08.34	1.34.34		1.34.34
Andy King	4.29.00	5.59.34	1.30.34	10	1.40.34
BMYOI Team	4.35.00	6.16.12	1.41.12		1.41.12
Dave Bradshaw	4.30.00	6.11.45	1.41.45		1.41.45
Alex Rubin	4.25.00	5.57.00	1.32.00	10	1.42.00
Ian Pudge	4.28.00	6.02.01	1.34.01	10	1.44.01
Rick King	4.27.00	6.11.22	1.44.22		1.44.22
James Corden	4.23.01	6.08.39	1.45.38		1.45.38
Paul Kelly	4.24.00	6.10.29	1.46.29		1.46.29
James Kemmitt	4.32.00	6.20.54	1.48.54		1.48.54
Jonathan Potter	4.33.00	6.38.52	2.05.52		2.05.52
Mark Burch	4.37.00	7.07.19	2.30.19		2.30.19
Dave Bagstad	4.37.00	7.07.19	2.30.19		2.30.19
Viv	4.37.00	7.07.48	2.30.48		2.30.48
Lorna	4.37.00	7.08.04	2.31.04		2.31.04
Ashley Dack	4.31.00	7.08.01	2.37.01		2.37.01

Carry the Can

Angus Lord

14th October 2000

A tongue in cheek Time Trial Triathlon. 17 brave souls endured the weather to take part In the event, the first of its kind. As all participants if not their bikes eventually turned up at the finish without Injury, if a little damp and dishevelled the event can be deemed a success. A profit of £22 was made after organisational costs, which Is to be donated to the Manchester Canoe Club Play and River Boat Fund.

Many thanks to Janet King and Debbie Cooke for organising start and finish and to Pete King who loaded and returned boats via Mark's trailer to Brabyns Park. Your help was greatly appreciated.

I hope to repeat the event next year, keep an eye on the Yearbook and Newsletter so as not to miss the opportunity to get knackered, wet, muddy and merry all at the same time.

The finishing times for the 'competition' (a term used very loosely) are on page 6, and are Inclusive of the time to complete all stages of the course, paddling, running, mountain biking and supping the appropriate beverage.

A Limerick Trilogy

to Geoff. Pelham

To a mate who's a seasoned spring chicken
Who paddles whilst screaming and kickin'
"I want to get out
There's big boils about
And I've just run a Mouse line from Dicken"

But this cry won't be heard any more
As we have an antidote/cure
Three pints of wine
You'll soon find a line
As you now have bottle for sure.

So the next time you run the North Esk
No need for last rites or bequests
Drink and be merry
Make breakouts and ferry
And put a new club boat on test

Happy Birthday Geoff!!
All the best Angus and Viv

Middleton Club Event

Roy Bradshaw

Middleton In Teesdale was the northern venue for the last In the Club Slalom Series this year. MCC had achieved second place behind Ormskirk Scouts in the previous events at Marple and Stone. Would we do as well this time? Val & I went up on Friday to find Don Raspin, the Tees organiser, plus another putting the finishing touches to the course. They had started a few days earlier when the river had been 3 ft. above its normal level, so there was a bit of guesswork as to where the gates should be.

I got on on the Friday evening. Gates 2&3 were upstream of Gate 1 and it took some time to get there. One or two of the later gates had rocks in places that meant being precise where you paddled. I felt the 2&3 situation was probably beyond some of the novice paddlers but Don said the Dlv. 4's wouldn't be expected to paddle them so that was OK; as for the rocks, well that's what real Slalom is all about. That night it rained, in fact it rained most of Saturday. The 2&3 problem went away - no way could anyone get them. Gate 4 became the first Gate, the Dlv. 3's & 4's would paddle only as far as Gate 15 and a re-arrangement of the bottom Gates provided an exciting and challenging finish for the Dlv. 2's. Regrettably, but also reasonably, Manchester's team decided the course was a bit too much for them and went off to visit some of the many attractions in the area, hoping the river would drop for Sunday.

The event went ahead under these restricted conditions and although we had plenty of 50's there was only one swimmer. Those taking part enjoyed the challenge that the fast flowing river was providing but I did wonder about a late arrival who asked what Grade the river was. I told him under these conditions it was Grade 2, he said he had paddled Grade 4 but didn't know where! My fear was that if he got on he would get swept downstream and be lucky to get out by Barnard Castle. Fortunately when the event was over a rule was made that no one below Dlv.2 would be allowed to paddle. Later that night we went to bed listening to the river and wondering if we would be paddling as soon as we stepped outside the caravan.

Sunday dawned bright and cheerful making Middleton the site we always remember. A sparkling river surrounded by attractive hills. Ruth and Geoffrey, our sole MCC representatives, returned and decided the river was now paddleable. I was judging the first few gates. Gate 5 was upstream of the first Gate 4 and I wondered what was happening to Slalom when a Div. 2 lady was unable to get there - both Ruth and Geoffrey coped OK. A stagger on the fastish water above a standing wave on the Div.2 section was catching out many paddlers. It was up to a slightly older lady paddler to show how it could be done as she almost drifted through the Gate the gate with hardly a paddle stroke, going clear on a section where one young Div.2 paddler got six 50's. The river was probably at its best level for several years. The upper section was challenging but not too difficult for the lesser paddlers and the Div.2's had something they could get their teeth into. Those of you didn't come missed a good event.

There was one added Manchester presence. Alison Deykin had been invited to provide the subject for a Granada TV series on "Extreme Sports". Originally planned to be recorded at Holmepierrepont, this had to be cancelled due to high water levels so Middleton was the next possibility. What Alison thought about paddling down with a Video Camera perched on her head I never found out. Look out for the series in the New Year. Once again there was a good turnout from several clubs. A pity we weren't represented by a few more. Let's get a good series going next year.