It was a mixed day for the Banbury paddlers who went to Guildford.

There were a few podiums – Joe P had a strong race in Div 1 K1, taking second place and hopefully setting himself up well for this weekend’s Assessment race, and next weekend’s German Nationals. Harry had a great 3rd in Div 6, finally securing that long-overdue promotion to Div 5, whilst Chris H and Ray won an admittedly rather weak Div 6 K2 – but a win’s a win!, and they still got mugs. Lizzie Harte was 2nd in the U12 Girls Lightning race, in a time quicker than the U12 boys.

Neil McA and Robin F finished Div 3 in 5th and 10th respectively, whilst the Div 5 contingent were all close together, filling the middle places well – Isla 10th, Noah 11th, Will P 13th and Michael 17th – out of 24 starters, whilst Will H and Neil U were 5th of 9 in the K2 race.

There was a high proportion of bad-luck stories. Josh was looking for good for promotion to Div 6, when he got knocked in on the turn – as someone else was taking their boat out and hit him on the head. Robyn was pulled in on the start when her neighbour went in, and took Robyn’s boat with her. Having been a good Samaritan, and emptying the culprit’s boat first, Robyn was then left to deal with her own boat as the other person paddled off leaving her! John C also tested the water temperature, at an awkward place for getting out, so Irene went to the rescue helping him (and securing her demotion to Div 8 in the process). Great credit to all three paddlers who got back in their boats and finished their races.