We all know that BUCC has a rep for faf when it comes to getting on a river but this trip has to take the biscuit!
The plan:
9 people meet at 8.30am at stores, load trailer and mini bus then head off for a river.
What happened:
At 12.00pm 6 people set off in two cars to the Nene a man made river in Northampton.
How?:
8.20am it was discovered the minibus driver thought the trip was cancelled 9.00 am store keys missing and had to get a different set 10.30am brake failure warning light comes on in the minibus, 11.00 - 12.00 fitting Dan’s car roof rack 12.00pm left stores for the Nene

In the end we reached the Nene and got on the water for 2.30pm. We were there right up until closing. On the way back to Bristol we took part in a pub quiz and came second which won us a bottle of wine.  It was a great day out and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Katie

The results are in..
Ninja Marmots – 3rd place
Chainsaw Dolphins – 7th place

The Ninja Marmots came joint 2nd with Hamble B. However since Hamble B had a larger goal difference, they got 2nd place and promoted to Div 2 while we got 3rd place. The very amusing thing is that if the marmots had won against the dolphins instead of drawing then they would had that extra point to come 2nd.

The dolphins came 7th.  Considering they started the season as complete beginners and finished off drawing with the 3rd best team in the division, they have done amazingly well.
Very well done to all players!

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3 teams have been entered in next year’s SW league:

- Ninja Marmots (old boys)

- Chainsaw Dolphins (A team)

- Spanking Monkeys (development team)

Plus a possible Ladies team! Next year is going to be great!!! =)

This year’s annual meal for the club will take place on Saturday 26th April at The BIG BANG RESTAURANT on Whiteladies road. It’s an awesome restaurant, I’ve eaten there twice and it was the best bit of sausage I’ve ever tasted! (There will be veggie options as well).

In case you don’t know the Annual Meal is the usual black tie(-ish) affair. We will give out the club awards for achivements good, bad and drunken during the year and generally celebrate the last night out before the AGM and new committee start the following week!

The Big Bang are finalising the menu for us at the moment, but the details are:

Date: Saturday 26th April
Place: The Big Bang Restaurant (BS8 2NH)
Cost: 3 courses=£17.50
2 courses=£14.50

To get an idea of the menu look over at this page: (http://www.thebigbangoxford.co.uk/Bristol/menus.htm). Don’t worry about choices for now. I need a payment for £14.50 or £17.50 by MONDAY 21ST APRIL.

You can get this to me by hand (pool sesh), or posted IN AN ENVELOPE through my door (see email for address)

See you there!

George
x

Our tournament went amazingly well last Saturday. We had 8 teams competing for the trophy cake from 4 universities (UWE, Bath, Warwick & us!). Warwick men came first while our teams came 4th and 5th.

The after party was awesome as well - see the pictures in the gallery! We made around £100 from the night which will go towards polo development for the club, and I’m very pleased with that! Special thanks goes to Alice & Ruth who were official time keepers for the tournament as well as everyone else who has helped me make the tournament possible - Kat, Pross, Pete, Seb, Maryann, Lou, Greg, Rich, Jess, Jamie and lots and lots more!

Next year it will be even bigger and better, and hopefully all club members will be able to come along too!

Its that time of year again where we all pack our bags and head off to the seaside for a weekend of sun? sea and surfing. This years dates: 15th February - 17th February. Vodka Jelly is mandatory. Come and speak to me at the pool for more information (or read your emails!) See you there! Love Helen

Well done to all those who played in the tournaments last weekend! See the polo forum for Pete’s write up about it.

Our next match is for the Chainsaw Dolphins at the SW league on the 2nd Feb, email me if you wish to play!

- Fredel =)

Just a couple of days until the club’s exciting annual North Wales trip.

Weather forecasts can be checked out here:

Metcheck - Bangor

BBC Weather - Bangor

Met Office - Wales

As I write, it’s looking a lot more promising than it has been for the last week or so in terms of rainfall. Sweet.

Fingers crossed for some good boating!

WELL DONE guys!! =) Very proud of our team that went! The improvement of the players just on the day was amazing. I think there has to be special mention for Tom Bennet who only joined the club last thursday.

Good effort everyone! Thanks to those who came to support & help! See you all on Friday! =)

Right! This is ridiculous, its the middle of November and still no hint of significant rain - over the summer the club must have developed some sun worshippers or a fair weather pansies!!!

Before we resort to a witch hunt or sacrificing polo boats to the River Gods I think we should get everyone to perform a rain dance and hopefully that will improve our chances of getting at least 1 decent river done before December!

The Rain dance…

The Native American tribes performed rain dances to both induce precipitation and to cleanse evil spirits from the earth. The legend of the tribe holds that the rain summoned by the tribe (canoe club) contains the spirits of past tribal chiefs (or canoe club captains), who, when falling (swimming), battle evil spirits in the transitional plane between our reality and the spirit world (have to swim through whitewater to get to the bank). It was also believed that particularly elaborate rain dances could inspire the participants, as well as audience, to partake in unusual and extreme acts of worship (I’ll leave this to your imaginations…).

So what you need to do is….

1. Find a large staff
2. Remove clothing - rain dances are performed semi or fully naked
3. Dance around your staff wailing to the rain gods to let them know the pain you are suffering from paddling dog low rivers.
4. Wait for rain

If above fails….

1. Nip to Asda
2. Buy some (lots) of that 17p 2l ‘Spring Water’
3. Drive to your local paddling river
4. Pour the water in the river
5. Repeat steps 1-4 until you can float

Come on guys, I’ll be holding you all personally responsible if we don’t get some good runs in this year!

Andy

What is it?

It’s a big party and celebration in memory of Jon Fitzsimmons, a dedicated member of the club who tragically died out in the Alps in July 2003. The Canoe Club set up a memorial fund where money raised at GFFF is collected, and is then put towards sending people on safety courses and buying safety equipment for the club, to help prevent a similar thing happening again.

The details for this year?

Venue: Slug & Lettuce (St. Nicholas Street, BS1 1UB)
Date: Friday 9th November
Time: 9pm onwards

Tickets cost £4 and are available from any committee member. I will be selling tickets at pool sessions leading up to the party.

In addition, there will be an awesome raffle with amazing prizes coming in from paddling companies, restaurants and many other places. Last year we had prizes such as buoyancy aids, kayakojacko lessons, paddling dvd’s, crates of beer, t-shirts and lots more. A good excuse to spend some money for a good cause!

It’s always an amazing night and a great chance to get everyone together including all the old boys, plenty of other sports clubs (climbers, windsurfers, divers etc…) and other canoe clubs from round the country such as UWE & Exeter.

It’s a brilliant night, in memory of an amazing guy, and a chance to raise lots of money for a good cause. All the money goes straight back into promoting safety within the club, so it’s all in our benefit. No excuses for not coming!