This fantastic traditional event has run since the early 1960s with only one cancellation on record - last year! With contrasting mild temperatures and plenty of glacial-melt this year’s event was well supported as usual by those wanting to burn off that extra helping of christmas pud and choccies from the previous day.
 
A wide variety of craft were spread across the 60 starters with particularly strong contingents from Tees Tigers and Stockton and Thornaby clubs. A new Hare and Hounds format had the touring class start 8 minutes ahead of the racers and this will only need to be tweaked slightly for next year as it was quite late in the race that the leading touring class paddler was overhauled. Full credit then to George Marley of Sunderland who in the SuperVet category held off his younger and dare I say it ‘more race-conditioned’ competitors to take the touring class in 40.50. As I overtook him he was asking for his margin of lead as he was too in the zone / inflexible to look over his shoulder at those behind him.
 
Winner overall by a narrow margin was Nicky Cresser of Tees Tigers in 38.38 who had a great but “controlled” dual with Olly Wickham of Sunderland all the way down the course. Darren Cresser romped home to the third podium place showing that parenthood hasn’t slowed him too much. Sandra Hyslop of Durham Uni did a great job keeping the men ahead within sight for the whole race to be first lady home in 39.59. Other notable performances were the Williamson duo who stroked a precise race as first Canadian double in 46.18, Andrew Martin as first junior closely followed by the U14 Kris Wilko. Bethan Kelly showed strong technique to be the leading junior girl. Credit also to Connor Turner and Calum Cresser who produced strong performances in their first Wildwater Racing boat events.  (Click below to see the full results)
 
All were able to claim their finishers T-shirts and snacks provided courtesy of the event sponsor Rapid 9 signs. The Wickham family have been long supporters of this event so thanks to them we have been able to present to Saint Cuthbert’s Hospice in Durham a cheque for £262.

So thanks for coming and bring along your friends to next year’s race.

Michael Mason Read more

Christmas may well be coming and the goose may be getting fat, so thought we could do with testing what progress we are making!  Read more

Early this year, one of the Tigers moved out to Hong Kong and quickly got involved with the Canoe Polo scene.

John Flitcroft took part in the 2011 Hong Kong Canoe Polo Open Championship last month. He helped his team to become the Hong Kong Champions and get a gold medal.

Well done to the three Tigers who represented Great Britain in canoe polo this month at the European Champions in Madrid. 

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Tees Tigers were asked to lend a hand at Preston Farm with the Stockton Charity Duck Race in return for having the pitch areas for the Canoe Polo National Championships coming up in a few weeks time.  All we had to do was provide 3 people to fish ducks out at the end of the race, simple, or maybe not!!! Read more

On Saturday 25th June the Tigers converged on the Centre with the aim of readying ourselves for the National Championships competition. Read more

With all the Tees Tigers canoe polo teams doing so well and the club going from strength to strength, one thing has been missing - qualified referees!  But thanks to Head Coach Nicky the situation is improving as he organised a referee training/assessment weekend for the 21st and 22nd May.  Read on to find out what happened over the weekend:

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Two of our Tiger boys, Matt Fletcher and Ross Martin, have been selected to represent Great Britain in the Under 21s Canoe Polo team for this year’s international summer tournaments.
Here Ross reviews their first weekend away:

3 wins and 4 losses in Charleroi - a great competition for the start of the season. This was Matt’s second year representing GB and my first year.
The three wins were hard work but we managed as a team to pull them off thanks to some good shots.  The losses were close but the main thing that the team came away with was the experience.  And it was the first tournament as this selected team so under the circumstances it was a great weekend.
So well played to the team, and thanks to a good coach!  Bring on the rest of the tournaments!

For the first annual Simon Fletcher Memorial Paddle, in typical Tiger’s style it had to be competitive so a race was run from the Millennium Bridge to the A66 Bridge and back again. We had nearly 60 entries with competitors racing in everything from river racers to polo boats to open canoes. Michael Mason came over the finish line first in an impressive time of 18 minutes and 4 seconds. First lady was Sandra Hyslop, Darren Cresser first mens none-WWR boat, Brandon Wilson first Junior, Claire Harrower first ladies none-WWR, first plastic canoe went to Mark Ledger and Gail Southam and finally first open canoe was Pip Houghton and Matt Fletcher.  The race was followed by a BBQ, ala Chef McAuley, with all Sim’s family, friends and teammates together enjoying the good weather and food.

Thanks to everyone who came along to support, we hope to see you again next year!

Darren Cresser gaines his “WILD CARD” invitation to the Great British Senior Team Selection down in London.  Read on to find out more…

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