FLCC Novice Race, April 20

As our club was hosting the race we all had an early start to get to the river on time to set everything up at the start and set the river marshalls off ahead of the racers.

Here is the briefing before the race. The Klip river has a pretty reliable flow and is mostly flatwater with a scattering of grade 1 and 2 rapids.



This is my daughter Shirley-Anne and me going through Double Drop.




Another mixed double going through double drop.



Double Drop again, this time its Xolani and Emil.



Centurion single at Double Drop.



Nice smile from Loveday Zondi.



Shirley-Anne and I managed to place second in mixed doubles.



Thanks to Flytech for sponsoring the race. And thanks to Bertie, Race Organiser Extraordinaire, and his team for another well organised race.

Pics From the School's League Races at Secunda

In between races - Rebecca, Dugan, Jensen and Emil.



It wasn't all paddling.



What a day Nhlanhla - A medal, a milkshake and a smile.

FLCC Time Trial, 23 April 2008

TIME TRIAL RESULTS WEDS ON A CHILLY 23 APRIL 2008 – Despite Shirley’s best attempts, we regret that due to a power surge and confusion regarding cell phone stopwatch usage, the TT results are incomplete and only 3 laps times were recorded – our apologies!

Gareth Gee / Brad Fleming 7.49 18.05 24.15

Fred Meiring/

Hardus Theunnissen 7.53 16.06 24.16

Gavin Myburgh/Ian Upton &

Alan Coulter – K3 7.54 16.04 24.18

Shaun Maphanga 8.02 16.37 26.09

Serge van Hee 8.03 17.34 26.33

Dave Ivy/Bertie Baard 8.34 17.33 26.33

John/Carrol Evans 8.47 17.55 26.34

Gary Fleming/Mark Trump 8.35 17.36 26.36

Paul Smith/Brett Bovey 9.26 19.15 28.15

Delport van Schalkwyk 9.19 19.16 28.58

Peter Bailey 9.17 19.15 28.59

Adrian Vroom/Lynne van Zyl 9.52 19.37 29.46

Kameron Jacobsohn/

Jansen McCord 9.49 20.01 30.15

SWIMMERS: Dugan Afonso AND Dekker with Lizelle – PICK the coldest night of the year so far!!!

FLCC Time Trial, 16 April 2008

49.13 Gareth Gee / Brad Fleming

49.40 Serge van Hee

49.42 Freddie Meiring / Hardus Theunissen

53.57 Xolani Simelane / Emile Theunissen

53.58 Carrol Evans / John Evans

53.59 Dekker Erasmus / Lizelle van Aswegen

56.05 Gavin Myburgh / Brett Bovey

56.06 Sonica Reichert / Kobus Reichert

58.11 Mark Evans

60.00 Jansen McCord / Kameran Jacobson

61.06 Archie Moncho

65.00 Minnie Kretschmar / Jennie Dallas

FLCC Time Trial, 9 April 2008

48.11 Robbie Herreveld

48.56 Dekker Erasmus & Shaun Maphanga

49.46 Burton Weakley (Looks like some secret training going on here…)

50.13 Freddie Meiring & Hardus Theunissen

50.56 Gareth Gee & Lizelle van Aswegen

52.00 Carrol & John Evans

54.31 Serge van Hee

56.00 Gavin Myburgh & Brett Bovey

56.45 Mark Evans & Jimmy Mollenze

56.58 Shirley Anne Bailey & Peter Bailey

57.09 Adrian Vroom & Lynne van Zyl

59.28 Bertie Baard & Jennie Dallas

59.45 Emile Theunissen & Kameran Jacobsohn – WELL DONE JUNIORS U14, first TT for Kami! Cracked 60 minutes boys!

60.30 Warrick Lee & Andrew Wilson

60.49 Len Lubbe

61.24 Gary Fleming

65.56 Conor Bailey & Archie Moncho WELL DONE JUNIORS U12 !

66.06 Jensen McCord - WELL DONE, Jnr U14 first SINGLE TT…..

Thanks to John for working out the lapsed start times and Madelaine for timekeeping.

School's League Race, Secunda, March 2008

Here are the juniors at the club just before we left for last month's school's league race in Secunda.

Back row: Emil, Jensen, Dugan, Shirley-Anne, me, Xolani
Front row: Rebecca, Nhanhla, Archie, Conor, Kameran
Kneeling: Jennie

Everyone looked really spiffy in their team clothes. Thank you Ursula.

You can see that the weather looked pretty gloomy but it cleared up as we got to Secunda and turned into a really pleasant day.

Everyone had a great day and we had some good results.

Schools League Races - 19th April

Johannesburg Canoe Club is hosting the next schools league races at Wemmer Pan on April 19th at 09:00 am.

As a result the technique coaching session on April 19th is cancelled.

All FLCC juniors and parents please note that the afternoon training sessions should continue through the school holidays.

See you on the water.

Dear (Not) Departed Despot

I have been hesitant about writing this but after last night's events I think I need to get some thoughts off my chest ...

When we first heard that results of Zimbabwe's elections were slow in being released I immediately had visions of M** Bob's apparatchiks sitting at battered desks in dingy rooms 'correcting' or replacing incorrectly filled in ballot papers. Like diligent teachers correcting the incorrect answers in innocently ignorant schoolchildren's test papers.

What are 'incorrect answers'? Where silly people didn't put crosses in the right places.

Just imagine, for a moment, if my wild imagination had some relation to reality, wouldn't it be really fortuitous that there was an oversight that lead to an overprint of more than 3 million ballot papers!

It is a widely held view, even though the African Union pronounced the last Zimbabwean election to be substantially free and fair, that the election was actually won by the MDC and that ZANU-PF and the Zimbabwean electoral commission performed some serious adjustments to ensure that ZANU-PF and cousin Bob stayed in power.

Many expected this election to be business as usual, i.e. intimidation, interference, vote buying, etc. And it certainly looked to be exactly on track until the results started trickling out...

Lo and behold the MDC was giving ZANU-PF a run for their money! And ZANU-PF and the electoral commission were allowing this information into the public domain!

To quote Buffalo Springfield 'there's something goin' on, what it is aint exactly clear'. But there was no doubt that something unusual was happening.

What did this mean? Could it be that cousin Bob has seen the light at the end of the tunnel, was there a rush of conscience or rationality to his head?

Had the electroal commission stumbled into a pot of integrity?

I wonder if maybe the vote was so overwhelmingly anti Bob that he and the apparatchik and politburo structure was shellshocked into inactivity and it was beyond even their practiced ability to twist things in their favour.

Even thought full results were not released, and still are not released, MDC started trumpeting that they were the winners of the election. Reckless behaviour I think as it might have shocked Bob back into action as we shall see.

There was talk of negotiating a 'graceful exit' for Bob. Quite frankly I don't see how such a despot deserves a graceful exit. In my view he is absolutely drenched in blood and is the author of ongoing gross violations of human rights. More about that at another time.

So there was Zimbabwe, its diaspora and those parts of the world that care, on tenterhooks wondering whether we were on the brink of something momentous.

Then last night it looks like the despot and his minions shook their heads clear.

Soldiers in riot gear raiding MDC offices, journalists arrested, opposition party members arrested, dire warnings and threats ...

Could it be back to Zimbabwean business as usual?

I hope not.

And my heart cries for a beautiful country and its ravaged and savaged people.