It's not exactly the
average sport taken up by the average woman of, shall we say,
mature years? I only got involved because of my children, who
at the time were of an age when they still needed chauffeuring
around. Having already learnt to swim, skate, dance and ride with
a fair degree of proficiency, and having sampled trampolining,
snorkelling, scuba diving, karate and gymnastics, they were in
the mood for something new. Canoeing. They joined the nearest
club and signed up for lessons; after a few days of sitting watching,
I was persuaded to join in. I impressed even myself by mastering
the basic capsize drill and became well and truly hooked!
I (we) hadn't been canoeing for
very long when we were invited along for a camping/canoeing weekend
and our first venture onto white water. Not good (not as far as
I was concerned, anyway.) It was late October, frost on the ground
and the water was decidedly chilly. I quickly discovered that all
the drill learnt in a nice warm swimming pool flies right out of
the window as soon as your ear hits the water, and in spite of your
mind reciting the procedure, your body takes over and I was out
and swimming before I knew it. After my third dunking (I never did
master breaking-out) I decided I was a warm-weather canoeist. I'm
also still not too keen on white water - I don't mind it if the
water is only mildly lumpy, but this white-knuckle stuff my sons
thrive on is definitely not for me. Perhaps this was the real reason
I took up canoe polo.
Kingston
Mummies Canoe Polo Team |
Canoe
Polo is probably the least-known of the water sports, which
is a shame because unlike most other canoeing disciplines
it has plenty for the spectators too. It has been described
as combining the speed and excitement of ice hockey with the
ball skills of volleyball and basketball. Most players are
male, and tend to be in the 16-36 age group, although there
are older and younger players and a few girls and women mad
enough to play too. There is no truth in the rumour that the
main attraction for the Ladies of a Certain Age is the proximity
of all those half-naked young men.
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If you'd
like to know more about canoe polo you can visit my canoe
polo website, and our canoe club (Kingston Kayak Club) also
has a website
which I have recently taken over, so do drop in and have a look.
The Kingston Kayak Club is an all-round canoeing and kayaking club,
and naturally includes canoe polo. There are junior teams, youth
teams and several men's teams, so we decided - why not a ladies'
team too? So - the Kingston Mummies was born. We took our team name
from the fact that 80% of us are mothers of canoe-polo players -
Joy dreamt it up, I immediately visualised a logo, so it stuck.
We are not a good team - we lose matches with monotonous regularity
- but we enjoy ourselves and that's the main thing. We are most
definitely the oldest team in the league - our combined ages total
250 years and that's with a teenager on the team (and no, I'm not
the oldest on the team.) We even have our own website (surprise,
surprise!) - Kingston
Mummies.
Whilst
I potter around, playing at being a canoeist, my sons take
it seriously. Not only do they play canoe polo for Kingston
Krakens, a team which usually wins their matches and last
season came top of the Yorkshire league, but they compete
at the highest level in canoe slalom. Until work commitments
got in the way they competed internationally for Wales, but
Chris had to give it up and Andrew is currently (2005) ranked
5th in the UK in C2 (Canadian Doubles) with his co-paddler
Scott, and 16th in Division 1 in kayak. |
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