H I S T O R Y O F F A I R F I E L D C A N O E C L U B
Marathon Winter Series Inter-club Trophy
By Kerryn Bonnet
It’s hard to believe it now, but in 1992 Fairfield Canoe Club members
were a rarity at a VCA Winter Series race. When we entered at the
registration table Wayne Cook, David Bellette and myself were the
only Fairfield entries. And judging from the comments made by
the officials, they hadn’t seen many FCC members over the
previous few years.
After learning that there was an inter-club trophy that could be won
by any club, I decided to try to organize other members to race. I was
having so much fun in my first season of racing, I couldn’t
understand why more members weren’t competing. It sounded
simple enough - we just had to get our members to paddle in the
classes that were nominated and they would earn us points depending
on where they came in the class. The club with the most points at the
end of the season was the winner.
At the first race in 1993, held at Cobram, we caused a sensation - 25
FCC members turned up out of the blue! The marathon officials
couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw the long line of competitors
waiting to register. We took all the other clubs by surprise, and went
on to win the trophy easily.
In 1994 Tony Payne took over as official Race Director. We had a bit more
competition that year - the other clubs were ready for us and worked hard
to beat us, but we were successful again.
By now the other clubs were getting tired of being beaten, and for a couple
of years they introduced motions at the AGM to change the way that the
points were calculated - but it made no difference.
In 1995 Tony led Fairfield to victory again. The pressure was on him in
1996 - could we be the first club to win the trophy four times in a row?
Of course we did!
Unfortunately in 1997 we grew complacent, and despite the best efforts of
Chris and Brian Troy to cajole and bribe members into paddling, we just
didn’t have the numbers and enthusiasm of previous years. The result
was a 2nd placing behind Ivanhoe-Northcote Canoe Club.
1998 was time for a come-back, so David Jerram and myself sent out a
letter prior to the start of the season to get everyone motivated. The
result was an enthusiastic bunch of club members who were once again
prepared to race in any boat and with people they didn’t know to help
us earn points, which led to another win. 1999 followed suit and the result
is that FCC has now won the Marathon Trophy a record 7 times (we also won
it the very first year it was introduced, 1979).
The club is now very different to the club I joined in 1991. It is now
common to see members training during the week in the middle of winter,
and the number attending
Zoli’s Sunday sessions
remains high all year round instead of just prior to the Murray Marathon.
Members go to great lengths to gain points for the club - kayak paddlers
give the TC2 class a go, TK paddlers wobble their way down the river in a
K boat for the first time, and many people generously lend their kayaks
and canoes so that others can compete.
The Marathon Winter Series Inter Club Trophy has gone a long way towards
fostering a great club spirit at Fairfield.
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