Dabs news: Lowveld Croc 2023

Wow, what a weekend that was. First our cricketers crushed the poms, then the Bokke stole a late victory in another come-from-behind-one-point-win-nail-biter, leaving half of South Africa with frazzled nerves for the second weekend in a row. Now Bafana Bafana also want to play the Poms. And while all that was happening, we had a whole lot of Dabs people down in the Lowveld, some for the paddling, others for a weekend away. Saturday was a tripping day that many took advantage of. This involved some swimming, particularly by our Dabs Darling paddling contingent and an associate friend of the Darlings, who also left the Lowveld group with frazzled nerves because no one had seen her in the afternoon, and she was only found by the riverside at 19h00 that evening. Yoh! The net result of the tripping day for these 4 ladies was that none started the race on Sunday. Sorry girls.

The Lowveld Croc is known as the one of the most technical rivers in the country, owing to the many tricky rapids, where even the best of paddlers have unexpected swims and this year the water release was 8 cumecs, up from the normal 7, which meant that the river a was a bit higher, pushing a bit harder, and a little more testing. The Croc’s first ‘swim victim’ was Matt Millward who had a quick one at the start weir. Kudos to the young man, he then went on to claim the win in under two hours, just ahead of the 4 time winner, Siseko. Matt also claimed the first novice prize and the first U23 prize. Can we not get him to move to Dabs? Well done to Master Jack who was third overall, Rob Crichton was 5th and first Sub Vet, one ahead of Young Luke who was first U18, while Alex also made the top 10 in 8th place. Also up on the podium from Dabs was Chris Vis who was first GGM. In the end only one lady paddled, so the young Amy Hulett won her class comfortably. According to Piers, she showed one old hand some fantastic lines for most of the morning, although she did have a quick swim at the infamous No 14; a naughty rapid which ended the race for 3 of our more experienced Lowveld paddlers. Sorry boys. In the end we only had 13 Dabs paddlers who finished, but we were still the best represented club ahead of SCARC with 8 and then ERK and VLC each with 6 paddlers; all who were very proud to finish. Well done guys, and also to the 3 KZN people for their support. Out of 53 entrants there were 42 finishers; with 5 DNS’s and 6 DNF’s.

Well done and thank you to Clint Cook who played sweep on a big plastic sit on top. He helped out some paddlers with admin and then took one of the No14 victims (who didn’t want to walk out) down to Carisbrook. Well done and also thank you to Piers who didn’t race but went ahead as a scout; to check for hippos, but he went so fast that we don’t think he could have been looking very hard – his time was almost good enough to win the race. Thank you to Piers and his team (Shelly and Allison) for all the organizing, and thank you to the Sponsors TRAC, Coca-Cola and the Lowvelder for their support. Yes, the river has its technical and tricky parts, but there are also many gentle little rapids; the water from the Kwena dam is cold and clean, while the Schoemanskloof valley is beautiful; so it really is a race worth doing, especially now that the hippo concern is not what it once was.

Next up it’s the last Mixed Doubles event happening on Thursday. Every participant gets a glass of wine, and there are lots of prizes to be won. Then it’s the World Cup Final – Go Bokke; Moer hulle! There’s talk about doing something at the club, so please watch the socials. And on Saturday it’s the Dabs 4-Hour enduro, phone a friend or two, make up a team, we hope to see you there, with happy hangovers. Please also think about doing the Vaal – it’s on 18/19 November.

Below, the list of legends who have won the prestigious Croc trophy over the last 60 years.

1997 Richard van Mansberg
1998 Graham Bird
1999 Mark Perrow
2000 Ant Stott
2001 Len Jenkins
2002 Ant Stott
2003 Ant Stott
2004 Ant Stott
2005 Clinton Pretorius
2006 Ant Stott
2007 Ant Stott
2008 Ant Stott
2009 Jacques Theron
2010 Jacques Theron
2011 Andy Birkett
2012 Ant Stott
2013 Hank McGreggor
2014 Siseko Ntondini
2015 Siseko Ntondini
2017 Ant Stott
2018 Siseko Ntondini
2019 Piers Cruckshanks
2020 Siseko Ntondini
2021 Wayne Jacobs
2022 Wayne Jacobs
2023 Matthew Millward

Hopefully it will be a Dabs name next, perhaps the likes of a Master Jack or Young Luke, or perhaps an old hand like Wayne or Rob? No pressure guys! We don’t have a list of all the ladies who have won but can tell you that Sarah Saunders and Janet Bartlett’s names are there, and we look forward to seeing more Dabs Darling names in future, so ya, here’s to next year!