Nottingham Kayak Club has recently celebrated its 60th anniversary in style, with a kayak race on the Trent followed by an evening event where members past and present came together to reminisce about where the club started, and to get excited for its bright future.

In 1965, Nottingham Kayak Club was established on the canal in a cellar of the former Gresham Hotel. 60 years later, the club now stands proudly on Trentside North as a multidisciplinary hub for the UK’s top kayakers and boasts a thriving recreational group.

The idea for Nottingham Kayak Club was born in the back of Alan Witham, former Peveril School Kayak Coach’s van, when six former pupils left the school and wanted to continue paddling. Alan had been a dynamic force supporting the students in their paddling, even convincing the school woodworking teacher to let them build a kayak in the school workshop. This was particularly significant for female students Margaret and Christine Baker, and Rosemary Page, who learnt boat building skills during a time when girls were not usually allowed in the school workshop.

Alan located the premises for the club, the cellar of the former Gresham Hotel on Carrington Street. This formed the base for a new community to grow. The club began to compete in long distance, sprint, slalom and whitewater races across the country. Early successes included founding member, Margaret Baker, winning the National Youth Championships.

When fibreglass fumes from DIY boat construction and repairs became problematic for the hotel, the club moved to its new premises on Trentside North in 1966. The members all pulled together to build and fit out the new clubhouse. At this point the group began not just to train on the river, but on the land too, doing circuit training. From this new facility, the membership continued to grow as a new generation of paddlers joined and carried the club to a new era.

Nottingham Kayak Club Site, Trentside North – 1966

Norman Mason has been one of the most influential characters at Nottingham Kayak Club over the past six decades. He joined in 1969 and remembers the construction of the current clubhouse in 1975. He helped to develop the training group throughout the 70s as the sport continued to grow in numbers and quality of competition. Steve Brown also joined in 1969, and raced in a double kayak, known as a K2, with Norman Mason. In 1976 they qualified and raced at the Olympic Games.

Speaking about the experience of his first games, Steve described it as “daunting” and said: “if you’re doing it for the first time, you tend not to be as knowledgeable. You don’t know your competition, you don’t have the training aids that we have today to know maybe how fast you’re going. So I think we probably went as fast as we could”.

Whilst Norman stepped back from international racing to pursue his teaching career, Steve continued to train alongside working full time alongside other club members as his international racing went from strength to strength throughout the 1980s. Reflecting on his favourite memories from being part of the club, he said: “As a team within NKC, we used to organise trips and go and race abroad as a club or we’d go and do the Sella race series and, looking back, that’s probably some of my fondest memories”.

Nottingham Kayak Club members (left to right: John Hubbard, Norman Mason, Kath Nadal, Steve Brown, Theo Speight, George Oliver, Colin Grey, Phil Robinson) – date unknown

Matt Enoch joined Nottingham Kayak Club in the early 1980s, he joined after his brother and father encouraged him to attend. For him, paddling is a family affair. He has shared his love of the sport with his own children Joe and Matilda Enoch. They are the third generation of Enochs to join Nottingham Kayak Club, both have gone on to represent Great Britain at the Marathon World Championships. Matt has also continued to train and compete, placing 4th in the men’s 45-54 years category at the Masters Marathon World Championships this year in Győr, Hungary. Matt’s father, Dave Enoch, who has been a key organiser within the kayak club for the last 40 years also continues to paddle 40 years after he joined the club. He is now in his eighties.

When I asked Matt how much the club had changed since he and his father joined in the early 1980s, he said: “Well, not that much really, in terms of, there’s a good group of people down and everybody looks after each other. There was always a top group of elite paddlers that you were aiming to replicate and be as good as and then there were newbies coming through and juniors, and we’ve still got that today.”

He added: “Today we’re the best club in the country in terms of successes for marathon and sprint. We have a lot of juniors coming through and they’ll see all that, and it’s great to have those top paddlers as role models.”

Nottingham Kayak Club Anniversary Race (left to right: Joe Enoch, Matt Enoch, Charlie Smith) – 2025. Photo credit: Ben Shipway

Norman Mason has been a key figure in the success of Nottingham Kayak Club in recent years and remained heavily involved in club life after stepping back from his own international racing career. Norman offered to support Nicky Cresser when he moved to the kayak club in 2013 after a quieter period for the club on the international scene. From there, a group called the Norm Plan formed, including world medal winners Zyggy Chmiel, Samantha Smith (formerly Rees-Clark), Charlie Smith, Lani Janes (formerly Belcher) and Hayleigh Mason (Norman’s daughter). Nicky said: “Hayleigh’s quite a positive character and drew other people in. When she was around the club, the club was really vibrant and exciting so there were more and more people joining this Norm Plan group.”

Norman wrote the plan in order to accommodate each individual’s needs and ensure they got the correct training for their discipline. The Norm Plan had a breakout year in 2017 when paddlers from the training group dominated the Great Britain team, and made a splash on the world stage winning multiple World and European Championship medals. The highlight was when Lani Janes became the women’s K1 (single kayak) World Champion and won a bronze medal in the K2 with Hayleigh Mason.

Nottingham Kayak Club Anniversary Race (Norman Mason) – 2025. Photo credit: Ben Shipway

Samantha Smith and Charlie Smith have been key players in keeping the group at that elite level in the years since then, the pair got married earlier this year. Samatha Smith moved to Nottingham 14 years ago and remembers the beginnings of the Norm Plan. She has sat at the elite level of women’s racing internationally, switching between marathon and sprint disciplines. After getting dropped from the sprint team she said; “I thought I was going to quit a few times, but every single time the club kind of picks me back up and I remembered why I loved the sport.” She won bronze in the women’s K1 at the Marathon World Championships in 2022.

Nottingham Kayak Club Anniversary Race (left to right: Matilda Enoch, Samantha Smith) – 2025. Photo credit: Ben Shipway

Charlie moved to Nottingham in 2017, motivated by the success and positive atmosphere of the training group. I asked Charlie about his thoughts on the group’s continuing success, he said: “We all work for each other, Hayleigh’s success was my success. Sam’s success was Hayleigh’s success. If someone went to worlds they went to worlds for the group. Even if you weren’t selected for the team, you still turned up to training every day to help the guys that were selected for the team. And that’s the mentality that created world medal after world medal.”

Norman believes a big factor in Nottingham Kayak Club’s success is the club’s ability to attract talented young athletes from around the country as they study at the local universities. He said: “I think when people from other clubs, who are thinking of applying to university places, see the training group in Nottingham and see that there’s some life there, they’re attracted to come to Nottingham.”

#NORMPLAN stickers at Nottingham Kayak Club Anniversary Race – 2025. Photo credit: Ben Shipway

The group has continued to go from strength to strength. This year James Russell became the men’s European Marathon Champion, sisters Emma and Kerry Christie became World Champions in the under 23 women’s C2 (double canoe) event at the Wildwater World Championships, and Beth Gill won silver in the women’s C1 (single canoe) 5000m at the World Cup. The Nottingham Kayak Club elite training group has grown so large it has had to split into two groups. Members of the group can be recognised by the #NORMPLAN stickers or their boats and paddles, Norman’s stickers say #MYPLAN. As the 2026 season approaches, paddlers will continue the legacy started by the club’s founders in 1965. Watch this space.

*Article provided by Freya Peters (Watersports Correspondent).

*Main image @Ben_Shipley Nottingham Kayak Club Anniversary Race 2025.