Charity Status
CR Cats are registered as a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation from 17 April 2019. You can find us on the Scottish Charity regulator, OSCR. Our charity number is SCIO SC049230.
The Club
We are a family based club who welcome any youngsters and their family to join us and learn to canoe in a safe fun environment at our Canoe Site on the outskirts of Alva.
We run beginner, improver and club classes midweek and at weekends and you will also have the opportunity to paddle across Scotland if you wish. We run Easter and Summer holiday taster sessions and camps for you to come and try canoeing.
No canoeing is experience is necessary but you do need to be able to swim. We provide all the equipment – kayaks, paddlers, Helmets, Bouyancy Aids, Wetsuits and Wetshoes.
Canoe Slalom
Our club specialises in the Olympic Sport of Canoe Slalom. As well as teaching children all the basic flat water and white water skills, we will also teach them slalom skills and they will have the opportunity to race in slalom competitions.
The club holds competitions at Alva each year in March, April, June and September.
Club History
CR CATS (Central Region Canoe Advanced Training Centre) was set up in 1980 by Drew Michie thanks to Sports Scotland who had introduced a Sub National Grant Scheme to develop sub national squads in a range of sports. The club was initially based at Stirling University and a flat water slalom course erected at the far end of the Loch on campus. Alan Eastwood was the first coach.
CR CATS largely included paddlers from the Canoe Club at Wallace High School which had started when Drew Michie arrived in 1974. Drew ran expeditions abroad in 1975, 1976 and 1977 to France and competed in the international Slalom competition in Sort in Spain. The school had a large canoe squad and in the 1977 Scottish Youth Slalom, Wallace High School won several medals. The Scottish Youth Squad had 9 out of 12 places taken by Wallace Pupils.
In 1978, Johnny Brown (who was the a maths teacher at Wallace High School) had just finished his rugby career and took up paddling. He joined the Wallace High School Canoe club, gained his Senior Instructor qualification and took over the running of Wallace High School Canoe Club from 1979 to 1984 once Drew Michie left the school. John Brown continued to run the Wallace High school expeditions abroad with trips to paddle in France in 1981-1984 and took this new group of paddlers to many of the Scottish Slaloms.
When Johnny left Wallace High School in 1984 for a new job at Denny High School, he became involved in running CR CATS. The club moved to a stretch of water on the River Devon just outside Alva. Johnny continued taking trips to France and Europe over the next 30 years for paddlers from CR CATS and all over Scotland and continued to coach canoeing in the central area until 2020 when illness prevented him continuing.
Johnny continued to take youngsters from Denny High school paddling and competing across the UK.
Sport Scotland Support
In 2015, the club was very fortunate to receive a 4 year grant from SportScotland through the Direct Club Investment scheme to enable the club to employ Janet Peck as a coach. Janet Peck joined us in June 2015 and in the years she has been here along with our other coaches, we have been able to offer many more canoeing opportunities at all levels. We have a thriving group of young paddlers.
Club Site
Around 1982 the old Devon Colliery site new Alva was on the market and owned by Central Regional Council. Drew and other Council Officers were asked about which parts might be retained for Council use. At that stage a group of Fife paddlers had set up an informal slalom training location around the bridge there. This site was identified by Central Region for further development (called the River Devon Canoe Site) and work for it was investigated.
In the mid 1990s, with the help of Isaac Walsh, the local scouts, Central Regional Council and National Lottery funding, planning permission was granted to install paths and floodlights on the site making this the first all year round facility in Scotland. The local Scouts then sold the site to the club enabling the club to install boat containers and changing rooms on the site.
The river has some moving water and is a safe environment for learning basic white water skills.
CR CATS Canoe Club 