As Dartmouth's Banook Canoe Club turned 100 last summer, Allan Billard sat down to write the story of the famous club. His book tells of many regattas, trophies won and races lost; not to mention the hearts won and lost at the popular summer dances.

He also shines a light upon the constant thread of marathon canoe racing which runs through the club, to the suprise of many sprint paddlers.

Starting back as early as 1923, the club's founder donated a trophy for the "Long Distance Championship of the Dartmouth Lakes". The Arthur Weston Trophy is still put up for annual competition, eighty years later! Allan follows the ups and downs of that race and the often unpredictable conditions of the portage through Shubie.

Other well known events are included too, like the Annapolis River Race, first held in 1961 and won by Banook's Fred Lynch and Dave Fingard. Their names flow through both sprint and marathon contests over the Sixties, giving proof to the fact that the two disciplines are quite compatible.

The more recent Fred Lynch Race (only 20 years of annual competition) attracts a big contingent of paddlers from Banook, including Ladies C-4 and many sprint kayaks and canoes, as well as the standard marathon pro-boats.

As might be expected, Allan also retells some of the story of the recent Marathon Canoe World Championships. Banook paddlers Mike Scarola and Richard Dalton did not disappoint their fans with a Silver Medal in the Senior C-2 marathon over 32 km.

The book costs $25 and is available at the club, as well as from Allan, who will be at all the marathon races this summer.