Club News and Archive

Club News and News Archive
Information Stretch cords and skipping ropes can be obtained from: - www.swimtecheartrateuk.com Link has been added to links page under Swimming Equipment. FACS Some local councils run a scheme called FACS (Free Access for County Sportspeople) which allows county sportspeople who live in that borough to use a variety of leisure facilities free of charge. The drop-list below displays the FACS schemes I have found. If your local council is running FACS or any other similar scheme and is not listed below, please let me (Phil Merriman) know and I will add them to the list. Please remember you must live in the local council area to use their scheme and you must meet the schemes criteria. Rope Campaign – Jones Lang LaSalle Many thanks to Karen Gordge (Danielle Gordge Diamond) who approached her employers Jones Lang LaSalle (Real Estate) for a donation to our rope campaign. After a whip round they kindly raised £115 for our Rope Campaign which with our previous BAA donation from Joe Newman (Kirsty Newman Plat A) gives us just enough to purchase our first replacement competition lane rope. All the ropes will need to be replaced, hence any donations are gratefully received. Many thanks, Janice, Chair 12/05/2007 - Rother League Round 1 We travelled to Guildford Spectrum for the first round of the Rother League on Saturday, knowing that this would be a lot tougher than last year’s Rother League. Having been promoted to Division 1 we were now up against the top clubs in Hampshire, Surrey and Berkshire. The other teams were Haslemere, Guildford, Worthing and Wey Valley. It soon became clear after 10 events that we were in for a close fought gala, Guildford and Haslemere providing the main opposition. Our swimmers performed some great pb’s and the relay teams were fantastic. The boys open freestyle relay team (Bradley Hales, Ashley Teagle, Alex Garnett and Alan Hubbard) were particularly awesome showing the other teams how it should be done. We came away victors, by 9 points, and a win over Guildford (even their B team) is a good feat. We now have maximum points from the first round, as do Bracknell & Wokingham and Woking, who are in 1st and 2nd place with slightly more gala points than Staines. Rounds 2 and 3 will see us compete against Woking and Bracknell & Wokingham. SE Regionals May/June 2007 We amassed 8 medals at the recent SE Regional Championships for 2007. Laura Walsh (25) attained 2 golds (50m free and 100m free) and a bronze (200m free), Oliver Read (18) took gold in 100m fly and silver in 50m fly, Alex Garnett (16) got silver in 50m free, Ben Artis (11) had a fantastic swim to achieve silver in 200m back and the boys 11-14 year relay team took bronze in the 4x200m freestyle relay. Their time almost gave them a place at the relays at the National youth championships. The relay team being James Chapman (14), Glenn Olding (14), Jason Storer (13) and Harry Warman (14). There are 3 swimmers (Oliver Read, Alex Garnett and Ruth Scanlan) going to the Nationals in July/August. We wish them all the best. Golden Success at the Regionals Oliver Read and Laura Walsh pictured with their gold medals won at the recent South East Regional Championships. Click for a larger image. Massive Middlesex Medal Haul Staines Swimming Club double their last years medal haul at the 2007 Middlesex Championships. Over three weekends during February and March we achieved no less than 9 Gold, 20 Silver and 30 Bronze medals, more than doubling last years tally of 26 medals. A brilliant achievement by all those involved! 15/16 year Medley Team Gold Medallists Back - Ella Kirby (Breaststroke), Allison Windegaard (Freestyle) and Katy Rydquist (Head Coach) Front - Bethan Clark (Butterfly) and Hayley Nicholson (Backstroke). Middlesex Stroke Awards Six Staines swimmers pictured below with their stroke awards, which were presented to them at the Middlesex's recently. Middlesex Stroke Awards Lauren Bewley, Ella Kirby, Katherine Chapman, Laura Walsh, Hayley Nicholson and Lucy Brown with their stroke awards.	Speedo League R1 - 13th Oct 2007 Premier Division League Table Round 1 Points Well it seems there’s no rest for the swimmers at Staines SC, as no sooner had we stepped off the poolside from our battle to win the Rother League title, we were back in the line of fire for the 1st round of the Speedo League. After 3 very successful wins to start the season (Diddy League, Pre-Speedo and the Rother League title), the team was flying high. However, the Premier League of Speedo is a class above anything we’ve raced in over the last two seasons, and the team all knew they were walking into a fight! In a first round draw that saw us pitted against last years league runners up (Bracknall and Wokingham), one of the best clubs in the London Region (Bexley), a formidable Reading team, with home field advantage, and a club known to have some of the strongest Open swimmers in the league (Crawly), we knew we were up against it and needed to pull out all the stops! And to say we did, would be an understatement!! We arrived a team that most would have thought would be racing for 4th place, and we left the team that will send shockwaves to those who thought we wouldn’t contend! Again, every member of the team put their heart and Soul into every stroke they swam, most of them shattering their previous PB’s to win races and steel points from clubs that they must’ve thought were there’s. As usual, this Staines team refused to roll over and let the big names walk away with it, they battled and fought and worked for every point, leaving us with a well earned second place and the chance to fight it out for a spot in the winners gala! Gone are the days of just wanting to stay up, we’ve now got our sights set on a top 6 finish! Click here to read Katy's full account of our success. Diddy League Round 3 - 15th Sep 2007 The final round of the Diddy League for 2007 took us to Biggleswade, Bedfordshire. After disappointment in round 2, the swimmers were excited and eager to get in the pool and prove Staines is the best team. After the first 12 events, Staines was in first place with 61 points, ahead of 2nd placed Wycombe by 8 points. This position continued to grow throughout the gala. All the swimmers put in good performances coming first or second in all but one of the relays. There were some good PB’s, particularly Jessica Wathen in both 50m free and 50m fly and Jordan Smith in 50m breaststroke. Owing to a shortage of boy swimmers available to swim, it was particularly noteworthy that Ben Artis swam 4 individual events and 5 relays, Pierce Wilkerson swam one individual event and 6 relays and Sean McCarthy swam 2 individual events and 4 relays. Staines won the last event, the cannon relay, by 3 seconds emphasizing their position as winners on the night. The final point tally was: Staines 234 Wycombe 214 Maidenhead 165 Chelsea & Kensington 159 Flitwick Dolphins 127 Witney 118 Special thanks to Roy, as coach, Janice and Shannon for timekeeping (enabling them to put their recent timekeeper’s course into practice) and Gail and Kevin for poolside assistance. Success for Peter at the World Transplant Games Peter Allinson with his medal haul This years World Transplant Games took place in the capital city of Thailand, Bangkok, August 26th - 1st September. There were 1,500 participants from over 50 countries. Peter Allinson took part as our representative for the UK and Northern Ireland swimming team, which consisted of 60 transplantees from bone marrow and Kidney, to Heart transplant recipients. In total they managed to bring back over 50 gold medals, Peter won six Gold’s and one Silver. The Silver was in the 50m Senior Male Breaststroke, he also did the Butterfly leg of the World record breaking 200m Medley Relay team (2:15:01). The first day of events saw Peter in the 100m Freestyle, 50m Freestyle and 200m Medley Relay, all three races saw him achieve Gold medals. On the second day he competed in 200m Freestyle, 50m Butterfly, 50m Breaststroke and the 200m Freestyle Relay, he was placed 1st in three of those events, only being beaten into second place in the 50m Breaststroke by a fellow team mate who broke the current world record. Golden Girl Sarah, a British Masters Champion Staines Swimming Club swimmer Sarah White represented the GB Police Squad at the recent British Masters Long Course Championships at Manchester’s Commonwealth Games pool. This competition is for amateurs from around Britain and Sarah was part of the winning Women’s Freestyle Relay, also the winning Mixed Freestyle Relay – the latter achieved by setting a new GB Masters record, and the mixed Medley Relay came 2nd. Individually, Sarah competed in the 25-29 age group, and won the 100m Butterfly and came 2nd in the 50m Butterfly, the 100m & 200m Freestyle and 3rd in the 50m Freestyle. Sarah got 2 PBs and was a very successful weekend.	Sale of Club Championship Photos The sale of photos taken at the Club Championships has now finished with a final profit for Staines Swimming Club of £239.11p. Many thanks to all parents who purchased prints. Steve McCarthy Official Club Photographer Larchett Cup – 29th Sep 2007 The Larchett Cup is sponsored by Teddington Swim Club and competition was against two Teddington teams, Henley and Feltham. It was the first B/C Gala of the season and the first gala for many of our young swimmers such as Charlotte Card, Samuel Smith, Billy Barrett, Emily Forth-Collier, Heather McGee and Nicole Forget. All swimmers put in sterling performances and it’s great to see the next wave of SSC swimmers come through! After the first points tally, Staines was in 3rd place after which we steadily rose to 2nd and held it throughout the rest of the competition. Superb swims were recorded by Nile Ashlin, Oliver Scott and Alana Taylor demonstrated that she is also a dab hand at butterfly as well as breaststroke. By the last few races there was very little between Staines and 1st place Henley. Staines completely annihilated the field when it came to last race of the night, a 16-swimmer squadron, hence we waited with bated breath to see whether we had clinched first place, but unfortunately we had yet again swam too fast in the last few races incurring speeding tickets hence lost by the narrowest margin of 6 points. Well done to all the swimmers who took part! Paul Martin was coach for the night with the Poolside team of Sandra, Nicola and Kevin. Well done to all! Fareham Nomads Open Meet 14/15 July 2007 This was the final open meet for the club this season and what a way to go out. Staines won top club with 578 points, ahead of second placed Camden & Swiss Cottage with 327 points, quite a substantial margin! In addition Katie Simms was joint top girl in the 12/13 years age group and Ella Kirby was top girl in the 14/15 years age group. With 65 swimmers taking part it was not surprising that we achieved 15 golds, 12 silvers and 17 bronzes. Special mention should go to Katie Simms who attained 6 medals, 3 of which were gold, Jason Storer with 5 medals, 3 of which were gold, Sarah White (incl.2 gold), Bradley Hales (incl. 2 gold) Tom Penfare and Ella Kirby all with 4 medals in total. Well done to everyone who went, and for all the personal best times achieved. 19/05/2007 - Rother League Junior Trophy Last Saturday 19th May the Club competed in the Rother League Junior Trophy at Basingstoke Aquadrome, which was for swimmers aged up to 13 years. We were swimming against Woking who we have met in several B/C Grade galas, plus Elmbridge Phoenix – another local club, as well as several Hampshire/Sussex based clubs. We hoped to do well but it was a slightly unknown playing field. Things started well as despite not winning many of the first races we were consistently coming in second hence after 10 events we were in the lead. This continued after the next 10 events and likewise the following 10. Many swimmers got firsts and new pb’s such as Jesie Dyos, Ben Artis, Matthew Smith, Evie Teagle, Katie Simms, Brandon Ripley and James Chapman swimming an outstanding 50m backstroke leaving the rest of the field completely behind him! The swimmers were all spurred on by Katy and supported by the junior captains - Allison Windegaard and Alex Garnett, as well as our newly qualified judge Christine Chapman. Alex Ridgeway in the under 11 freestyle relay held off stiff competition with a fantastic swim to gain another first place. All the relay teams gained first or second places which really shows the depth within the club. Final points tally was Staines 231,Woking in 2nd place 10 points behind with 221, Elmbridge Phoenix 3rd with 189, Worthing 4th – 146, Basingstoke 5th – 145 and Alton 6th – 141. All topped off with a large trophy collected by Abby Thuringer – our Diddy Captain, and the Junior Captains. Rother League R2 Success A here's the winning team at the Rother League Round 2, held at Bracknell on 23rd June 2007.

Club News and News Archive

Information

Stretch cords and skipping ropes can be obtained from: -

www.swimtecheartrateuk.com

Link has been added to links page under Swimming Equipment.

FACS

Some local councils run a scheme called FACS (Free Access for County Sportspeople) which allows county sportspeople who live in that borough to use a variety of leisure facilities free of charge. The drop-list below displays the FACS schemes I have found. If your local council is running FACS or any other similar scheme and is not listed below, please let me (Phil Merriman) know and I will add them to the list.

Please remember you must live in the local council area to use their scheme and you must meet the schemes criteria.

Rope Campaign – Jones Lang LaSalle

Many thanks to Karen Gordge (Danielle Gordge Diamond) who approached her employers Jones Lang LaSalle (Real Estate) for a donation to our rope campaign. After a whip round they kindly raised £115 for our Rope Campaign which with our previous BAA donation from Joe Newman (Kirsty Newman Plat A) gives us just enough to purchase our first replacement competition lane rope. All the ropes will need to be replaced, hence any donations are gratefully received.

Many thanks,
Janice, Chair

12/05/2007 - Rother League Round 1

We travelled to Guildford Spectrum for the first round of the Rother League on Saturday, knowing that this would be a lot tougher than last year’s Rother League. Having been promoted to Division 1 we were now up against the top clubs in Hampshire, Surrey and Berkshire.

The other teams were Haslemere, Guildford, Worthing and Wey Valley. It soon became clear after 10 events that we were in for a close fought gala, Guildford and Haslemere providing the main opposition. Our swimmers performed some great pb’s and the relay teams were fantastic. The boys open freestyle relay team (Bradley Hales, Ashley Teagle, Alex Garnett and Alan Hubbard) were particularly awesome showing the other teams how it should be done.

We came away victors, by 9 points, and a win over Guildford (even their B team) is a good feat. We now have maximum points from the first round, as do Bracknell & Wokingham and Woking, who are in 1st and 2nd place with slightly more gala points than Staines. Rounds 2 and 3 will see us compete against Woking and Bracknell & Wokingham.

SE Regionals May/June 2007

We amassed 8 medals at the recent SE Regional Championships for 2007. Laura Walsh (25) attained 2 golds (50m free and 100m free) and a bronze (200m free), Oliver Read (18) took gold in 100m fly and silver in 50m fly, Alex Garnett (16) got silver in 50m free, Ben Artis (11) had a fantastic swim to achieve silver in 200m back and the boys 11-14 year relay team took bronze in the 4x200m freestyle relay. Their time almost gave them a place at the relays at the National youth championships. The relay team being James Chapman (14), Glenn Olding (14), Jason Storer (13) and Harry Warman (14). There are 3 swimmers (Oliver Read, Alex Garnett and Ruth Scanlan) going to the Nationals in July/August. We wish them all the best.

Golden Success at the Regionals

Oliver Read and Laura Walsh pictured with their gold medals won at the recent South East Regional Championships. Click for a larger image.

Massive Middlesex Medal Haul

Staines Swimming Club double their last years medal haul at the 2007 Middlesex Championships. Over three weekends during February and March we achieved no less than 9 Gold, 20 Silver and 30 Bronze medals, more than doubling last years tally of 26 medals. A brilliant achievement by all those involved!

15/16 year Medley Team Gold Medallists
Back - Ella Kirby (Breaststroke), Allison Windegaard (Freestyle) and Katy Rydquist (Head Coach)
Front - Bethan Clark (Butterfly) and Hayley Nicholson (Backstroke).

Middlesex Stroke Awards

Six Staines swimmers pictured below with their stroke awards, which were presented to them at the Middlesex's recently.

Middlesex Stroke Awards
Lauren Bewley, Ella Kirby, Katherine Chapman, Laura Walsh, Hayley Nicholson and Lucy Brown with their stroke awards.

Speedo League R1 - 13th Oct 2007

Premier Division League Table

Round 1 Points

Well it seems there’s no rest for the swimmers at Staines SC, as no sooner had we stepped off the poolside from our battle to win the Rother League title, we were back in the line of fire for the 1st round of the Speedo League.

After 3 very successful wins to start the season (Diddy League, Pre-Speedo and the Rother League title), the team was flying high. However, the Premier League of Speedo is a class above anything we’ve raced in over the last two seasons, and the team all knew they were walking into a fight! In a first round draw that saw us pitted against last years league runners up (Bracknall and Wokingham), one of the best clubs in the London Region (Bexley), a formidable Reading team, with home field advantage, and a club known to have some of the strongest Open swimmers in the league (Crawly), we knew we were up against it and needed to pull out all the stops!

And to say we did, would be an understatement!! We arrived a team that most would have thought would be racing for 4th place, and we left the team that will send shockwaves to those who thought we wouldn’t contend!

Again, every member of the team put their heart and Soul into every stroke they swam, most of them shattering their previous PB’s to win races and steel points from clubs that they must’ve thought were there’s. As usual, this Staines team refused to roll over and let the big names walk away with it, they battled and fought and worked for every point, leaving us with a well earned second place and the chance to fight it out for a spot in the winners gala! Gone are the days of just wanting to stay up, we’ve now got our sights set on a top 6 finish!

Click here to read Katy's full account of our success.

Diddy League Round 3 - 15th Sep 2007

The final round of the Diddy League for 2007 took us to Biggleswade, Bedfordshire. After disappointment in round 2, the swimmers were excited and eager to get in the pool and prove Staines is the best team.

After the first 12 events, Staines was in first place with 61 points, ahead of 2nd placed Wycombe by 8 points. This position continued to grow throughout the gala. All the swimmers put in good performances coming first or second in all but one of the relays. There were some good PB’s, particularly Jessica Wathen in both 50m free and 50m fly and Jordan Smith in 50m breaststroke. Owing to a shortage of boy swimmers available to swim, it was particularly noteworthy that Ben Artis swam 4 individual events and 5 relays, Pierce Wilkerson swam one individual event and 6 relays and Sean McCarthy swam 2 individual events and 4 relays.

Staines won the last event, the cannon relay, by 3 seconds emphasizing their position as winners on the night. The final point tally was:

Staines 234
Wycombe 214
Maidenhead 165
Chelsea & Kensington 159
Flitwick Dolphins 127
Witney 118

Special thanks to Roy, as coach, Janice and Shannon for timekeeping (enabling them to put their recent timekeeper’s course into practice) and Gail and Kevin for poolside assistance.

Success for Peter at the World Transplant Games

Peter Allinson with his medal haul

This years World Transplant Games took place in the capital city of Thailand, Bangkok, August 26th - 1st September.

There were 1,500 participants from over 50 countries. Peter Allinson took part as our representative for the UK and Northern Ireland swimming team, which consisted of 60 transplantees from bone marrow and Kidney, to Heart transplant recipients.

In total they managed to bring back over 50 gold medals, Peter won six Gold’s and one Silver. The Silver was in the 50m Senior Male Breaststroke, he also did the Butterfly leg of the World record breaking 200m Medley Relay team (2:15:01).

The first day of events saw Peter in the 100m Freestyle, 50m Freestyle and 200m Medley Relay, all three races saw him achieve Gold medals. On the second day he competed in 200m Freestyle, 50m Butterfly, 50m Breaststroke and the 200m Freestyle Relay, he was placed 1st in three of those events, only being beaten into second place in the 50m Breaststroke by a fellow team mate who broke the current world record.

Golden Girl Sarah, a British Masters Champion

Staines Swimming Club swimmer Sarah White represented the GB Police Squad at the recent British Masters Long Course Championships at Manchester’s Commonwealth Games pool.

This competition is for amateurs from around Britain and Sarah was part of the winning Women’s Freestyle Relay, also the winning Mixed Freestyle Relay – the latter achieved by setting a new GB Masters record, and the mixed Medley Relay came 2nd.

Individually, Sarah competed in the 25-29 age group, and won the 100m Butterfly and came 2nd in the 50m Butterfly, the 100m & 200m Freestyle and 3rd in the 50m Freestyle. Sarah got 2 PBs and was a very successful weekend.

Sale of Club Championship Photos

The sale of photos taken at the Club Championships has now finished with a final profit for Staines Swimming Club of £239.11p.

Many thanks to all parents who purchased prints.

Steve McCarthy
Official Club Photographer

Larchett Cup – 29th Sep 2007

The Larchett Cup is sponsored by Teddington Swim Club and competition was against two Teddington teams, Henley and Feltham. It was the first B/C Gala of the season and the first gala for many of our young swimmers such as Charlotte Card, Samuel Smith, Billy Barrett, Emily Forth-Collier, Heather McGee and Nicole Forget. All swimmers put in sterling performances and it’s great to see the next wave of SSC swimmers come through! After the first points tally, Staines was in 3rd place after which we steadily rose to 2nd and held it throughout the rest of the competition. Superb swims were recorded by Nile Ashlin, Oliver Scott and Alana Taylor demonstrated that she is also a dab hand at butterfly as well as breaststroke. By the last few races there was very little between Staines and 1st place Henley. Staines completely annihilated the field when it came to last race of the night, a 16-swimmer squadron, hence we waited with bated breath to see whether we had clinched first place, but unfortunately we had yet again swam too fast in the last few races incurring speeding tickets hence lost by the narrowest margin of 6 points. Well done to all the swimmers who took part! Paul Martin was coach for the night with the Poolside team of Sandra, Nicola and Kevin.

Well done to all!

Fareham Nomads Open Meet
14/15 July 2007

This was the final open meet for the club this season and what a way to go out. Staines won top club with 578 points, ahead of second placed Camden & Swiss Cottage with 327 points, quite a substantial margin! In addition Katie Simms was joint top girl in the 12/13 years age group and Ella Kirby was top girl in the 14/15 years age group.

With 65 swimmers taking part it was not surprising that we achieved 15 golds, 12 silvers and 17 bronzes. Special mention should go to Katie Simms who attained 6 medals, 3 of which were gold, Jason Storer with 5 medals, 3 of which were gold, Sarah White (incl.2 gold), Bradley Hales (incl. 2 gold) Tom Penfare and Ella Kirby all with 4 medals in total.

Well done to everyone who went, and for all the personal best times achieved.

19/05/2007 - Rother League Junior Trophy

Last Saturday 19th May the Club competed in the Rother League Junior Trophy at Basingstoke Aquadrome, which was for swimmers aged up to 13 years. We were swimming against Woking who we have met in several B/C Grade galas, plus Elmbridge Phoenix – another local club, as well as several Hampshire/Sussex based clubs. We hoped to do well but it was a slightly unknown playing field. Things started well as despite not winning many of the first races we were consistently coming in second hence after 10 events we were in the lead. This continued after the next 10 events and likewise the following 10.

Many swimmers got firsts and new pb’s such as Jesie Dyos, Ben Artis, Matthew Smith, Evie Teagle, Katie Simms, Brandon Ripley and James Chapman swimming an outstanding 50m backstroke leaving the rest of the field completely behind him! The swimmers were all spurred on by Katy and supported by the junior captains - Allison Windegaard and Alex Garnett, as well as our newly qualified judge Christine Chapman. Alex Ridgeway in the under 11 freestyle relay held off stiff competition with a fantastic swim to gain another first place. All the relay teams gained first or second places which really shows the depth within the club.

Final points tally was Staines 231,Woking in 2nd place 10 points behind with 221, Elmbridge Phoenix 3rd with 189, Worthing 4th – 146, Basingstoke 5th – 145 and Alton 6th – 141. All topped off with a large trophy collected by Abby Thuringer – our Diddy Captain, and the Junior Captains.

Rother League R2 Success

A here's the winning team at the Rother League Round 2, held at Bracknell on 23rd June 2007.