As a club we have enjoyed considerable success during the 2015/16 swimming season with notable achievements at every level and spanning all age groups.

In the Bedfordshire championships we finished as the Top Club with 53 Gold, 53 Silver and 49 Bronze medals, whilst the club has stayed in League One of the National Arena League after some hard battling with the best across London. The club’s junior swimmers finished in 2nd place by ½ a point in Division 2 of the M11 League, earning them promotion to Division 1. The Masters retained the award for the top visiting club at the Etwall Eagles annual open meet whilst the men’s team finished in 13^th place in the 2015 GB Masters Team Decathlon.

With the end of the competitive season, it was time to recognise the individual achievements made at a club level by our up and coming swimmers. The 2016 Presentation Evening was held at Lilley Village Hall.

After games in the afternoon for all the family and a brief talk by Graham Powell who had set a British Masters record earlier in the year, trophies and certificates were presented by Glenda Mayes, the Club’s Chair.

Trophies were awarded to the top three swimmers in each age group from 7 years and under through to 17 years and over for their overall performances in the Club Championships.

The places in each age group were determined by the total FINA points awarded for the times achieved in each race.

BOYS	1st	2nd	3rd
7 yrs & under	Owain Roberts
8 yrs	Spencer Leaning
9 yrs	Jack Juggins	Lewis Ward	Shane McLoughlin
10 yrs	Declan Beel	Samuel Symonds	Adil Setna
11 yrs	Malachi Gilbert	Nyles Whyte	Jacob Hayhurst
12 yrs	Rhys Davidson	Ismail Savage	Henry Flatt
13 yrs	Freddie Symonds	Guy Muncer	Alfred Mureithi
14 yrs	Godfrey Williams	Phoenix Henries	Ewan Theron
15 yrs	Ralph Muncer	James Mackerness	Lewis Tune
17 yrs & over	Matthew Wright	Alex Mason	Jamie Wright

 

GIRLS	1st	2nd	3rd
7 yrs & under	Katriona Head
8 yrs	Isobel McCullock	Catherine Lempriere	Caitlyn Kean
9 yrs	Millie Hyde	Aine Dunwoodie	Adeola Akande
10 yrs	Emilia Dunwoodie & Susan Opoku-Gyamfi	Rebecca Ptacek	Daniella Njawaya
11 yrs	Laila Gilbert	Sophie Ledger	Eleanor Robertson
12 yrs	Chiara Rogers	Jessica Keogh	Anna Fallon
13 yrs	Lauren Young	Milly Davidson	Shannay Davies
14 yrs	Celyn Walmsley	Jade Whitehouse
15 yrs	Rhiann Donnelly	Nana Opoku-Gyamfi	Natasha Bailey
16 yrs	Chantal Smith	Lucy Gee
17 yrs & over	Nicola Pasquire	Hannah Kelly	Amy Pelling

Club record times have been broken on over 240 occasions in the last 18 months by members swimming in either regional, club or inter-school competitions. Commemorative certificates for these performances were handed out. (A full list of the records as ratified by 12th July can be accessed here.)

Clearly there are too many to list individually but some of the notable club record-breaking achievements have included:

• Aine Dunwoodie following in the wake of her older sisters’ record-breaking swims, taking nearly 20 seconds off the 9 year old girl’s 50m Butterfly record
• Chiara Rogers breaking the long course records for 12 year olds that have stood since 2002 over 50m Butterfly and 200m IM
• Nicola Pasquire putting her name on the record books in 11 events before she goes off studying in the USA
• Ryhs Davidson breaking the 12 year olds long course 200m IM record that had stood since 2001
• University Student Alex Mason setting seven records in the 18 years and over age group
• Jamie Fowler setting three Backstroke records before turning his focus to coaching some of our younger swimmers
• Matthew Wright managing to set records in 3 different age groups (by virtue of when his birthday fell in the 18 month period covered by the presentations!)

As Glenda Mayes commented when handing out awards of appreciation to the club’s coaches, none of the aforementioned individual nor indeed the squad successes could have been achieved without the many hours given week in week out by them.

2015/16 has been a truly remarkable year but like soccer players it’s a relatively short summer break. The 2016/17 competitive season starts in mid September with the first round of club championships followed by our hosting of a Level 2 Open Meet at Inspire.