Leah Picillio

Nikita Ivanov

Georgia Cotterill

Louis Gautier

Cara Layden

James Wamsley

Chloe Barrow

William Klinkenberg

Elizabeth Coomes

George Fearnley

Megan Bowen

Elliot Randall

Jess Twose

Laker Wong

Sally Carter

Oliver Willis

Alicia Rios Wilks

Josh Gunn

Jess Sanders Wyatt

Willam Amey

Beth Watmore

Thomas Fannon

Christy Gold

Thomas Downs

Inter County Team Championships 2011

On the 16th October 2011 a team of 25 DCASA swimmers competed in the annual British Gas ASA National County team championships .This event was held in the prestigious Ponds Forge Centre Sheffield.

Over 1000 swimmers from 33 counties, 3 teams from Scotland, North, West and East along with 2 Welsh teams, Wales East and Wales West competed in 2 divisions. Devon after last years results were swimming in division 2, among the other teams in this division were Dorset, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Cornwall. Swimming for many counties in both divisions were top national and international swimmers which made for an extremely high standard meet with very fast swimming. After the opening ceremony, where this year's team captains Elliot Boon and Sally Whybra proudly paraded with our county banner, the event started. Each event was closely contended with some very close finishes.

The whole Devon team with very supportive team sprit rose to the challenge producing some excellent short course ranking PBs and relay splits .Millie Price 100m BR 1.19.25 50m Br split 36.49, Elliot Boon 100m BR 1.08.61, James Warmsley 100m BR 1.19.76, Louis Woodward relay split 50m FR 26.95, Ryan Rogers 100m FR 54.89 relay split 50m FR 24.01,Rachel Spooner relay split 50m FR 29.08, Dominic Wooldridge 100m Fly 1.00.14, Levin Veale 100m BK 59.49, Sally Whybra 50m Fly30.01,Emma Noyce 100m Fly 1.11.99 relay split 50m Fly 31.69. Joe Crispin 100m Fly 1.10.79 relay split 50m Fly 30.42,William Potter 100m BK 1.07.19, Robert Neilsen 100m BK 1.08.63, Megan Bowen 100m Fly 1.06.27 100m FR 59.01, Georgia Coterill 100m FR 1.02.63 100m BK 1.08.96 50m BK split 32.14, Amy Cole 100m Br 1.13.44 relay split 50m Br 34.19, Laker Wong 100m Br 1.09.73,George Fearnley relay split 50m Fly 26.98 and Sebastian Burleigh relay split 50m FR 25.48.Top 5 positions came from Megan Bowen 4 th 100m FR and Fly, George Fearnley 3 rd 100m FR and Fly, Laker Wong 5th 100m Br 50m relay split 50m Br 31.53, Amy Cole 4th 100m Br, Jess Twose 2nd 100m Back, 12/13 Girls medley team Georgia Cotterill, Millie Price, Emma Noyce and Rachel Spooner 4th and the mixed 6x50m FR George Fearnley, Connie Fearnley, Louis Woodward, Rachel Spooner, Jess Twose and Levin Veale 5th .

Devon finished this very close competition in 9th position ahead of Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Cornwall. The Devon team were only 38 points away from promotion the final winners of division 2 were Dorset who scored 476 points. Well done to everyone involved in this years event.

DCASA Masters - 20th November 2011

William Letch who received the ASASWR decathlon trophy from Devon county president Coral Waldock.

Kalon Veale and Kate Veale, mother and son receiving the ASASWR inter county masters winners trophy from Devon president Coral Waldock.



Devon County Masters team 2011 who won at the recent ASASWR event

Two Members of Tavistock Swimming Club have both received outstanding awards from the South West ASA .Wendy Dalton in recognition of her role as an ASA Tutor, through the courses she delivers, in producing quality swimming teachers and coaches and Sheila Radgick for her outstanding voluntary work at Tavistock Swimming Club and within the South West Region.

Devon County ASA Championships 2011


Men's 200m breaststroke Championship winners

In January – a team of young filmmakers from First Light, attended the South West Regional Disability Swimming Championships at Horfield Leisure Centre to document the event from a volunteer perspectives.

First Light have been following young my games volunteers and creating a number of digital media productions that demonstrate the role of volunteer.

The my games project is a national project designed to get more young disabled people volunteering in sports. In the South West region there are 6 young volunteers signed up to the programme. The young volunteers have the opportunity to attend workshops and seminars to improve and develop their knowledge, as well as attend local events to gain experience in a number of different roles.

The video that the First Light team created, which can be viewed by clicking this link

http://www.firstlightonline.co.uk/fl-awards/the-first-light-awards-2011/mygames-powered-by-v-digital-documenters-award/ has been nominated for an award!!!

So check out the film, which stars our own regional volunteers and S14 swimmer, Daniel Weston from Crediton SC in Devon. And vote for the film to support the mygames project, and our own swimming volunteers in the region as well promote disability swimming.

Devon County ASA Championships

The 2011 Championships are almost upon us and we are all looking forward to meeting everyone and some good competition. There are just a few reminders and one or two bits of new information for coaches, swimmers and parents.

Please do not arrive or enter any of our pools before 08:30. The venue will not be ready for you and early arrivers can be an annoying distraction for the pool staff when they are setting up the pool.
Will all trophy holders from 2010 please make available the trophies to me at the start of the weekend when the event is being contested. Clubs have been sent a spreadsheet with the details of trophy holders and I should be grateful if they would help to ensure that they are returned, recently polished, of course!

I should be grateful if those parents or helpers who have volunteered to help on the day would arrive in good time e.g. 5-10 minutes before the task is due and, if you are not able to fulfil the task, please give your club good notice so that some one else may be asked. Please report to me on poolside or to the announcer. Without the help of these volunteers our Championships would not be possible and we are very grateful to those who “give up their seat in the balcony” to help run the gala. (Those that help at Tiverton do not need a spectator's pass).

For the 400m, 800m and 1500m events swimmers will be required to register (or sign in) and this will be at the Recorder's desk on poolside at Tiverton and in the diving pool balcony at Plymouth.
Would coaches and team managers please bring a lanyard for their pool passes.

Tiverton Pool

There will again be restrictions on the number of spectators on poolside. This is for your safety and comfort and your co-operation is appreciated. Spectator passes will be made available to the clubs who will be responsible for allocation. As last year we will keep a close eye on the total numbers and lift restrictions as soon as possible. While we have restrictions please co-operate by wearing your passes.
This year we have had to pay for parking so regrettably there will be charge for each pass. The directions to the new car park are below. It is very close to the one we used previously.
Enter the school by the main (usual) entrance and proceed on about 100m to a small roundabout with trees. Please park to the left of this roundabout. When this is full please use the coach park spaces on the right of the roundabout.
Please do not use the car park in front of the pool as other leisure centre users will need to use it. Parents and coaches may wish to drop of swimmers and kit at the pool door before parking as the new car park is about an additional 100m walk.

Plymouth Pool

There is some building work taking place around Central Pools in Plymouth! Please take care in the environs and be aware that there may not be the normal amount of parking close to the pool.
The timing system at the pool has caused some concern recently and we have hired in additional equipment to, hopefully, ensure that the racing is uninterrupted. Our thanks to the club helpers who have volunteered to operate it for us this year.
Thank you for reading this and we all look forward to a safe and exciting Championships.
David Jenkins
Event Co-ordinator/Trophy Steward
Devon County ASA

Once again Devon swimmers and officials along with our county president Mel Jeynes and his wife travelled to Sheffield on the 17th October to attend the annual National Inter County event.

The team was selected from a broad base of Devon clubs but the county knew the competition would be tough in Division One as other Counties had commonwealth swimmers back to bolster their teams.

The County Team was captained by Catherine Harvey and Levin Veale who held the Devon flag high and walked with all the other County's Captains in the opening ceremony. The event was opened by Olympians Ross Davenport and Sarah Price who did a great job of getting the large crowd involved and cheering on all the teams.

Notable top 10 finishing swims came from Molly Redford 10th 14/15 100m FS 59.14, Jess Twose 6th 14/15 100m back 64.39, George Fearnley 10th 14/15 100m fly 61.09, Elliot Randall 9th 12/13 100m breast 74.75 and Levin Veale 16/17 9th 59.84.

As for the relays Devon managed 10th 14/15 girls medley relay and in the last event the mixed 6x50m free the Devon swimmers came a very creditable 7th.

All the swimmers swam extremly well and enjoyed this top class event, Devon finished 19th so will be competing in Division two next year and will be looking forward to some more top competion and fast swimming.

PLYMOUTH Leander swimmers could follow in the footsteps of Olympic heroine Cassie Patten.

Chloe-Davey,-Laura-Selwood,-Lindsay-Dunn-(Coach),-Danielle-Baker,-Matthew-Rose
Patten, a former Leander star who now swims for Stockport Metro, won bronze in the 10k open at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

She also reached the finals of the 800m open.
Now several Leander youngsters could be well on the way to emulating her feat after winning the Devon County Open Water Championships after entering — and winning — the 1,500m competition for the first time.

The Leander swimmers, guided by the club's assistant coach and former English Channel swimmer Lindsay Dunn, finished with four of their swimmers in the top six.

The championships, which started at Goodrington Sands, Paignton and finished at Broadsands, was aimed at 12-16-year-olds.

Leander's Chloe Davey and Matthew Rose won the female and male championship. Behind them were Laura Selwood in third and Danielle Baker in fifth.

Leander head coach Jon Rudd said for some of the swimmers, open water racing would be secondary to trying to develop their indoor skills.

But he added that some Leander members might do as well as Patten.
Leander swimmers have already made a successful appearance at the Blue Mile in Plymouth this year.
Rudd said: "Leander has an open water tradition with the likes of Cassie Patten and it's nice to see we have got swimmers who are continuing that.

"For Chloe (Davey), open water is going to be second-string, although she likes doing it.
"But people like Matt (Rose) like the long distances and could do well at them."

Rudd said for competitors, open water was different to indoor events.

"Indoor swimming is a very sole sport, because you get in your own lane and off you go," he said. "With open water, you've got to take on the elements and swimming against other competitors can often be a contact sport, because everyone's bumping into each other. A swimmer has to be resilient to take part and there's a lot more strategy involved.
"Most swimmers see this as early-season training to get them going, but with kids like Laura (Selwood), who wants to do distance swimming, it's another string to their bow."

A SWIMMING club coach from Torquay has won an award for his voluntary sports work and the team success.

Downing has been voted the Torbay's senior sports coach of the year.

Roger has been coaching at the Plainmoor club for 11 years.
Roger, who holds a Level 3 qualification in coaching and constantly attends new courses for the benefit of others, said of his award: "I'm extremely pleased and honoured to have received this coveted award. It is a great reward for all the hard work myself, Neil West and my other swim teachers and helpers and of course the swimmers put in."

His voluntary work sees him on poolside for up to 5 hours a week and the other sessions are taken by Neil West who has been with the club for over 4 years and several other swim teachers and helpers. Dave Gilby , the Club Chairman said: "The club has gone from strength to strength, rising through the national league and being promoted to Division 2 from Division 3."

He added: "The nomination for the award was well overdue. It was for a man who I regard as a man above men who gives his hours endlessly for the development of the young." Roger also helps as one of the coaches for the Devon swim squad.

Roger and Neil have boosted membership to the club and they are having to extend their pool time to help cope with the new numbers. The club trains all the year round, stopping only for Christmas and New Year weeks and holiday periods.

As well as training and competing, the team supports the local pool which is run as a Charity by raising and contributing over £4,000 from bag-packing groceries at the local Sainsbury's store this year.

Congratulations to both Plymouth Leander and Exeter City on their outstanding achievement's at the 2010 National League Final.

Please click on link below for Exeter City Press report and see below article for Plymouth Leander Press Report.

Exeter City press Report.

Sheffield, England: Plymouth Leander have become the club champions of England & Wales for this third successive year in winning the 41st National Arena Swimming League Cup Final at Ponds Forge in Sheffield.

Only City of Southampton in the early 1970's and City of Leeds through the 80's and the 90's have managed a consecutive hat-trick of National League titles, with Plymouth romping home in once of the most impressive winning margins in the League's history, nearly 90 points clear of second placed Stockport Metro, a British Swimming ITC.

In lifting the title once more, Plymouth ensured a number of other significant milestones en route. First to be added to their haul was the Relay Challenge Trophy, beating Millfield by an accumulate total of 59.3 seconds across the eight relay events. Of the six Top Age Group Athletes Awards, Plymouth were to take five, courtesy of Myles Pillage and Meryl Attrill in the 11 years age group, Harry Ackland following his English Age Group Record in the 13 years age band and Joe Patching and Achieng Ajulu-Bushell in the 15 years category (ages as of 31/12/09).
No less that eight meet record were claimed by the Plymouth team this time of asking:

Male 11 years 50m Butterfly
Myles Pillage (30.32) - Formerly James Doolan (City of Salford) 2002

Male 13 years 100m Backstroke
Jack Smith (1:03.07) – Formerly Steven Cumper (Portsmouth Northsea) 1998

Male 13 years 100m Breaststroke
Harry Ackland (1:08.49) – Formerly David Bartlett (Portsmouth Northsea) 1998

Male 15 years 100m Backstroke
Joe Patching (58.76) – Formerly Sam Straughan (Plymouth Leander) 2009

Female 15 years 100m Breaststroke
Achieng Ajulu-Bushell (1:12.02) – Formerly Rachael Solway (Guildford City) 2008

Female 13 years 200m Medley Relay
Plymouth Leander (2:04.75) – Formerly Beckenham 2005
(Abigail Carne, Jade Scott, Lara Cosford, Grace Vertigans)

Female Senior 200m Medley Relay
Plymouth Leander (1:56.27) – Formerly Lincoln Vulcans 2005
(Amy McVeigh, Achieng Ajulu-Bushell, Paulina Schmiedel, Emma Wilkins)

Male Senior 300m Freestyle Relay
Plymouth Leander (2:22.62) – Formerly Millfield 2009
(Antony James, Mark Conroy, Anthony O'Driscoll, Calum Jarvis, Aaron Rickhuss, Steven Beckerleg)

Even with five of their athletes unable to attend the competition due to volcanic ash cloud flight disruptions, the 23 wins across the 50 events helps to cement the programme's status as the UK's leading age group and youth programme, with Antony James, Achieng Ajulu-Bushell, Emma Wilkins and Steven Beckerleg also underlining what the PL coaches are able to achieve at the senior end of the sport. Head Coach Jon Rudd said, “This is always a great team event, one that we love to support and it is worth a great deal of kudos to the winning team. Along with our terrific successes at the recent British Championships, we look to use this victory to spur our athletes on into the national and international events waiting for us this coming summer”.

Final Points
• Plymouth Leander 422
• Stockport Metro 336
• Millfield 328
• Camden Swiss Cottage 288
• Guildford City 271
• Hatfield 270
• City of Liverpool 267
• Bournemouth/Ferndown 219
• City of Peterborough 177
• Boldmere 174

Plymouth Leander would like to thank the support of the Plymouth Sports Development Unit and Tyr for this event.
Meet Results can be found at

http://live.nationalswimmingleague.org.uk/SL10A/

Devon Inter County Success

On the 17th October the Devon County swimming team travelled up to Chesterfield in preparation to compete the in the National Inter County Team championships the following day. The coach trip and overnight stay went to plan with only a short delay for our county President to join the coach.

The following day the squad travelled the short distance to Ponds Forge Sheffield, where they joined over 1,000 swimmers from 38 teams. The competition is the largest and most prestigious team event in this country as it involves many of the best age group swimmers from every English county, North and South Wales and three regions of Scotland . Along with the usual banner parade, this year's Devon captains where Liam Spruce and Holly Gunner, there was lots of excitement and anticipation for the forthcoming competition. The very colourful and noisy event was opened by Olympians David Carry and Ross Davenport who did a great job of whipping up the crowd, making sure everyone including the county presidents joined in with all the cheering and Mexican waves that travelled around the arena.

The top twenty teams from the results from last year competed in division one and the other eighteen teams challenged for promotion in division two, the top three go up in exchange for the bottom three from division one. This year Devon swam in division two with many first time county swimmers, Rachael Bennett, Zoe Blackoe, Laker Wong, Bruce Traill, Patrick Blake, George Fearnley, Emily Hutchens, Simon Cooper, Daniel Setters, Ryan Bennett, Michael Gard, Reece Worth, Connie Fearnley, Daniel Arscott and Cheslsey Taylor.

Despite the fierce competition Devon performed extremely well as a team with some outstanding points winning performances. Individual wins and maximum points came from Cameron Brodie 16/17 100m fly 56.36 and George Fearnley 12/13 100m fly 1.01.62. Jess Twose had the meet of her life winning both the 12/13 100m free 59.67 and the 12/13 100m back 1.04.77.Her time in the 100m back was the fastest of all the 12/13 year olds competing in both of the divisions.

Other top five positions came from Rachael Bennett 16/17 100m free 2nd , Cameron Brodie 16/17 100m free 2nd , Laker Wong 12/13 100m Br 4th , Patrick Blake 16/17 100m Bk 5th , George Fearnley 12/13 100m free 2nd , Bruce Traill 14/15 100m Bk 2nd and the 12/13 medley team, Reece Worth, Laker Wong, George Fearnley and Daniel Arscott 3rd.

The final 6x50m mixed relay team, which would decide the final position the county would finish in the division, was lead off by Cameron Brodie followed by team mates George Fearnley, Michael Gard, Jess Twose, Connie Fearnley and Holly Gunner. With Devon in the first heat they had to swim against the clock, as Hampshire their main rivals were in the second heat. The Devon team in their usual fighting sprit had a fantastic win over Hampshire, 2.39.35 to Hampshire's 2.39.87. A brilliant finale.

After a short wait the final points came through:
Hampshire 483 Worc 439 Devon 434, only five points behind Worc but mainly and most importantly five points clear of Scot North 429, guaranteeing Devon a place in division one next year.
Congratulations to all the team, staff and swimmers, for their unrivalled enthusiasm, sprit and support. Well done and looking forward to next year's event.

2009 County Competitions update

We have now been able to finalise the dates and venues of next year's competitions. The staff at Tiverton pool have been persuaded to allow us five days for 2009 but, with no guarantee for future years, this will create ongoing problems. We are however extremely grateful to them for their help for the coming year.
This does, however come with some caveats!

At the majority of our Tiverton galas the numbers in the pool have been way over the Health and Safety numbers allowed and in future these will have to be severely restricted. The staff have insisted that spectator numbers are kept within those H & S limits and we shall be looking at how we are going achieve this demand.

We realise this will be very unpopular with parents but we have no option and we ask for everyone's co-operation. We have a limited number of suitable pools available to us and must make the best of those we have. It really is a question of co-operate with the pool's demand or have no galas!

We have 16 days of competition a year. Plymouth allows us just five days a year, Tiverton have now agreed to another five. Five have been booked at the Pyramids in Exeter with the venue for the remaining gala still under discussion.

As most of you will know Exeter also has limited balcony and deck space and for a number of reasons we have avoided this pool in recent years but will have no option but to use in the future. We may have to restrict numbers here too.

All dates for 2009 County galas are posted on the calendar.

There are a number of changes to next year's competitions as follows

Due concerns expressed by coaches regarding age group finals, swimmers who qualify for Championship finals will no loner be eligible for age group finals. We have however introduced Championship finals for all 200m events and the 400m freestyle. This will give all finalist swimmers the opportunity for two swims.

Reverse 800/1500m freestyle. We have removed these time trials from the Championships and Development Galas and will hold them as a separate gala on November 16th (TBC). Although early, they will form part of the following years Championships and will allow swimmers the opportunity to gain an up to date time to enter the SW Time Trials in January at which they can gain a National qualifying time.

This event will be a Championship event only but will be open to younger swimmers. Depending on the take up this may become an age group event in future years. There will be no qualifying times but entries may be limited.

The Programme and full changes to conditions will be posted in due course.

FINA World Short Course Championships - Manchester by Phil Shute (Devon Medical Officer)

It was the most exciting (probably [well...almost definitely]) weekend of my life, watching the World Short Course Swimming Championships at Manchester.

I had the honour of serving as medical officer at the event (1 of 4 over the weekend period) I saw 15 world records set from my vantage point, pool-side adjacent to the finish!! Could have been priceless, got it for free! There have NEVER been more World records set in any meet, anywhere (18 in total for the event [regrettably I could not get off work until the Friday]). My wife and I had paid as spectators for the Friday eve session; we had cheap seats but the view from everywhere was superb. Until, and including the Final session, we were disappointed by the attendances, most of Manchester was unaware of the event and certainly didn't give a stuff! The venue and organisation was superb, the stage management (and I mean stage management) was stupendous, the scale of the event amazing, the MONEY involved staggering. Apparently James Hickman had been on local radio and TV ad nauseam for months advertising the event, but still poor levels of interest.

The final session coincided with Man Utd vs Arsenal (the traffic coming home was "The Pits".... 4 miles in 2 hrs!!

What a thrill to see Liam in gold medal form; my daughter swam with him at Exeter City, to this date her greatest claim to fame (I doubt he says the same re my daughter). Great to see so many Brits in finals and a team so cohesive and bouncy. We still have our work cut out in Beijing! I've been involved in sport of many disciplines for 40+ years; I've never such perfect athletes.

Thankfully medically it was a quiet Meet. Worst injury to any athlete I observed was a Scandinavian lady who cut herself shaving (I can't say where). Worst injury in toto was an interesting chap in the doping team who tripped on the staging and broke a finger in 3 places (had been an international swimmer). Busiest line medically was competitors, officials and families who had come through "Terminal 5" Heathrow, lost baggage and regular prescribed medication.... the team spent days 1-3 replacing prescriptions.

If this was a dry run for London 2012 then I think the management committee has scored many "Brownie Points" with FINA (who were HUGELY impressed) [with the organisation, not just the medical side {which was frankly under-employed} but had the best view in the house]. In which case, I would give my right arm and most of my bodily fluids to play any part at all in London 2012. If they don't need me as a medic, I'll sell programmes, or busk in under-passes; this was and will remain a huge thrill.

Plymouth Leander were the expected to winner of this year's Interclub gala which of course they were!

The real competition therefore, was between the remaining clubs, each jockeying for position against their ‘nearest' rivals.

Exeter City , now renamed Exeter swimming, and Kelly College returned to the competition after a year's absence and it was Exeter who took the runners up position. They fought at tight battle with Barnstaple throughout the gala with only a few points between them but in the end Exeter just squeezed into second place by 2 points.

Kelly College who suffer from a lack of the younger age group finished fourth, 50 points behind.

Final results
1. Plymouth Leander 579
2. Exeter 478
3. Barnstaple 476
4. Kelly College 426
5. Kingsbridge Kingfishers 375
6. Dinnaton 364
7. Newton Abbot 322
8. Exmouth 293
10. Oddicombe 254
11. Tiverton 239
12. Torridgeside 229
13. Torquay Leander 217
14. Paignton 178
15. Ilfracombe 175
16. Tavistock 161

Exeter Swimming club took advantage of Liam Tancock's return to the city for a few days break and held a presentation evening to recognise his achievements. The presentation was attended by about 100 swimmers as well as guests including the Lord Mayor of Exeter and Devon County President Dave Avery.
Liam brought his amazing collection of medals for all to see. As well as the four he won at the FINA World Short Course Championships in Manchester last week he also brought medals from previous World Championships, the Commonwealth Games as well as other international meets.

Liam was presented him with a portrait, showing him at the end of his gold medal winning race at the Commonwealth Games in Sydney , painted by club member Rebecca Jenkins. Later Liam spoke about his experiences in swimming, his time at Exeter City Swimming Club and answered swimmers' questions.

He told the local paper, the Express and Echo, "I want to try to get more people involved in swimming, both watching and taking part," explained Liam.

"I want people to understand swimming and get to know more about it, like how much effort it takes to be at the top of your game and be the best in the world. I think they would be surprised how much, not just training is involved, but things like nutrition and time in the gym and in the pool.

"But it's not just that. People see someone with a hat and goggles on and a Speedo suit and that's all they see. I want them to see outside of that and find out what I'm like as a person. I think that's what the sport needs to boost the profile of swimmers.

Liam, who is taking a year off from studying for a degree in sports science at Loughborough University , arrived on the world stage with a bronze medal in the 50m backstroke in the World Championships in Montreal in August, 2005.

Since then he has won medals all over the world. At the recent Olympic trials he became the quickest man ever over the 50m backstroke and won a gold, two silvers and a bronze in an incredible week in Manchester .

The 22-year-old was in Exeter for the last time before he resumes training for the Games, where he will compete in the 100m backstroke and the 200m individual medley and possibly the medley relay. With the Olympic Games in Beijing just 16 weeks away, national attention is sure to focus on him as one of Britain 's best medal hopes in China .

But he's taken it all in his stride and prefers to focus on the opportunities swimming has given him rather than the success he has enjoyed.

Liam said: "It's great to come back to Exeter and hopefully inspire all these young swimmers. I'm excited about Beijing . All my preparation over the last four years has been for this point."
Liam leaves Loughborough for Sardinia in a few weeks for training and then goes on to Japan in July and finally Beijing in August.

The County residential camp returned to Millfield this year as Crystal Palace was being renovated.

Twenty three swimmers took part in the camp which included the usual pool sessions plus land training and talks. Jo John, Steve Carder, Paul Jackson and Kate and Simon Veale were the coaches.
Swimmers taking part were

Josh Carnell, Galerina Beriot, Laura Butler, George Fearnley, Abigail Budgett, Richard Forman, Nik Harris, Nicole Jones, Zoe Blackoe, Meg Callaghan, George Humphrey, Chloe Davey, Ethan Hutchinson, Connie Fearnley, Samuel Jackson, Maria Griss, Edward Jackson, Catherine Harvey, William Parr, Liam Ward, Laker Wong, Levin Veale, Helen Smith

Jeffrey Hill swept the board by winning all five freestyle events at the 2008 Championships. It is very unusual for a swimmer to win all distances from 50m sprint to long distance.

The 18 year old Kelly College swimmer had already taken the 100, 400 & 1500m free events and on the final day he celebrated this amazing feat by setting a new record of 1.52.64 in the 200m free before going on the take the 50m crown. He won the first event of the Championships, the 1500m and brought the Championships to a close by winning the 50m and the exciting SKINS.

Victoria Cadge (KC) added a further three championship titles over the weekend to her collection by taking the 50m breaststroke, the 200m freestyle, the 200m Individual medley. In the latter event she equalled the oldest record in the book, set by Zara Long in 1986. Vicky has won all three medley, and all three breaststroke, events as well as the 100m freestyle and the 100m butterfly.

Jodie Le Resche (PL) showed her sprint credentials by winning both the 50m freestyle and 50m fly. Georgina Barrington (PL) won the Junior 50m free and Tabitha Chivers (PL) won the Junior 50m fly. Tabitha has had an excellent championships picking up six junior titles and pushed some older opponents hard.

Matthew Henry (KC) clinched his first Championship title of the year by winning the 200m individual medley and team mate Joshua Lake claimed his third title by winning the 100m backstroke. Jennifer Oldham, also Kelly College took the 200m title butterfly. The Mens 50m butterfly was won by Edward Rafipay (Sid Vale).

Sam Straughan (PL) secured junior titles in the 200m freestyle, 50m fly and 50m freestyle to bring his total of junior awards to five. Also in the juniors Grant Halsall (PL) took the 100m backstroke and Fabian Whitbread (PL) the 200m Iindividual medley

The Highest GB points trophies were won by Vicky Cadge (KC) and Antony James (PL) . Antony won the Keith Yong Trophy for his record breaking swim in the 100m backstroke with 825 points and Vicky won the Strudwick Cup with 839 points for her record breaking swim in the 100m individual medley.

Analysis of Championships shows that only one title went to a swimmer outside Kelly College and Plymouth Leander and that was to Sid Vale. Kelly College won 10 Men's titles and 10 Ladies', Plymouth Leander won 6 Men's and 7 Ladies'. However in the Juniors Plymouth Leander took all 17 Girls awards plus 13 Men's events. Kelly College took 4 Junior Men's events.

Records continue to fall at the Swimming Championships. After another busy weekend at Tiverton nine new County Champions were crowned, two County records broken and two British and one European Disability records were broken.

Louise Watkins broke two records in the S9 category. In the 400m IM the Kelly College swimmer set a new British and European record of 5.44.16 having already secured a British record in the 100m freestyle of 1.06.57 earlier in the day.

Once again Championship titles were shared between Plymouth Leander and Kelly College but swimmers from Exeter City, Barnstaple, Exmouth, Sid Vale and Dinnaton also featured among the Championship medalists.

A new County record went to Emma Wilkins (PL) who set a new time of 57.19 in winning the ladies 100m freestyle event. Vicky Cadge (KC) was second and Bo Cameron (PL) third. Achieng Ajulu Bushell (PL) won the junior title.

Plymouth Leander’s Antony James set a new record of 54.76 for the 100m fly with Matthew Henry second and Cameron Brodie (KC) third and winning the Junior title.

Vicky Cadge (KC) had a tough battle against Tabitha Chivers (PL) to win the 400m Individual Medley event. It was only in the final 50m that the Vicky came through to clinch victory in 4.56.60. Tabitha finished in second place and took the Junior title. Jennifer Oldham (KC) was third.

Laura Froshaugh (PL) secured both the senior and junior titles in a comfortable win in the 800m freestyle by over 25 seconds in 8.56.78 from second placed Sophie Howe (Barnstaple) with Annie Tinsley (Exeter City) third.

Adam John(PL) had a good battle with team mate David Gregory (PL) in the 200m backstroke to win in 2.04.64 and secure the championship title with David taking the junior title. Callum Jarvis (PL) finished third.

Vicky Cadge picked up her second title of the weekend in winning the 100m fly in 1.04.61 with Tabi Chivers finishing second and collecting another junior title. Lydia McManus (PL) was third.

Mark Conroy and Fabian Whitbread (both PL) won the Senior and Junior titles respectively in the 100m breaststroke. Antony O’Driscoll (PL) was second and Danny Brown (KC) was third.

Jeffrey Hill had no problem in securing the 400m freestyle finishing in 4.01.85, six seconds ahead of second placed Callum Jarvis (PL) who took the Junior title. Jonathon Hill (PL) was third.

Joshua Lake (KC) took the 50m backstroke title. Sam Straughan (PL) finished second and took the junior title with Ed Rafipay (Sid Vale) third.
Competition returns to Tiverton in two weeks time for the final weekend of this year’s Championship programme which will end with the exciting Skins competition and presentations of the Bagcat awards.

Despite problems with the timing system at Plymouth days two and three of the Championships were successfully completed with some exciting swimming.

Senior Championship titles were evenly distributed between Kelly College and Plymouth Leander with 5 titles each.

The final Championship event of the weekend produced a new record for 15 year old Jonathon Hill of Plymouth Leander when he won the 400m Individual Medley title in 4.26.06 taking 2 seconds off the previous record This also gave him the junior award. David Gregory and Fabian Whitbread, both PL, finish second and third respectively.

Victoria Cadge (KC) maintained her high standard following her record swim in the 100m IM the previous week by taking both the 100 and 200m breaststroke crowns. In the final of the 100m event she finished in 1.12.90, just 7 tenths of a second outside the previous record set and went all out to break it in the age group final. Finishing well ahead of her rivals she equalled the record, finishing in 1.12.19. The Junior title went to Jessica Ollie (PL) who finished second with Charlotte Foulds (PL) third.

In the 200m breaststroke Vicky finished in 2.36.86 with Charlotte Foulds, second and Emma Carter (PL) third and taking the junior title in 2.44.49

The weekends backstroke titles all went to Plymouth Leander with Zoe Hester taking the 100m event in 1.02.95 with Jenny Oldham second and Megan Bushnell third. Holly Campbell took the junior title. The 50m title went to Megan Bushnell in 30.18 with Jennifer Oldham (KC) second and Tabi Chivers, who took the junior title, third.

Laura Froshaugh (PL) took both the Senior and junior titles in the 400m freestyle in 4.19.89 with Vicky Cadge in second and Olivia Duffield-Moore third.

Jeffrey Hill (KC) was a comfortable winner in the Men's 100m freestyle finishing in 51.99 with Neal Taylor (Oddicombe) second and Kalon Veale (Totnes) third. The junior title went to Cameron Brodie (KC).

Joshua Lake (KC) won the 100m IM in 1.00.66 with Anthony O'Driscoll (PL) second and Edward Rafipay (Sid Vale) third. The junior title went to Sam Straughan (PL).

Fifteen year old Cameron Brodie (KC) finished the 200m Fly in 2.09.04 to take both the senior and Junior titles with Matthew Henry second and Sam Straughan third.

Mark Conroy (PL) secured the 50m Breaststroke championship in 29.45 with Paul Sutherland (KC) second and Edward Rafipay (SV) third. Fabian Whitbread (PL) took the junior title.

Devon Championships Day 1

Kelly College 's Jeffrey Hill took the first 2008 Championship title by winning the 1500m freestyle in 16.13.56. It was a clean sweep for Kelly College as he was followed home by Matthew Henry, Cameron Brodie and three other Kelly swimmers. Brodie took the Junior Championship title for the second year running.

The 100m Individual Medley was the first ladies event contested and the Championship title went once again to Kelly College as Victoria Cadge saw off her challengers by winning in 1.04.78. Plymouth Leander's Achieng Ajulu-Bushell finished second to capture the Junior title and Lydia McManus , also PL finished third.

In the men's 200m breaststroke, fourteen year old Joseph Parker stole the title from his older rivals to pick up both the senior and junior Championship titles in 2.26.38. Alex Wooldridge ( Exeter City ) was second and Fabian Whitbread (PL) was third.

Jennifer Oldham ( Kelly College ) took the final Championship title of the day by winning the 200m backstroke in 2.16.36 with team mate Victoria Cadge finishing second and Zoe Hester (PL) third. Tabi Chivers of Plymouth Leander took the Junior Championship title.

In the women's 100m Individual Medley disability event Louise Watkin ( Kelly College ) won with 979 points with Claire Cashmore (KC) second with 935 point and Sarah-Kate Timms (KC) third with 897 points.

Archie Brew Mentors Youngsters in Devon

On Sunday 6th January, Devon County ASA in partnership with ASA South West held their first ever Young Volunteers Development Day at Kelly College, Tavistock for 16 young people; Keziah Smith, Abigail Smith, Samantha Gard, Chelsea Worts, Lucy Patten, Harriet Tuck, Emma Sloman, Hamilton Easton, Gary Smith, Jordan Hamilton, Jessica Collins, Alice Fountain, Greg King, Zoe Moss, Olivia Barnard and Amy Widger from Plymouth Leander, Exmouth, Kingsbridge Kingfishers and Crediton spent the day developing new skills.

The group welcomed Archie Brew , former England , Scotland and GB Coach to lead them in a practical session on key technical skills in the pool and giving lots of tips and advice on ‘what makes a good coach'. Archie led the session with passion and enthusiasm, motivating the volunteers to hopefully continue onto their own coach education pathways.

With Devon County representatives Daphney Turner and Chris Tremellen delivering the Club Timekeepers Qualification and ASA Regional Development Officer Kelly Gaffney tutoring the Young Aquatic Organisers Award the young people were learning on overload and are now set and ready to volunteer in their Swim 21 clubs in a variety of roles and put their new skills to use.

Kelly Gaffney, Regional Development Officer for ASA South West said, “The young people from Devon are enthusiastic and committed to learning new skills and helping in their clubs, already they have signed up to volunteer at County events and the South West Regional Disability Championships, they have great mentors within their Swim 21 clubs and I know they will continue to volunteer within sport with the great passionate and interest they have already shown”.

Particular thanks should go to Volunteer Co-ordinator, Jeannette Stonemann and Chris Tremellen, from Devon County ASA for their support and time dedicated to the training and development of volunteers in Devon.

Pool work with Archie Brew	Pool work with Archie Brew	Timekeeping practical
Timekeeping practical	Group in classroom	Click on photos to enlarge

National Inter County Masters 2007

The Devon masters team took part in the West regional Inter County gala on the 18th Nov 2007
It was a hard fought competition against the 5 other western counties. The gala consisted of 68 events. Devon managed to get 33 1st places & 16 2nd places. The result of this gala was:-
Devon 342 points
Wilts. 279 points
Dorset 258 points
Gloucester 226 points
Cornwall 184 points
Somerset 129 points

The team consisted of:- Rob Bunney (Barnstaple) Jean Kitson, Sian Boulton (Brixham) Paul Russell (Dinnaton) Rebecca Russell, Jane Nevin, Norman Storey & Peter Hayward (DT's) Denise Ward (Devonport) Kayliegh Vine, Tara Dudley, Louise Kathro, Bill Letch, Olly White, Ross Szender, Jonothan Hawkins, Richard Lander (Exmouth) Russell Page-Dove (Kelly) Neil Taylor (Oddicombe) Mark Plumridge (Paignton) Richard Baker, Robert Will (Plynmouth Leander) June Porter, Ann Grantham (RNRM) Edward Rafipay (Sid Vale) Susan Haigh, Rebecca Jenkins on (Tiverton) Margaret Bickley, Samantha Hayman, Victoria Hayman, Trish Warren, Emma Robinson, Kate Veale, Terry Windeatt, Neil Roberts, Simon Veale. (Totnes).

Thanks to the efforts of these swimmers Devon retains the Sun Life Inter County Masters Trophy,( best Western county), for another year.

The times from this gala where sent to the ASA to be merged with the results of the other regions that were swum that weekend. There were 29 counties taking part, the results were as follows:-

Warwickshire 1732.5 points
Yorkshire 1602.5 points
Cheshire 1544.5 points
Devon County 1455.5 points
Berks & S.Bucks 1388.5 points
Sussex 1373 points

This is the six top counties.

The full results can be found on the British swimming web site.

This gala followed on from a successful ASA masters championships at Sheffield for Devon masters swimmers who achieved 22 1st . places, 15 2nd places & 11 3rd places & many PB's.

Devon masters have also broken 8 short course British & 2 European records plus 5 long course British & 1 European records this year. This means that Devon swimmers now currently hold 41 British Masters records. I would also like to mention that the Exmouth girls 18 to 24 age group F/S relay team broke the Senior British record at Sheffield.

If you find this interesting & you are 18 & over & interested in competition swimming get involved with a great group of people & start to swim masters competitions.

The Swimmer of the Year award for 2007 goes to Cameron Brodie.

Fourteen year old Cameron moved to Kelly College in January and immediately made his mark on the County when he became our first ever Junior Champion when he finished runner up in the 1500m freestyle. He went on to gain two further Junior Championship titles in the 100 and 200m butterfly.

At the Regional Championships he was a medallist in five events and followed this with a very successful Scottish Nationals where he won the 100 and 200m fly and the 200 IM as well as finishing second in the 200m freestyle. It was here that he first came to the notice of Scottish Swimming and on the back of these achievements he was selected for the Scottish Squad.

In August at the ASA National Age Groups he won the 100m fly after being narrowly beaten into silver medal position in the 200m fly. In both events he set new Scottish Junior records. These events plus further finalist placings won him the overall BAGCAT award in his age group. Following his achievements at this year's Nationals he has been short listed for the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, India in October 2008.

As his coach said of him - talent alone is not enough. It takes passion, determination, discipline, commitment and a sense of personal responsibility to succeed in this very demanding world of swimming and Cameron has showed that he possesses these special attributes.

I am sure you will join me in wishing him well in the future and look forward to being able to celebrate many more of his successes.
Please click on photos to view larger version of photo

	Retiring President Steve Ward and incoming President Dave Avery		Swimmer of the Year Cameron Brodie (Kelly College) with President Steve Ward
	Presentation of Waterpolo trophies		Presentation of Waterpolo trophies

Mid October means it is time for the National County Team Championships once again.

This massive competition, held at Ponds Forge Pool in Sheffield, is the biggest team and most prestigious competition held in this country as it involves the best swimmers including many international swimmers from every English County, N & S Wales and 3 regions of Scotland.

Twenty eight Devon swimmers aged 12 - 17 years of age and 5 staff (of undisclosed ages) plus 2 officials, the Devon President, Steve Ward and his wife travelled north on Saturday morning. The journey was uneventful except for an brief unscheduled stop at Sedgemoor Services for a little emergency dentistry on a swimmer's brace. The team arrived at their hotel in time for an early dinner with plenty of time for a team talk and presentation of badges by our President before settling down to watch the rugby world cup match.

After breakfast on Sunday morning it was time to leave for the gala. On arrival at the pool the building was already heaving with a mass of swimmers with more teams streaming in. This is a very colourful event with all the team in their various coloured kits filling the whole of one enormous balcony. The event was filmed and before the gala the camera scaned the balcony with much waving and whistling as swimmers saw themselves on the big screen. Once all the warm ups were completed there was an opening ceremony with a parade of the Presidents and officials and then it was the turn of the teams to parade onto poolside. Our banner this year was carried by Alex Wooldridge and Sophie Howe. Speedy the Shark made an appearance (see photos) to promote the World Championships in Manchester next April.

There was just time for singing the seemingly obligatory singing of YMCA before competition began.
The competition is held as two short course 10 lane galas running at the same time with two heats in each event. From the start Devon's swimmers demonstrated their determination by setting new pbs. Almost every swimmer lowered their previous best with some showing amazing improvements and in 17 individual events improved their position.

Jodi Worbey and Kalon Veale (both 16yrs) got the gala off to a good start by setting new pbs in the 100m freestyle and improving their positions from 12th - 6th and 7th to 4th respectively. Kalon went on the perform a similar feat in the backstroke.

Devon didn't have any winners but Alex Wooldridge (16yrs) took over 3 seconds off his 100m breaststroke time to move up from 6th to second place and Sally Whybra (13yrs) took third place in her age group100m fly with a one second pb.

Thirteen year old Levin Veale continued his rapid improvement reducing his 100m breaststroke by an amazing10 seconds from his entry time and moved up from17th to finish 7th.

James Bunney (15yrs) also had an excellent swim reducing his pb in the 100m fly by almost 4 seconds to move up from 15th to 9th. Lawrence Oxborough (15yrs) dropped over 2 seconds off his freestyle time to move up from 15th to 6th and then took a further 2 seconds off his backstroke time to move up 4 places while Freddie Hedger (14yrs) also took 2 secs of his breaststroke.

At one point Devon was in 5th place but an unfortunate and rather bizarre disqualification in the 16/17yrs boys relay in which the boys had finished in a magnificent second place dropped the team down to 10th place. Although they moved up to 9th for a while they finished on 10th with 375 points. The number of new best times and swimmers' improvement against their opponents was an excellent effort by the whole team and they should be very proud of themselves.
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Please click on pictures to view a larger version

71013 Press Report:
Brixham Swimming Club.
Swim 21 Celebration Day, Saturday 6th October 2007.
Brixham Indoor Pool

World Quadrathlon Champion Helen Parkinson was not only the honoured guest at a celebration day held by Brixham Swimming Club at the Indoor Pool in Higher Ranscombe Road last Saturday (6.10.2007) but she also organised a special Aquathlon event that was enjoyed by many of the Club's young swimmers.

The Club was primarily celebrating recognition by the Amateur Swimming Association as a Swim 21 Accredited Club for Teaching. A ‘quality mark' that acknowledges that the club operates within national guidelines and provides a quality service for all members. But it also acknowledged their pleasure that the future of their unique Indoor Pool has at last been secured.

The day began with ‘early bird' adult swimmers adding more lengths to the total they had been achieving in their 7am sessions during the week. They were aiming to swim the English Channel by completing over 1,400 lengths but they didn't quite make it and needed another session on the Monday to ‘make it to the French coast'.

As a prelude to the mornings Aquathlon event Brixhams former international star Linda Williams (Criddle) demonstrated the powerful technique that took her to the Commonwealth Games in Australia & World Championships in Ecuador while the World Quadrathlon Champion 2006 & 2007 & five times British Champion Helen Parkinson demonstrated the four disciplines; swimming, canoeing, cycling & running that make up her gruelling event. Her father Dick Dyke explained that like Linda, Helen did much of her training with the Brixham Swimming Club and the Ibex Canoe Club.

It was then the turn of 28 of Brixhams young swimmers to take up the challenge and several waves of competitors in ages groups ranging from Year 3 to Year 11 began by completing swims of either 8 or 16 lengths (200 or 400m). Helen had briefed the competitors on the transition so they removed their swimming hats and goggles and put on their shoes and tops and off they went to run once or twice around both the Astley Park Rugby Field and the pitch to the rear of the pool to complete 2,000 or 3,000m according to the age.

The World Champion had kindly provided winners trophies and certificates for the competitors and she looked on as Chris Tremellen from the Amateur Swimming Association and Swimming Club President Joan Evershed made the presentations to the tired but delighted youngsters.

This was followed by the formal presentation of the Swim 21 Certificate by Mrs. Tremellyan, the Chair of the ASA's Swim21 Regional Panel. She congratulated officials on the achievement but reminded them that it was on-going. Officials will have to satisfy the ASA that they are continuing to follow the Club Development model every year.

In the afternoon it was fun for the Club swimmers aged between 5 & 10 years with 40 children making up four teams that each spent five minutes on four different activities across the pool. As one proud parent remarked “It is amazing how children are tempted to do that little more when they having such fun with their friends, and all for a Mars Bar”.

The final event was a canoeing demonstration by the Ibex Club that undertakes basic winter training sessions in the comfort of the Pool. They demonstrated a variety of rolls and recoveries and played ‘canoe polo' before sixteen young swimmers where given the chance to handle a canoe under the supervision of the qualified Ibex instructors.

With a variety of stalls, two bouncy castles, a barbeque, tile painting and a very professional and informative celebration booklet there was plenty of entertainment for everyone and although it was planned as a one off event members who enjoyed the day are asking, “Please could we do it again?”.

The Club President Joan Evershed adds, “The day was such a wonderful success. It was hard work but we all had such fun. Every thing was so well organised – even to the beautiful weather. It was lovely to welcome our World Champion Helen and we thank her for the trophies and for organising the Aquathlon. I must thank the organising group Vanessa Dunn, Helen Miller, Sue Turk, Di Harrison, Linda Williams & Charlotte Rea and all the sponsors, businesses and members who made it such a wonderful celebration day”.

Photo shows the trophy and certificate winners from the Aquathon with Club President Joan Evershed and Chris Tremellen.

Representatives from eleven Devon clubs attended a Swim21 seminar held on 6th October in Exeter.

The seminar was held to kick start the accreditation process and Kelly Gaffney, Regional Development Officer took the attendees through the various stages of accreditation and what would be required from clubs. All the clubs registered their interest (the first stage) and completed an Action Plan (the second stage).

All agreed to attend group meetings in January, April and July to work on their evidence files and support each other. They all have the ambitious target of accrediting by next October which will more than double Devon 's Swim21 Accredited clubs.

Fifteen swimmers have signed up to the Devon Young Volunteer Project and 12 of them attended an introductory seminar at which they were told of the many ways young volunteers could carry out the requirements of the project. The project will run from now until the end of March. Volunteers must spend at least 25 hours volunteering in their club or with the County (eg at County galas) and the project will culminate in a Regional Presentation evening with a dinner and disco.

A training day will be held in the new year where the volunteers will be able to take courses such as officiating, team manager training, aquatic organisers course, synchro recorders course and more.

There are still vacancies for anyone wishing to sign up to the project.

More information and an application form are available here.

Application form

Swimmers must be 14 – 19 years of age. Contact Jeanette Stoneman (Volunteer Co-ordinator).

Kelly College Swim Squad sent 13 swimmers to the National & Youth Championships at Sheffield with ten swimmers making a total of 35 finals.

In the multi-disability events Claire Cashmore made 6 finals breaking the British (S8) record in the 50m Breaststroke (twice) lowering it to 40.45, the 100m breaststroke (1.27.26) and the S9 200m Individual medley (2.47.46) while winning silver in the 50m free and bronze in the 50 and the100m breaststroke and 100m backstroke.

Louise Watkins (S9) qualified for 7 finals and broke British records in the 100m Freestyle (1.07.16), the 400m freestyle (5.03.26) and the 50m breaststroke (40.38) and won bronze in the 100m fly and the 400m free.

David Hill made 6 finals and won gold in the 50m fly and bronze in the 50 and 100m backstroke while Jan Langton made 4 finals and winning silver in the 50m backstroke Sarah-Kate Timms also made 2 finals.
In the Youth events Victoria Cadge made 3 finals, Matthew Henry 2, Jennifer Oldham 2, Jeffrey Hill 2 and Daniel Brown 1.

2 New Scottish Records for Cameron Brodie

Cameron Brodie of the Kelly College Swim Squad won the overall Swimmer of the Championships award at the National Age Group in the 14-year-old Boys category. In two of the most exciting races of the competition, Cameron won gold in the 100m Fly (58.98) and silver, separated by a mere four hundreths of a second, in the 200m Fly (2.09.06) setting new Junior Scottish records in both events. Cameron won the overall award by tallying the most amount of points in five events which included the 100m & 200m Freestyle, 100m & 200m Fly and also the 400m IM where he produced a personal best time by some 10 seconds.

Bill Clements

It is with great sadness that we learned of the death on July 23rd of Bill Clements aged 80. Bill coached many generations of Plymouth swimmers including Sharon Davies. He was a Life member of all three Plymouth Clubs, Devonport Royal, Port of Plymouth and Plymouth Leander and at various times coached at all three plus the City of Plymouth sessions. He was a very respected member of the swimming community and held in great affection by countless swimmers.

His funeral will take place at St Mary's Church, Tamerton Foliot, Plymouth on Wednesday 1st August at 2.45pm.

Immediate family flowers only please but donations may be made to Children's Hospice South West by retiring collection or sent to Co-operative Funeral Service, Ermedale Chapel, Fore Street, Ivybridge. PL21 9AB. Tel. 01752 690890.

Exeter Swimmer Liam Tancock has received the highest sporting accolade awarded to an athlete competing while in Higher Education when he was named British Universities Sports Assocaition Sportsman of the Year on an International Stage.

The 22-year-old Loughborough University sports science student received the BUSA award for the second year running after an impressive 12 months that saw Tancock add to his ever-growing list of achievements in the water.

Tancock is a British and Commonwealth Backstroke Record holder, twice World Championship bronze medallist and Commonwealth Champion, and is also no stranger to awards after collecting the BBC (South West) Sportsperson of the Year 2006 and British Swimming's Male Swimmer of the Year 2007.

Totnes Master swimmer Simon Veale dominated his age group at the British Masters Championships claiming one European and three British records. He took the European and British record in the 200m freestyle and British records in the 400m freestyle and the 200m individual medley

Heather Fell kept up her return to top form at the European Modern Pentathlon Championships last weekend where she won an individual silver medal and a team gold medal. Heather is a former Kelly pupil who lives locally and has been training with Kelly College Swim Squad since last September in preparation for the Olympic Games in Beijing . The result from last weekend means that Heather has achieved the qualifying standard for the Olympics and will also be participating in the World Championships on August the 14th .

Cassie Patten took the European title at the LEN 5km Open Water Swimming Cup in London 's Dockland but needed a strong sprint finish to secure gold in windy conditions.

Patten, now swimming at Stockport, was in London after a packed week of competition that saw her swim at two international meets - the FINA 10km Marathon Swimming World Cup in Seville and the Barcelona Mare Nostrum.

Swimming was well represented at the Devon Coach of the Year Awards held at The Tiverton Hotel.

Robin Brew won the Senior Male Coach of the Year for his achievements at Kelly College having earlier been runner up in the Coach of Disabled Performers Category Robin went on to win the final top award of the evening - the Award for a Significant Contribution to Sport in Devon which is chosen from all winners of the various categories of awards made throughout the evening. Robin paid tribute to all the coaches and volunteers present and urged them to keep pushing the boundaries.

Keith Pring was also a winner, this time in the Services to Sport – Volunteer category for his outstanding involvement to swimming over 40 years and Jane Brimacombe was runner up in the Services to Sport – Mentor/Tutor category.

Cassie Patten was presented with her ‘Swimmer of the Year' trophy by President Keith Pring at the ASA South West Youth Championships at Millfield. Cassie was awarded The Regions ‘Swimmer of the Year' Award for her open water achievements in 2006.


Since then Cassie won silver at the World Championships in Melbourne in the 10K open water event and she brought her medal to Millfield for everyone to see.

Three Kelly College swimmers reached finals in the Paralympic World Cup in Manchester last week.

In the S9 100m freestyle Claire Cashmore and Louise Watkin were up against the great Natalie Du Toit. Du Toit won but Claire finished second in a new British Record ahead of Louise, who had been the second fastest qualifier going into the final. Louise Watkin won bronze.

Cashmore said of her British record: “I wasn't expecting that at all. My training is so hard at the moment and I haven't been swimming that well so far this year, so that was a real boost.”
Earlier Watkin finished eighth in the women's multi-disability 100m Freestyle.

David Hill, who came sixth in the S9 100m backstroke in Manchester , set a new British record in the 400m IM in the ASA South West Youth Championships at Millfield the weekend before taking a minute of the old record.

National Speedo League Cup Final

Plymouth Leander's inclusion as West of England champions in the National Speedo League Cup Final was to see them achieve the same result as in their baptism at this level in 2005. Two years ago, it was Millfield School who prevented the Plymouth club from taking the title but Millfield were left in Leander's wake this time of asking, finishing some 36 points behind Plymouth in third. Stockport Metro were to prove to be the thorn in the Leander side on this occasion, this their first Speedo League season for a number of years. Last year's champions Hatfield were over 100 points behind Leander in fifth.

With a National ‘B' Final victory under their belts from 2006, Leander were one of the favourites going into the Cup Final and will have to wait at least one more season before making a further attempt to win the one chalice that has so far escaped them. The status of ‘second strongest swimming club in England' will do for now, particularly with Leander claiming the Relay Challenge Trophy en route for the best performing relay teams, as well as both Joe Parker and Laura Froshaug winning the Top Male and Top Female Athlete Awards in the 13 years age group.

The extension of the final to 10 teams this year as opposed to 8 certainly intensified an already electric atmosphere at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield , the long course (50m) pool packed to the rafters.

Plymouth Leander Head Coach Jon Rudd said, “To have featured in two National Cup Finals in the last three years and finish as runners-up in both is a great achievement for any club. We are consistently strong and will be an even more powerful force next year. I hope that it won't be too long before we have this piece of silverware in our grasp.”
Final Points for the 38th National Speedo League Cup Final 2007

Devon were the victors in a very exciting gala held at The Link Centre, Swindon to celebrate Wilts County 's centenary.

It was difficult to predict the strengths of the participating teams due to the unusual age groupings which included swimmers from 9 to 25 and over. Devon were well in the lead after the first 20 events but this was whittled down to just one by event 40. However the going into the final cannon relay Devon had banked sufficient points and could not be beaten.

Devon had 20 winners in the 61 event gala but it was their consistency in finishing in the top two places in 47 events which won the day. Commentator Hugh Porter frequently commented on the strength of the Devon team.

There were double wins for four swimmers. Swimming for Devon for the first time and picking up double wins were Cameron Brodie ( Kelly College ) - 100m IM and 100m fly, Laura Shears ( Exeter City ) – 100m IM and 50m fly and Ethan Hutchinson ( Barnstaple ) – 100m IM and 50m fly. Ed Rafipay (Sid Vale) was also a double winner in the 100m IM and the 50m breaststroke.

We were able to welcome back to a Devon team several swimmers who had competed in the County some years ago. In the 25 years & over medley relay, Olly White, Kieran Brown, Russell Page Dove and Rob Will won in comfortable style while at the other end of the age span Nik Harris, Adam Farmer, Ethan Hutchinson and Tom Wadeley Jones also won by a huge margin.

Other winners were – 9/11 yrs – Adam Farmer (Dinnaton) 50m Breaststroke and Jessica Twose (Newton Abbot) 50m Backstroke; 12/14yrs - Hannah Schultz (Exeter City) 100m breaststroke, Sally Whybra (Dawlish) 100m fly and Annie Tinsley (Exeter City) – 100m freestyle; 15/17yrs – Tom Howe (Barnstaple) 100m IM; 18/24yrs – Emma Robinson (Totnes) 50m fly; 25/over – Jane Nevin (DTs) 50m breaststroke, and Kate Veale (Totnes) 50m backstroke.

Devon ran out winners on 301.5 points with Wilts A on 295pts, Gloucs on 259pts, Wilts B on 200.5 & Cornwall on 148pts.

The winners' trophy and commemorative medals for the whole team were presented by Anita Lonsborough and Devon County President, Steve Ward presented Wilts County President, Jean Pitfield with a trophy to mark their centenary.
Click here to download results.

Congratulations to Liam Tancock who won 2 Bronze medals at the World Championships in Melbourne.

Liam's best effort came in the 100m backstroke where he twice lowered the British record, in the heats and again in the final. His achievement now means he is automatically pre-selected for the Olympics in Beijing next year.

His second bronze came in the 50m backstroke. Although he went into the event as fastest qualifier it was a mad dash for the wall and he missed getting the touch.
Liam was also part of the 4 x 100m medley relay team that set a new British record in finishing in 5th place.

For those younger swimmers who do not know Liam he is an Exeter boy and swum with Exeter City Swimming Club until he went to join Loughborough team. He swam in the County Championships from the age of 10 (9 year olds were not able to compete then) until he was 18 and represented the County on numerous occasions.

Congratulations to Cassie Patten for her superb open water swim at the World Championships in Melbourne where she took silver in the 10K. Cassie, who is our current Swimmer of the Year, bravely withstood jellyfish stings as she pursued her goal of going home with a medal. Following the open water events Cassie and the rest of the open water team were taken to Beijing to acquaint themselves with the city and the facilities before next year's Olympics – hopefully Cassie will be back there in 2008!

Kelly College had a clean sweep in the Championship team events at Central Park.

They won both the women's 4 x 100m freestyle and medley relays with Plymouth Leander second. Third place went to Barnstaple in the freestyle event and Dawlish in the medley.

In the men's 400m events Kelly beat Plymouth Leander by over 7 seconds in the medley event but the freestyle race was much closer with Kelly touching a second ahead of Plymouth Leander. Oddicombe finished third in the freestyle event with Exmouth finishing third in the medley.

Plymouth College took both the schools 4 x 50m freestyle relays. Plymouth Leander had the best of the age group events but Barnstaple's 9/10yrs girls won the freestyle event and Kelly College won the freestyle and medley events in the girls 15/16 yrs age group.

After an hours less sleep a hectic day followed with approximately 370 swimmers competing in the Junior Sprint Gala. All went well until the starting mechanism failed but officials reverted to the old methods of manual timing and placing and the gala was completed. Congratulations to all the aggregate trophy winners (see results).

We have now completed this section of the Devon competitions. Our thanks to everyone who helped in any way at all - we can't run without you all!

We are always looking for new helpers especially recorders and announcers. If you are interested in either of these please contact anyone from the Swimming Committee ( see contact email addresses ). You do not need any prior knowledge for recording – we can teach you all you need to know and you won't be left on your own.

The same applies for announcing. Come and work with one our announcers and learn the ropes. We look forward to hearing from you!

The 2007 Championships finally came to an end at Tiverton on March 11th.

Vicky Cadge (KC) added four more titles to her collection by winning the ladies' 200m freestyle, 200m individual medley, 50 fly and 50m breaststroke. She was piped to the touch in the 50 free by Bo Cameron (PL) who won her first Devon Championship, also taking the junior title.

Richard Salhus (PL) took two more titles by winning the 200m freestyle and 50m fly but Joe Tellett (PL) grabbed the 50m free title. Tom Howe took the men's 200m individual medley title, Amy Ballantyne (PL) added to her large collection of titles by winning the 200m fly and James Edmonds (PL) retained the men's 100m backstroke title.

Junior Championships went to – Olivia Duffield Moore (KC) 50m breaststroke, Laura Froshaug (PL) 200m freestyle, Danny Brown (KC) 200m IM, Amy Ballantyne (PL) 200m fly, Sophie Howe (KC) 200m IM & 50m Fly, Joshua Dunn (Din) 50m fly, Kalon Veale (Tot) 200m freestyle, and Anthony O'Driscoll 50m Freestyle.
Congratulations to all our 2007 Champions.

The final gala was rounded off nicely with a very exciting SKINS competition. This event involves, speed, stamina and tactics and the two swimmers who used this to the greatest effect and were the eventual winners were Vicky Cadge (KC) in the ladies' event and Richard Salhus (PL) in the men's.
They beat the following swimmers –

Claudia Coleman wins the Strudwick Cup for the highest GB points in any swim with 799 for her time in the 50m Backstroke Championship final. Steven Beckerleg wins the Young Cup for his swim in the age group final of the 200m freestyle (796).

Claudia Coleman set this year's first new record when she won the 50m Backstroke Championship.

The Plymouth Leander swimmer lowered the record to 29.89.

Nine swimmers from four different clubs shared the glory from the ten events swum over the weekend at Plymouth.

Edward Rafipay (Sid Vale) continued to dominate the sprint Breaststroke events when he added the 50m Breaststroke to his 100m title while Amy Ballantyne (P.Leander) added to her collection of wins with the Senior and Junior 400m Freestyle titles.

The women's backstroke events have now been shared by three different swimmers as Jenny Oldham ( Kelly College ) took the 100m Backstroke Championship title.
Charlotte Foulds (PLeander) won the 200m Breaststroke but Victoria Cadge ( Kelly College ) edged her out to win the 100m title.

Richard Salhus (P.Leander) took two titles over the weekend winning both the 100m Freestyle and the 200m Butterfly while his team mate Anthony James won the 100m IM Championship.
Tom Howe ( Barnstaple ) easily won the final Championship of the weekend winning 400m Individual Medley title.

Junior Championship titles went to - Adam John (PL), 100m Freestyle & 400m IM, Sammy Conroy (PL) 100 & 200m Breaststroke, Cameron Brodie (KC) 200m Fly, Danny Brown (KC) 100m IM, Anthony O'Driscoll (PL) 50m Breaststroke, Elaine Myo (PL) 100m Backstroke and Chloe Iliffe (Barn) 50m Backstroke.

The third day of the championships saw all five Championship titles going to different swimmers.

The first two titles went to Kelly College as Victoria Cadge held off all challengers to win the 100m Freestyle and Jeffrey Hill took honours in the 400m Freestyle with Callum Jarvis (PL) taking the Junior title.

Amy Ballantyne (15) won her third Championship title so far this year by winning the 400m IM as well as collecting the Junior title. She was also the Junior 100m Freestyle Champion.
Anthony James (P.Leander) took the 50m Backstroke title with team mate Adam John collecting the Junior title and in the Mens 100m Fly Richard Salhus (PL) took the title with Cameron Brodie (KC) picking up his second Junior Championship.

Swimmers are reminded to contact Jeanette Stoneman by Tuesday 20th February if they will wish to withdraw from an event on the 24th / 25th February.

Full results available here.

The 2007 County Championships got underway at Tiverton with two additional categories, multi-disability events and Junior Champions. We are delighted to be able to include disability swimmers to our Championships, and although their numbers are small at the moment, we welcome them and look forward to having more competitors in the future.

The multi-disability events got off to an excellent start when Kelly College's David Hill (S9 category) set a new European record when he equaled his own 200m backstroke British record which he set at our Championships in 2006. This year we have been able to get approval for our competitions so that disability European and World records can be ratified. For those of you who have not come across these events before an explanation will be printed in forthcoming programmes.

Junior Champions have also been added to our award system for the first time and our first Junior Champion was Cameron Brodie (Kelly College). The 14 year old was runner up in the Men's 1500m freestyle behind Plymouth Leander's Rob Adams.

The Plymouth club had the best of the Championship winners with top places also for Mark Conroy (200m breaststroke), Megan Bushnell (200m backstroke), Amy Ballantyne (800m freestyle & 100m Fly), and Adam John (200m backstroke).

Championship crowns also went to Edward Rafipay (Sid Vale) in the 100m breaststroke and Jodi Worbey (Exeter City) in the 100m Individual Medley.

Congratulations too to our new Junior Champions. Apart from Cameron Brodie they were Emma Carter (P.Leander) 100m IM, Antony O'Driscoll (PL) 100 & 200m breaststroke, Maria Graney (Exeter City) 200m backstroke, Amy Ballantyne (PL) 800m freestyle & 100m fly & Adam John (PL) 200m backstroke.
Full results available here:-

3rd February 2007 Results

4th February 2007 Results

English Schools Relays

Harrogate were hosts of the 2007 English Schools Swimming Association (ESSA) relay Championships on 3rd February.

Three Devon schools qualified for this event and made the long journey north.

Kelly College were double Champions as their senior girls team won both the freestyle and medley relays.
Plymouth College intermediate girls team were also winners taking the freestyle relay but had to settle for runners up spot in the medley event.

Kelly College's senior boys missed out on the medals, finishing 4th in the freestyle relay and 5th in the medley event and Plymouth College junior boys finished 4th in the freestyle race.
Also competing were Torquay Grammar School who finished 9th in the Junior boys freestyle race.

Plymouth Leander were winners of the 2007 inter club gala held at Central Park Pools, Plymouth on 28th January.

Leander were the expected victors but for the remaining 15 clubs there were scores to settle and all were out to make their mark against their nearest rivals. With Exeter City and Kelly College not attending this year the minor positions were up for grabs. The rapidly improving Barnstaple dominated the runners up spot rarely finishing outside the top 3.

Just four swimmers were able to grab individual winning spots from Plymouth Leander to take maximum points. Jessica Twose won the 11/under 50m backstroke for Newton Abbot, Sophie King the 11/under fly for Kingsbridge, Freddie Hedger the 13/under 50 fly for Barnstaple while William Parr won both the 11/under 50m Fly and breaststroke for Tiverton.

By the break after event 22 Leander were in the lead with 348 points with Barnstaple adrift by 38 points on 310. At this stage Kingsbridge were lying third with 250 points with Dinnaton 4th just 6 points behind and with Dawlish 5th on 235.5.
Kingsbridge were unable to hold on to the third position after the break and dropped back behind Dinnaton and Dawlish.
The mixed medley relays were exciting as always but with all but one relay going Leander's way the result was never in doubt. Barnstaple's 15/under team were the only team to wrest a win from the Plymouth club.

The final cannon relay was seeded on points achieved after the next to last event so that ‘points rivals' were in head to head clashes in each heat. By the time the cannon relay started the final top three order could not change as the differentials would withstand a disqualification but that didn't put off the supporters as noise levels reached deafening proportions as each team was urged on. Plymouth Leander won the cannon with Barnstaple second and Kingsbridge third.

The final result showed a win for Leander on 554 with Barnstaple runners up just 26 points behind on 528 and Dinnaton third with 425 points. Dawlish managed to keep Kingsbridge at bay with just two and half points between the two clubs.

The first of this years Training camps got underway at Kelly College on Sunday 7th January with both the Performance Squad and the Competitive Squad attending.

It was a busy day for both groups but we managed not to muddle them up! The programme was varied with swimming, land training and education. It was the first time we been able to use Swiss balls and not everyone found it easy – see photos! (Click on photo to view larger image)

Kelly College swimmers Claire Cashmore, David Hill and Louise Watkins returned from the IPC World Championships in Durban with 4 silver medals between them, two for Claire and one each for David and Louise.

Claire took silver in the SB8 100m Breaststroke. She had the lead at the halfway but was overtaken in the final sprint by a Danish swimmer. Claire was pleased with her performance as all her hard work had paid off.

David Hill was part of the British men's medley team who took silver behind the World Record breaking Australian team and Claire Cashmore took her second silver as part of the women's team which also included Louise Watkin.

Louise, at just 14 years of age took on disability legend Natalie Du Toit in the final of the S9 100m freestyle. Louise lowered the British Record for the second time in the day to finish 4th .

BBC SOUTH WEST SPORTS PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR

Swimmer Liam Tancock was voted South West Sports Personality of the Year by BBC viewers. He received this honour for his achievements at the Commonwealth Games where he won a gold and two silver medals. His gold medal came in the 100m Backstroke in a new British record and his two silver medals from the 50m backstroke and the medley relay.

Liam, who comes from Exeter and is still a member of Exeter City Swimming Club, was unable to collect his trophy in person as he is competing in the European Short Course Championships in Helsinki but was presented with the trophy by his coach Ben Titley at Loughborough before he left for Finland.

SWIMMER OF THE YEAR 2006
Cassandra Patten

Cassie was given this award mainly for her achievements in open water swimming however she has also been a high achiever in the pool. Apart from her successes at Regional and National competitions she was selected for the Mare Nostrum international meet in Barcelona in June where she medalled.

She was selected for both the European swimming championships and the European open water Championships - the only swimmer to represent GB in both.

She competed in her first open water competition during training in South Africa . This was the largest open water competition in the world with 17,000 entrants and she finished third overall in the women's open section.

She then competed in the LEN Cup international open water swim in London and won the event which made her British 10K open water champion.

Following this she was chosen to represent GB in the German round of the LEN cup and won. This gave her maximum points going into the final round in Spain which she won with France second and Germany third.

She also represented GB in the World open water Championships in Naples and was the highest ranked British swimmer (male or female) finishing 10th in the 5K and 7th in the 10K.

She has now been chosen to train in Australia with some of the top distance swimmers such as David Davis and has qualified for the World Championships in Melbourne next February.
Unfortunately Cassie was unable to attend the AGM to collect her trophy as she was busy training with her new club in Stockport . Her father collected the trophy on her behalf and read a message of thanks from her.

Keith Pring has retired as Hon Secretary of the Association after many years of considerable involvement and contribution to our sport.

He started his involvement as a swimmer, playing water polo, first for his school and later for Plymouth Amateurs. After a spell in the navy and two years teaching at Queens College , Taunton he returned to Plymouth and in 1970 enrolled his family in Plymouth Leander. Once there he soon started coaching water polo. After he and his family moved to Port of Plymouth he took on roles such as Swimming Secretary, Water Polo coach, Chairman, General Secretary and much more besides. He was a mainstay of the club until it was wound up last December.

In the County he took on several roles. He was Water Polo Secretary from 1979 to 1983, Swimming Secretary from 1981 – 1983 and General Secretary from 1983 until today. In 1992 he was President of the Association.

He qualified as a County swimming referee and water polo referee. He was involved in the production of the Advanced Coaching manual and the syllabus for the Assistant Teachers for Water Polo and later became Chairman of the National Water Polo Coaches Association.
He helped to organize the English Schools Diving, Synchro and Water Polo Championships when they were held in Plymouth and he was Team Manager for the District Under 16 and under 20 Water Polo teams for 10 years.

Keith has always been willing to stand in when vacancies for officers and committees have not been filled, attending West and National meetings so that the County would be represented.
His wide knowledge on all matters pertaining to swimming has made him a prime target when someone with expertise is needed. He has served on the panel formulating the revised Club Constitution, has helped to devise the new South West Constitution and has been a ‘Friend of the ASA'.

Over the years he has represented the County on District Swimming, Water Polo and Diving committees, the West Executive and more recently on the West Shadow Board and South West Management Board. His appointment as first South West Region President is acknowledgment not only of his lengthy service to our sport but also his outstanding administrative and technical qualities.

This is just a brief list of Keith's contribution to Swimming.

Keith was thanked for all his hard work and efforts on behalf of the sport and for his knowledge and enthusiasm. His efficient and resolute attention to detail will be sorely missed.

The President presented Keith with an engraved glass trophy, a cheque and cards signed by many people from around the county. (see photos)

Claudia Coleman, Adam John and David Gregory (all Plymouth College/Leander) have been selected for the 36th WISE Home International against Ireland, Scotland and Wales, in Dublin next March.

Both John and Gregory set new English Schools records at the ESSA Bazuka 57th Inter-Divisional National Championships in October. In the intermediate 100m backstroke final, John (58.50) took 0.8 of a second off the English Schools' record set by Neil Willey in 1992 and Gregory was also to break a 14-year-old English Schools' record in the junior 100m backstroke.

The pair will be joined in the England set-up by their team-mate Claudia Coleman, who won gold in the senior 100m freestyle at the event staged at Manchester 's Aquatic Centre as well as silver in the 200m freestyle relay.

St Boniface student Daniel Jones joined Gregory in taking gold in the 200m medley and Amy Ballantyne ( Plymouth College ) claimed bronze in the intermediate 100m butterfly (1:05.31), before assisting the 200m freestyle relay to a gold.
Kelly College's Matthew Henry also took bronze in the senior 100m backstroke (58.71) and later won gold as part of the senior 200m medley relay where he was joined by Tom Howe, also from Kelly College.

Henry and Howe were key factors in the team capturing the Grimsby Trawler Owners Trophy for top senior male points.

The South West team retained the May Bennett Trophy as Inter-Divisional championship for the second year in succession.

Medal Haul for Kelly's Disability Swimmers

The Disability Sport Events National Short Course Championships at Sheffield was the last chance for three of Kelly College 's stars to practise their race skills ahead of the World Championships in Durban starting on the 2nd December.

David Hill, Claire Cashmore and Louise Watkin have all been selected for the Great Britian team with their coach Robin Brew. The three swimmers returned from warm weather training over the half term in Lanzarote and went straight to the DSE competition.

Five Kelly College swimmers were competing at Sheffield and all of them gained personal best times in most of their events collecting an impressive medal haul. Claire Cashmore did well in her new number one event breaking the British Record in both the 50m and 100m Breaststroke, picking up 4 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze medals.

David Hill gained 5pb's in winning 2 gold, 3 silver and one bronze medal. He particularly enjoyed the competition having had a good race in his number one event 100m Backstroke, where he is ranked number 4 in the world.

Louise Watkin who is the youngest of the three at just 14 gained valuable experience from the weekend, gaining pb's in all her events with 1 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze medals.

The two other Kelly swimmers who are on disability development programmes also had a successful weekend. Jan Langton came home with 1 silver and 2 bronze medals and personal best times in five of her events and Sarah-Kate Timms who has only been at Kelly College since September saw the benefits this weekend of the new training programme at Kelly College with four personal best, 3 golds and a silver medal.

David, Claire and Louise head out to South Africa on the 20th November for a training camp ahead of the World's. Congratulations and good luck to them all

NATIONAL COUNTY TEAM CHAMPIONHIPS
SHEFFIELD 22nd OCTOBER 2006

Britain 's top young swimmers including World and European medallists and other aspiring Olympians descended on Ponds Forge Pool, Sheffield with their County teams last Sunday for a fantastic competition.
Over 1,000 swimmers in 38 teams from England , Scotland and Wales filled the balcony with colour as the excitement was whipped up with cheering, singing and dancing before the competition began.

Devon was competing in Division One having gained promotion as last year's Division 2 winners. We always knew it was going to be tough up against the top teams but the Devon squad were determined to put in their best effort.

Although their best was not enough to prevent the County finishing 19th of the 20 teams in Division1 their efforts produced 16 personal bests in 24 individual events. This was an excellent achievement for a team with 19 swimmers competing for the County for the first time.

For many it was their first visit to the huge Ponds Forge complex and they were not fazed by the occasion or their surroundings. They put on their war paint (see photos!) and set about their task with enthusiasm.

Although the majority of finishes were in the mid teens Matthew Henry ( Kelly College ) produced Devon 's highest position of the competition when he finished 4th in the 16/17yrs 100m Backstroke.

Despite an ankle injury which threatened to put her out of the competition, Georgina Barrington (Barnstaple) made the biggest improvement when she lowered her time in the 12/13yrs100m Breaststroke by almost 3 and a half seconds. Team mate Freddie Hedger (12/13yrs) knocked a second and a half off his 100m fly time as well as reducing his 100m free time by over a second.

Newton Abbott's Richard Glanville (14/15yrs) was also in good form taking over 2 seconds off his 100m backstroke time while in the same age group Kalon Veale (Totnes) continued his improving ways by taking over a second and a half off his 100m freestyle time.

There were also pb's for Barnstaple's Chloe Iliffe (14/15yrs 100m Back) and Mark Brend (12/13yrs 100m Back), 7Xtreme's Sally Whybra (12/13yrs 100m fly) and Plymouth Leander's Lucinda Patten (14/15yrs 100m Fly).

Also producing improved times were Kelly College 's Tom Howe (100m Free & Fly), Joshua Lake (100m Breaststroke), Caroline Ball (100m Backstroke), Matthew Henry (100m Backstroke), all 16/17yrs, Kathryn Stacey (12/13yrs 100m Free) and Danny Brown (14/15yrs 100m Breaststroke).

Congratulations to the whole team for their efforts, enthusiasm and support.

The County team made to short journey to Bodmin for a very enjoyable gala against Cornwall, Somerset and Wiltshire.

As expected, Devon finished second behind a Somerset team, mostly made up of Millfield swimmers. Although the team was not be quite the same as will compete at the National County Team Championships in Sheffield next month, it was an excellent opportunity for the majority of the team to have a trial run over the same programme.

Devon finished second in 18 of the 31 events but there were 5 first places. The boys 16/17yrs were particularly successful winning 4 or their 5 events. Tom Howe (Kelly Collge) won the 16/17yrs 100m freestyle but was beaten to the touch by his Somerset opponent in the 100m fly. Club mates Matthew Henry and Joshua Lake were also victorious in the 100m backstroke and breaststroke respectively. They were joined by Oliver Dunn, also Kelly College, to win the 4 x 50m medley relay.

The other win came from the girls 14/15yrs medley relay team of Chloe Iliffe (Barnstaple), Holly Yeo (Kelly College), Lucinda Patten (P.Leander) and Megan MacKenzie (Kelly College.
The team travel to Sheffield for the National Championships on October 22nd to defend their position in Division 1 after gaining promotion last year by winning Division 2.

Devon Senior Sports Coach of the Year

At the recent annual Devon Sports Awards, Plymouth Leander Head Coach Jon Rudd was named as Devon Senior Sports Coach of the Year for 2004-2005. Organised by the Active Devon Sports Partnership and hosted at the Tiverton Hotel in North Devon, Jon was presented with the award by ITV Westcountry’s Mark Tyler and Olympic medallist Helen Reeves.

The panel of judges selected Jon ahead of Jonathan Mears (Cricket) and Andy Banks (Diving), citing the achievements of his swimmers over the season, with seven British age records from Steven Beckerleg and Antony James and Cassandra Patten’s swims at the 2004 World Championships in Indianapolis, plus six World Class programme swimmers.
Posted:31 May 2005

Plymouth Leander at Nationals 2006

Plymouth Leander were to finish the 2006 Summer Nationals with their most significant series of results to date. Adam John and Steven Beckerleg were each to break a British and English record respectively on their way to gold medals, with John winning the 14 years 200m Backstroke in a new British Age record of 2:08.72, with Beckerleg lowering the English mark in the 16 years 200m Freestyle to 1:52.20. John was also to win the 100m Backstroke and claim silver in the 400m IM, whilst Beckerleg added gold in the 400m Freestyle and silver in the 800m version.

Leander can claim a quartet of National champions this season, with Laura Froshaug taking gold in the 13 years 1500m Freestyle and Claudia Coleman proving victorious in the 16/17 years 50m Freestyle. Coleman was also to take bronze in the 100m youth event and take a further bronze in the Senior 50m Freestyle final.

Silver medals were the order of the day for Callum Murphy in the 12 years 400m Freestyle and Calum Jarvis in the 14 years 200m Backstroke, Jarvis’ achievement ensuring a Leander one-two in the event alongside Adam John. Silver was also in order for Adam John, Anthony O’Driscoll, Louis Nicholls and Calum Jarvis in the Male 11-14 years 400m Medley relay. In the Youth meet, Richard Salhus was also to take silver in the 17/18 years 50m Freestyle before leading off the Leander Male Youth 800m Freestyle relay for a further medal, with Salhus joining Ben Clark, Robbie Adams and Steven Beckerleg for bronze. Bronze was also the order of the day for Joseph Patching in the 12 years 1500m Freestyle.

Finalist positions in individual events were also recorded by Samantha Conroy, Alexander Simon, Thomas Pennington, Matthew Collier, Sophie Collier, Amy Ballantyne, Matthew Cross, Megan Bushnell, Charlotte Kane, Mark Conroy & Robbie Adams. In relay events, the Leander Female 11-13 years 400m Medley relay (Tabitha Chivers, Samantha Conroy, Rosie Andrews and Laura Froshaug) were to final as were all three of their Female Youth relays (400m Freestyle, 400m Medley & 800m Freestyle) courtesy of Sophie Collier, Charlotte Foulds, Amy Ballantyne, Bo Cameron and Claudia Coleman.

Plymouth Leander can lay claim to four National champions, two of whom have broken British and English records on the way. Leander collected 14 medals across the two meets and featured in 64 National finals or equivalent whilst in Sheffield.
Report: Jon Rudd

Kelly Successes at Nationals

Kelly College’s David Hill and Claire Cashmore were in record breaking form at the ASA National Championships at Sheffield.
Swimming in the Open Multi Disability events 17 year old Hill (S9) twice lowered the European record of the 50m backstroke. He stormed ahead of his rival of many years, James Crisp, in the heats to lower the European mark and repeated the feat in the final to lower it again to win gold.

In the 100m backstroke he was just pipped by 23 year old Crisp at the finish but won silver in the 4th best time in the world.
Claire Cashmore (S9), also competing in the multi disability events set a new British record in the heats of the 100m breaststroke and lowered it again in the final to win gold. The 18 year old also set a new British record in the 200m IM and won bronze in the 100m backstroke.

19 year old Jan Langton (S6) also won bronze, this time in the 50m backstroke.
Swimming in the Youth Championships, Tom Howe (16yrs) set new pbs to win silver in the 200m Individual Medley and the 50m Freestyle while Matthew Henry, also 16, won bronze in the 200m backstroke as well as making the final of the 100m Backstroke, both in new pbs.
Report: Chris Tremellen

Irish National Championships

3 Gold’s, 1 Silver, 1 Bronze, 7 top Eight finishes and 13 new personal best times gave Exeter City Swimming Club a flying start in the end-of-season championships in Limerick.

Newton Abbot’s youngest swimmers proved great ambassadors for the Club and the town as the results of the South West Region Amateur Swimming Association Relay Gala, held at Millfield School, Somerset, clearly demonstrate.

Undaunted by the occasion, the boys (Guy Bennett, Jamie Bishop, Jamie Peters and Tommy Whiting) who had never swum as a team before, were one of 9 teams from the South West of England (Cornwall to Dorset) competing in the first event, the 4 x 50 metre Medley, each of the boys swimming one of the 4 strokes: the boys swam 4 seconds faster than their entry team, and therefore reached the final, finishing in 5th place overall. In the 4 x 50m Freestyle, the boys again bettered their entry time by more than 3 seconds, which meant they entered the final seeded 4th; unfortunately they were unable to maintain this progress and finished in 8th place overall.

The girls’ team, (Chloe Kemp, Chloe Roberts, Laura Shears, Jessica Twose) who had already won gold and silver medals at the County Championships in the Medley and Freestyle relays respectively, were out to prove this was no flash in the pan. Seeded 4th of the 13 teams entered in the Medley Relay, the girls showed they were a force to be reckoned with in the heats of this event, taking 3 seconds off their entry time and earning themselves a well-deserved position as top seeds in the final.

Newton‘s girls, wearing their new sponsored swim suits, held their nerve and swam strongly in the final, finishing 4 seconds ahead of 2nd placed South Dorset Tornadoes.

In the Freestyle Relay, the girls entered the event seeded 3rd; they again took over 3 seconds off their entry time and were once more seeded first in the final. This was an exciting race: Newton’s girls dug deep in a battle for medals against Tornadoes and Ferndown; following solid swims from Roberts, Kemp and Twose, Laura Shears (County Age Group winner and recordholder) swam a Personal Best time in the final length to snatch the gold from Ferndown.

Newton Abbot’s Chief Coach, Trish Warren, commenting on the teams’ performance said ”I am delighted with the performance of all the swimmers: they have demonstrated their ability at the highest level of local competition and we look forward to building on our success in this competition in the future. Their success here today is witness to the swimmers’ hard work and determination and a tribute to the dedicated coaching team at Newton Abbot Swimming Club.”
Report: Monica Trist

Flora Duffy of Kelly College and Bermuda finishing 8th in the Games Triathlon

Devon Swimmers at the Commonwealth Games

The Commonwealth Games get underway in Melbourne with the opening ceremony on Wednesdy 15th March. Competing at the Games are two Devon swimmers and a Triathlete.

Exeter’s Liam Tancock, who currently swims at Loughborough, will be competing in the 50m and 100m backstroke and is provisionally selected for the relay event. He will be in action on the first day of competition in his favourite event, the 50m back and after winning medals at both the World Championships last July and the Europeans in December Liam will be hoping to medal again in Melbourne. The heats of the 50m back are on Thursday morning with the semi –final that evening. (Melbourne time) The final is on Friday night which will be early Saturday morning here. The 100m backstroke heats will be take place on Sunday morning (local time) and the semis and finals will follow the same pattern as the 50m. See www.britishswimming.org for a report on Liam

Also competing in Melbourne is Kelly College’s Jakie Wellman. Jackie, is one of just three swimmers who will be representing Zambia and will compete in the 50, 100 and 200m freestyle. Following a recent trip home to Zambia, Jakie has been ill with suspected malaria, which has affected her training. Jakie acknowledges that the competition will be tough for her as she is up against World Class swimmers but now she is feeling much better she aims to do her best and hopes to get improved times.

Triathlete Flora Duffy, who is also coached at Kelly College by Robin Brew, made the qualifying time for the Games for both Bermuda and England but will be representing Bermuda in Melbourne. The triathlon will be held on Sunday March 18th.

We wish them all good luck at the Games.

2 New World Records for Claire

Kelly College Students Claire Cashmore and David Hill travelled to Sheffield’s Pond’s forge international pool at the weekend for the National Disability Junior Short Course Swimming Championships. This event attracted more than 200 under 18’s disability swimmers including this year youngsters from Hungary and Israel.

Claire broke her own Senior World Record’s in both the 100m I.M. and 50m Freestyle and a Senior European record in the 100m Freestyle. Her impressive tally for the weekend also included four national Junior Records, eight gold medals and five personal best times.

Claire was delighted with the times she set, as this was her last year as a Junior. Claire said “I wanted to leave some good Junior Records that I hope will stand for a long time”.

David also had a good weekend entering six events over the two days of competition. He broke three national Junior Records, gained four gold and two silver medals and five personal best times. David said “I was pleased with my 100m Backstoke swim and breaking James Crisp’s (British disability number one backstroker) Junior record added a bonus to the results. David has one more year as a Junior and will hope to lower this time and more records next year.

David and Claire who are studying for their AS & A levels respectively are now back at Kelly College training hard for the Disability World Championships which take place at the end of November in Durban, South Africa. They must qualify for the event during competitions in July and August. David and Claire have also been selected for the 2nd Paralympic World Cup which takes place in Manchester in May.

Robert Margetts installed as ASA President

Robert Margetts was installed as President of the Amateur Swimming Association at the recent Council meeting in Bristol. Robert, who will be known to many as the Regional Competition Secretary is a life long member of Torquay Leander.

Devon can now boast the unusual honour of have both the ASA and the Regional President at the same time. At the Council meeting Keith Pring (Regional President and Devon Secretary) gave a resume of Robert’s involvement in swimming, starting as a young swimmer and water polo player.

After training as a teacher he began a long career in swimming administration with English Schools and the ASA, taking on various roles in Devon, the West and in ESSA Division 5 where he has been responsible for organising several National School Championship events. He has officiated at every National swimming event held in the West since 1982 and is waterpolo referee.
As well as his involvement in school swimming he has held a number of posts in his club and is still very involved in grass root swimming. He was Devon’s Swimming Secretary in the 70’s and in 1980 was County President. He was General Secretary until 1982 when he took up his present role as District/Regional Competition Secretary. In 2003 he became the District’s representative on the ASA Committee, a post he still holds.

Robert comes from a family steeped in swimming. His mother Stella was ASA President in1984 after a long career as a swimmer and as an officer. She had been County Swimming Secretary for 25 years, County President in 1958 and District President 1972. Robert has been supported throughout his long career by his wife Christine, herself a swimmer and water polo player, and the daughter of Gordon Ley a County and District President. Not surprisingly Robert and Chistine’s two sons, Stephen and Andrew also became involved in swimming, particularly water polo.

We congratulate Robert and wish him a very enjoyable period in office.

Sports Partnership pays Dividends for 7XTREME

Members of 7XTREME swim club in association with several generous sponsors; Market Carpets of Exeter, Jewsons Builders Merchants of Totnes and Builder Dean Pearce of David Pearce and Son Ltd have transformed a previously unused cellar, at Dawlish Leisure Centre into a multi-functional training room. What started out as a rough unfinished room with uneven concrete floor and bare block walls has ended up as a levelled, carpeted, painted and fully equipped land training facility and classroom.

The Dawlish Leisure Centre 7X Training room was officially opened by Teignbridge Councillor David Cox, Portfolio Holder for Leisure and Tourism. After a speech of welcome and thanks to all the sponsors, parents and helpers by project co-ordinator Lyn Whybra, Councillor Cox was invited to cut a ceremonial ribbon and declare the training room open, Councillor Cox then presented 7XTREME Swim Club Chairman, Yvonne Swann, with a wall plaque to commemorate this historic partnership.

Councillor Cox said how impressed he was that a training facility had been created through the generosity of local Businesses; materials donated by them exceeded £600 He congratulated the hardworking team of volunteers on their efforts and the community spirit that existed within the club to enable such a project to be achieved. He commented that he had ‘great respect for such determined young people whose commitment to their training programmes both in and out of the water was a credit to themselves and their club’

The 7X training room will be regularly used by club members to carry out land training exercises and core strength work. 7X swimmers have been supported personally in their exercise programme by Maureen Flett Grad Dip Sp Phys who has worked at International level with Triathletes and is author of the Core stability Programme.

Once again the close partnership that exists between 7X and Dawlish Swimming Club was evident in their kind donation of equipment; a much appreciated rack of dumbbell weights for the swimmers.
The Teignbridge Assistant Leisure Officer (East), Ian Matthews who is the Manager of Dawlish Leisure Centre welcomed the new 7X Training Room as a much needed additional facility, “As an ASA and RLSS registered training Centre it is vital that we have a suitable classroom. Thanks to 7XTREME Swim Club and at no cost to Teignbridge council tax payers we have one to be proud of. I am also very grateful to Garry Mitchell, one of my duty managers, who was instrumental in getting the room created when some structural changes were made to the cellar area last year. My staff and I will be using the 7X Training room for staff meetings, staff training and a range of other training courses that we intend to host at Dawlish Leisure Centre.”

Exeter City New Year Open Meet

Exeter City Swimming Club presented another highly successful long course Meet at Millfield this month giving swimmers an opportunity to get long course times early in the season. Swimmers from all over the South entered the competition including Millfield, Swim Swansea, City of Cardiff, Llanelli, Eastleigh and Oaklands, City of Southampton, Chard and Glenalbyn from Dublin.

This Level One Meet was oversubscribed and regrettably many were turned away including some from Devon.

The all Heat Declared format allowed time for all events to be swum giving swimmers a rare opportunity to swim the 800m and 1500m long course in the mixed events.

Many national times were achieved including Exeter City’s Hannah Schulz who smashed the 200m Breaststroke national qualifying time by three seconds. Swim Swansea’s Georgia Davies also had a good Meet taking both the junior and senior Welsh 100m backstroke records.

Millfield School had won the Top Club award, with Exeter in 3rd place overall. Simon Cooper of Taunton Deane was the Top Boy and Exeter City’s Jodi Worbey won the Top Girl award with 3 gold and 3 bronze. Exeter’s Hannah Schulz also put in an outstanding performance with 4 golds.
The Meet was kindly sponsored by Warburtons, the national family bakers.

Kelly College 1 million metres challenge

Kelly College took part in the global fund raising World Swim for Malaria event on Monday 5th December 2005. Robin Brew, Director of Swimming came up with the challenge of swimming 1 million metres in a 24 hour continuous swim. Four senior boys, Jack Cockerton, Matthew Henry, Tom Howe and Luke Wakefield then agreed to swim 100,000 metres by themselves during the event by swimming continuously for the 24 hours, they were joined by Sophie Calpin, Amanda Sanderson, Samantha Tubb and Megan Mckenzie and between the two teams swam over 200,000 metres.

Robin Brew and his brother Paul Brew also swam as did all the pupils in the school as well as the headmaster and teachers in a bid to ensure the 1 million metres was swum. Thomas Brew aged 4 swam 500 metres during the day and the magic 1 million metres was achieved in 15 hours and 23 minutes. The swim continued for the rest of the 24 hour period and in the end a staggering 1,410,275 metres was swum and with money still pouring in the pledge of raising £10,000 for the World Swim for Malaria is well on target. Robin Brew said after the event ‘This amazing event has humbled us all – The generosity of individuals physical participation and donation of money has made us all very proud.’

Full Time Swimming Coach for Plymouth

Plymouth College have appointed Plymouth Leander Head Coach, Jon Rudd, as its Director of Swimming from Easter 2006. The post is the furthering of a partnership between the College and the Club begun when the College’s pool was opened in 2001.

Rudd will focus solely on the development of swimming at the College and at Plymouth Leander. The College attracts swimmers from around Britain and Europe either as day students or on a boarding basis.
Rudd said, “I am delighted to accept this tremendous opportunity and believe that it is a major piece of the jigsaw in ensuring that Plymouth places more and more swimmers onto International teams in the future.I am already itching to get started and see where we can take our combined swimming programme.”

Plymouth College Headmaster, Alan Morsley, said, “I am very pleased to welcome Jon to the staff of Plymouth College. His appointment will help to strengthen and develop the partnership between Plymouth College and Plymouth Leander, which has seen swimming scholars achieve high levels of success in both the pool and the classroom. The students are very much a part of our school’s community and the programme allows them to make the best of both swimming and academic opportunities.”

Tim Jones, British Swimming’s National Age Group Coach said of the appointment, “This tighter partnership between Plymouth College and Plymouth Leander will be instrumental in taking swimming forwards within the city of Plymouth and the West of England. The results seen so far from the Plymouth programme have been excellent and British Swimming look forward to working closely with both Plymouth College and Plymouth Leander in helping to ensure that this continues to grow and develop.”