Swim Reports and Press 2007

Four teams from Watford Swimming Club attended the U14’s Daplyn’s Trophy Gala on the 1^st December at Hemel Sports Centre.
The teams made a valiant attempt competing against some of the biggest clubs in the County despite having several swimmers feeling under the weather. Watford’s Girls ‘A’ team saw Zoe Stewart (12) set the team off to a fine start in the 100M Individual Medley which was followed by Alice Callanan (13) putting in a super performance in the 50M Backstroke and clocking a time of 35.52. Heather Tysoe (13) valiantly swam her 50M Breaststroke despite looking as white as a sheet. Hannah Jibson (12) & Megan Davies (13) also swam their hearts out.
For the boys ‘A’ team birthday boy Jack Spence who turned 13 on the day set the boys off to a cracking start in the 100M Individual Medley and Tom Hall (13) set a great time in the 50M Breaststroke of 39.19. Good individual swims were also had by Matthew Chapman (12), Kit Burden (12) & Ashley Holness-Wright (11) who picked up 6^th place in the 50M Frontcrawl for the A team.
The girls & boys ‘B’ teams were also out in force coming 17^th & 12^th respectively. The girls were led out by Sky Draper (12) in the 100M Individual Medley. Sophie Chung (12) in the 50M Backstroke picked up a personal best time of 42.46. Molly Landolfi (11) in the Breastroke gave a good performance, Amy Chung (11) clocked a personal best time in the Butterfly & Annabelle Thomas (12) showing she has a good turn of speed and improving every time she swims.
The boys ‘B’ team was made up of twins Jack & Peter Pickford (10). Jack set a strong time in the 100M Individual Medley. Lewis Hawkins (11), Oliver Quint (12) picked up 5^th place in the 50M Frontcrawl setting himself a new personal best. A big thank you must go to Liam Hall (11) who stepped into the breach at short notice and turned in a fantastic set of swims.
With some many of the younger swims being eligible to compete next year these results are outstanding and next years competition promises to be even more exciting.

A.S.A. East Region 2007 Long Course Swimming Championships
3rd - 4th November 2007

Two of Watford Swimming Club's top young swimmers headed for Norwich to compete in the Regional Championships for the very first time, having qualified for NINE individual events between them, both from a very different range of events.
Carolyn Astbury (15), preference being distance based events. Her current main event being the 400m Individual Medley, and she came away with a good personal best time. The 200m backstroke also produced a good P.B., taking her even closer to her National Championship qualification times.
David Godridge (14), a classic sprinter, was on fire, and won Medals in all 5 of his events, taking the Junior Championship Titles at both the 100m and 50m Front crawl, as well as the Silver Medals at the 50m Butterfly, 200m Front crawl and 200m Individual Medley. In addition, David made 4 Senior Championship Finals, and secured 2 National Youth Championship and British Championship qualifying times for the 2008 competitions in Sheffield. As a result of his achievements, David has been selected for the top England Talent Development Programme.
Both Carolyn and David are REAL prospects for the 2012 London Olympics, and the opening of Watford’s NEW 8 Lane, 25m competition pool next year will give a huge boost to their progress towards their bid to win a place on the G.B. Team.

49 swimmers from Watford Swimming Club attended the Hemel Open last weekend. The team won convincingly with a huge tally of 57 medals and many personal bests set along the way. Watford beat their nearest rival by nearly 80 points with 11 of their swimmers obtaining gold medals. The top 3 top squad girl swimmers were Zoe Stewart (12) 4 gold 1 silver 1 bronze, Paige Dore-Boize (14) 4 gold, 1 silver & Amy Stewart (13) 2 gold 2 silver 2 bronze. The top 3 top squad boy swimmers were Jack Spence (12) 3 gold 2 silver, Ben Dollard (20) 3 gold, & Nik Spears (14) 2 gold 3 silver. The development squad swimmers were also out in force and for some it was their first gala. Their top girl was Amy Chung (10) 2 gold 1 silver 1 bronze for the boys Ashley Holness-Wright (11) 2 silver 2 bronze. There was an exciting climax to the evening with the 50m open freestyle skins event which had 5 of the Watford swimmers out for glory who were Ben Dollard (20), John Pickford (16), Lizee Barry (15), Paige Dore-Boize (14) & Zoe Stewart (12). Ben Dollard romped home to victory in a nail biting finish in the boy’s event and Lizee Barry came a very close second in the girl’s event. A great confidence booster early on the season as Watford goes from strength to strength.

Watford Swimming Club competed in the first round of the National Speedo League on Saturday evening and showed that this year they mean business. Carolyn Astbury and David Godridge set the bar high coming second and first place respectively in the first event the Open 200 Individual Medley.
The team got behind this opening success and soon the atmosphere was electric and the team spirit fantastic with everyone cheering each other on. At the end of the relays Watford were in front with 54 points ahead of Enfield Griffins with 50 points.
Watford swam strongly through the individual events with nearly all swimmers coming in at 1^st or 2^nd place; however by the start of the second set of relay swims we had lost the lead by 10 points to Enfield. The Watford spectators were horse from shouting and cheering us on through the relays but in the end Watford came second to Enfield by a close margin of 6 points. This is a magnificent start to the league and puts the club in a good position for the next round.
It would not be fair to single out swimmers for accolade as this was one of the best team efforts I have ever witnessed as team manager. It was obvious that the training was really going to pay off this season, so look out it looks like Watford Swimming Club is back on top.

Watford Swimming Club were in action at their first open gala of the new swimming season. Many of the swimmers where looking to prove that they had started this season where they had left off last years. They didn't disappoint.
Amy Chung (10) racing in her first 400M Individual Medley won her age group. She went on to pick up 1^st’s in 100M Breastroke and 200M Individual Medley along with 3rd place in the 400M free and a speeding ticket in 100M backstroke.
Peter Pickford (10) gained second place in the 50M Butterfly and brother Jack (10) picked up a 1st place and three 3rd places in his events. Jack Spence gained 1st place and 2nd place swimming well in all his events.
Nik Spears and Hannah Jibson both gained 2nd and 3rd place in their events. The weekend’s competition brought many personal best times to the swimmers. Well done to all those that competed.

A fantastic second place and promotion to the First Division was achieved by Watford Swimming Club at the final round of the Peanuts League.
The gala was not going to be a cut and dry event. With Berkhamsted, Bushey and Watford all fighting for the 2 promotion spots, the gala was always going to be very close.
The racing did not disappoint and the lead appeared to change hands with the result of every race. Watford’s relay teams produced fantastic performances and their strength showed as the races came thick and fast with the boys winning over half of their relay races. The girls also produced many good performances in the relays and latter stages of the gala. Watford finished in second place after a strongly contested nights racing. This means that they will now be promoted to the First Division of the Peanuts league for 2008.

Watford Swimming club under 13’s romped to victory in the Hertfordshire Peanuts League at Hemel Hempstead on Saturday.
Watford took on five other teams in the 2nd round of a 3 gala league. Initially a very tight competition with Bushey and Hertsmere contesting for the lead. However Watford saved their best for last for the latter stages, finishing with a total of twelve 1st and Ten 2nd positions.
The final gala on the 7th July is now set for a thrilling finish as Watford are lying 2nd in the league and will be battling it out with Berkhamsted Barracudas Bushey and Stevenage with only 2 points separating all four teams.

Watford Swimming club where in action at the Stevenage Open Meet last weekend taking nineteen swimmers to compete in over eighty five races.
The gala was used by many swimmers as a warm up to the Regional Championships next week in Norwich.
The swimmers out classed themselves picking up over 60 awards and setting many personal best times along the way.
Paige Dore-Boize (15) picked up 7 awards from seven events and Nik Spears (14) picked up 5 awards from six events for the boys. Amy Stewart (14), Shanice Chapman (15), Hannah Lewis (16), Ashley Holness-Wright (11) and Matthew Chapman (12) all picked up over 3 awards each.

Last weekend Watford Swimming Club took 5 swimmers to the ASA East Region Youth Championships at the East Anglia University 50m pool in Norwich.
Carolyn Astbury (14) moved up to 2nd place in the regional rankings for the 400m IM and is now only 4 seconds off the National Qualifying Time, which she is working hard to achieve. She also swam in the 400m and 800m Freestyle events and finished a fantastic 3rd in both these events. All of her swims were personal best times in a 50m pool.
Lizzie Barry (14) also gained personal best times in the 50m and 100m freestyle swims. Amy Callanan (15) won her heat in the 50m backstroke gaining a personal best time.
For the boys, John Pickford 16 has moved up through the ranks in the squad and put in a good effort to achieve a personal best time in the 50m Freestyle. Billy O’Neill 15 swimming in the 50m Backstroke and the 50M Front crawl.
Was still recovering from a recent illness and so the event came at the wrong time for him.
The weekend was a great success and the club will be looking for more long course events to allow more of our swimmers to gain the experience they need to swim at national level.

Janet Lewis
WSC Team Manager

Watford Swimming Club Development swimmers were in action at Leighton Buzzard over the weekend. This junior gala gave many of the new young swimmers a taste of their first open competition.
Ellie Turner (10) got things off to a flying start winning gold in the IM. Ellie also picked up Silver in the 50M Backstroke and 4^th in the 50M Freestyle. The Wells family Austin (9) and Cameron (10) both picked up gold medals in 50M Freestyle and 50M Breastroke respectively. Big sister Lauren also set many personal best in the 12 years age group. Liam Hall (11) picked up 3^rd place in the 50M Backstroke.
Many swimmers picked up speeding tickets for swimming faster than the set qualifying time and there by setting personal bests along the way these included Sophie Chung (11) Katy Beaumont (9) Yao (9) and Meng Chong (10).
Well done to all swimmers that took part a very good days racing.

Seven swimmers from Watford Swimming Club travelled to Milton Keynes on the weekend of 21/22 April to compete in a last chance gala which was aimed at obtaining Regional qualifying times. The swimmers; Amy Chung (10), Heather Tysoe (12), Jack Spence (12) Zoe Stewart (12) Amy Stewart (13) Alice Callanan (13) & Nik Spears (13) came away with a good number of personal best times, several Regional qualifying times and over 10 trophies. All the swimmers swam their hearts out and some notable successes were Amy Chung who came 2nd in both her races to obtain Regional times. Jack Spence went away with a haul of four trophies and increased the number of Regional times he has qualified for. Zoe Stewart who came in 1st place in the 100m Freestyle and 2nd in the 100IM. The club are very proud of all it's swimmers and are very much looking forward to the Youth Championships in May and the British Age Group Championships in June.

Full Results Here

Watford Swimming club were back in the water last weekend at Barnet Copthall swimming pool collecting more Regional Qualifying times by their younger swimmers. Lewis Hawkins (10yrs) picked up his 200M Backstroke. Ashley Holness-Wright and Jack Pickford improved on their Regional times also. Ashley Holness-Wright (10) was soon back in the water for the 200M Frontcrawl setting a personal best along with his Regional time for this event. Amy CHUNG (10) had a stunning 200M Breastroke swim, swimming a 9 second personal best to qualify for the Regional time 6 seconds faster than entry. There was also good performances form Adam Raw picking up 2^nd place in the 50m Backstroke and 3^rd place in the 100m Frontcrawl. Megan Davies also picked up 3^rd place in the 200m Butterfly and went one better in the 100m Butterfly finishing 2^nd.
Many of the other swimmers put in great performances collecting personal bests and finishing in the top 10 of the age groups in the majority of the events they entered.

Sunday’s in house time trial was a great success. We had 63 swimmers taking part in all four strokes and all swimmers gained good times.
For many of the swimmers it was the first time that they have taken part in a gala. All the swimmers did very well and hopefully they will have enjoyed the experience.
We shall be holding another in-house time trial towards the end of the year so for those who didn’t get a medal or ribbon this time, there’s always next time! Once again a thank-you to all the judge, timekeepers and helpers on the night and a big thank-you to all the swimmers who took part. Well done!!
Paul Jones

The Development Squad were in action at the newly formed South Herts Trophy at Potters Bar swimming pool. The gala is based on the Peanuts League Division 1 format and intended as a warm up and practice for the Peanuts League starting in MAY.
With this being the first time that the squad were competing together it was hard to tell who was more nervous, the swimmers or me! I need not have worried as once the warm-up was underway the nerves started to disappear along with the Haribo.
Hamish Barrett gave the team 1^st place in the Boys U12 50M Backstroke clocking up a Personal Best time of 41.82. Sophie Chung clocked up a 2 second Personal Best in the Girls U13 50M Backstroke finishing in a time of 44.29.
As the relays came into play and all the swimmers started to get involved, Stuart and Justine did their best to organize and keep track of all the swimmers and what strokes they were meant to be swimming.
The Boys U12 4x1 Freestyle team, Peter Smithson, Liam Hall, Harry Beaumont and Hamish Barrett picked up 1^st in a time of 1:10.73. The 9-year-old girls did very well having to swim up an age group and along with the U11 girls put in several good performances in all the relays.
Lewis Sills picked up 1^st place in the Boys U11 25M Breastroke in a personal best time of 24.54. Hannah Jibson also picked up 1^st place in Girls U13 50M Butterfly in a time of 39.98.
As we came into the final round of relays it was clear to see that though some of the swimmers were tired, they were enjoying themselves and were ready for the final round of relays. We did not pick up any disqualifications in the relays on our takeovers, which was excellent. Well done!
With many of the swimmers having their first taste of competition the performances were fantastic, so my thanks to all the swimmers for their efforts and to their parents for bringing them along.
Special thanks to Neville and Keith for stepping in as timekeepers at the last minute for me. I could not finish this report without again thanking Justine and Stuart. Justine for her organization of the children and supplying the Haribo and Stuart with his encouragement to every swimmer that raced along with his enthusiastic arm waving.
I look forward to seeing you back at training and remember that the Peanuts events are on the following days:

March is a busy month in the swimming calendar with the Hertfordshire County Championships taking 11 sessions over three weekends. Watford Swimming Club entered a record number of 39 swimmers this year. Counties are all about achieving personal best times aiming for Eastern Region Qualifying times whilst winning Bronze, Silver or Gold medals in age group or Championship events.
This year Watford Swimming Club swimmers excelled themselves right across the top squad coached by Terry Davies through into the Development squad, coached by Paul Jones proving that their investment in recruiting Paul was paying off.
Leading from the top squad was Carolyn Astbury (14), who won 11 gold,7 silver and 2 bronze medals, that included carrying off 4 Junior Championship Titles. Carolyn also increased the number of events that she has Eastern Regional Qualifying times to 9 and moved many of these nearer to National Qualifying times.
Staring from the Development Squad was Ashley Holness-Wright (10) who got into the finals for 4 events and earned himself 1 Silver and 1 Bronze medal. Ashley also gained a regional time in 200m Backstroke.
Sky Draper 11 and Jack Spence 12 identified themselves as budding distance swimmers gaining regional times at 1500m Freestyle as well as a number of other events each.
Other swimmers joining them at the Regional Championships are: Ben Dollard, Adam Raw, John Pickford, Billy O’Neil, Lance Owide, Jack Pickford, and Zoe Stewart.
County Championship medallists also include: Zoe Stewart 12, Ben Dollard 18, Nick Spears 13, Hannah Jibson 11, Amy Stewart 13, Matthew Chapman 11, Jessica Sullivan 14, Lizee Baryy (14), Paige Dore-Boize (14), Amy Callanan (15) and Sky Draper (11).
Overall the swimmers performed excellently making all the hard work they put into training worth it.

Watford swimming club were in action last weekend at the Biggleswade open in which 33 clubs took part. Our older squad members continued to show thier strong performances throughout the weekend with fantastic swims and also our younger swimmers went home with some of their best results from some brilliant swims
Jack pick ford achieving his 10 yr old 200M Backstroke District Time in a personal best of 3.15.69.Jack also recorded personal bests in the 200M Free and the tough 200M Individual medley along with several county qualifying times in the 50M sprint swims. Peter Pickford also gained personal best times in the free style and breast stroke. Lewis Sills(9), Hamish Barrett (10),Lewis Hawkins(10)and Matthew Chapman (11) also gained new personal best times in events ranging from the tough 200M Individual medley to the fast and furious 50M backstroke.
Jack Spence (12)achieved his 200M Backstroke District Time in a personal best of 2.51.65 .Jack entered 6 other races throughout the weekend and scored several personal best times with brilliant swims. Ashley Holness-Wright (10) came a fantastic 5^th in the 100M Backstroke and also competed in seven other races and gained many personal best times.
From the younger girls ,Amy Chung(10) competed in the 10 year old girls 100M Breast stoke,50M Breaststroke,50M Backstroke and 50M Butterfly gaining personal best times in all her swims. Molly Landolfi (10)also set a 5 second personal best in the 50M Free style and gained in the 50M Backstroke. Our younger swimmers all put in some great effort in there swims in which gained them all personal bests and qualifying times for the County Championships…Well done !!
Zoë Stewart (12) picked up a Bronze medal in the 50M Backstroke in her age group and in doing so recorded a personal best time of 33.99.Amy Stewart also picked up a personal best in the 50M Backstroke, Freestyle and Butterfly.
Carolyn Asbury (14) continued to show a strong performance throughout the weekend competing in the200M, 400M and 800m Freestyle with fantastic swims in each. She also entered the 200M and 400M Individual Medley and the 200M Butterfly .Altogether coming away with four 1^st places and two 2^nd places. Hannah Lewis (15) swam a brilliant 50MButterfly for girls which won her a bronze medal.
Nik Spears (13), Megan Davis (13) Shanice Chapman (14) and Emma Lewis (13) and Hannah Jibson (11) also had great swims and picked up personal bests and county qualifying times.

Last Saturday was the third and final round of the Herts Major League. Watford Swimming Club’s A team swam in the runners up gala at Hemel Hempstead pool. The team did themselves proud with everyone putting lots of effort to ensure the team gained as good a final position in Division 1 of the League as possible. Helping to add to the teams success by gaining maximum points by coming first in their races were Carolyn Astbury and Matthew Toothill 100m Fly, Ben Dollard 100m Freestyle, Hamish Barrett 50m Breaststroke. Winners in the relay teams were Paige Dore-Boize, Shanice Chapman, Carolyn Astbury and Lizee Barry in the u16’s Freestyle, Adam Raw, Lance Owide, Matt Toothill and Ben Dollard in Open Freestyle relay and Hamish Barrett, Lewis Hawkins, Ashley Holness-Wright and Liam Hall in the U12’s Medley relay.
Watford Swimming Club B team swam their final round in Division 2 at Stevenage swimming pool. The team put on a valiant effort despite being short on swimmers in the U12 girls age group. Winners in this gala included Laura Trew 100m Backstroke, Amy Stewart 100m Fly and 100m Back and Kit Burden 50m Fly.
The Club is exceedingly proud of all its swimmers who participated in these team events. The final position in the League have not been confirmed but it is anticipated that the A team will stay securely in Division 1 whilst the B team will be relegated to Division 3. This offers the club a greater opportunity for both teams to be in the top three of their divisions next year!

Janet Lewis
WSC Team Manager

The A team at Hemel had some good swims notably Carolyn Astbury who won the U16 and Open 100m fly. Harry Beaumont who bettered the County qualifying time for the 50m free in the 11 years old age group. Amy Callanan won the Open 100m back. Alice Callanan came 2nd in the U14 100m Back and qualified for Counties. Heather Tysoe came 2nd in the U14 100m Breaststroke and bettered the County qualifying time. The Open Medley boy’s team of Adam, Lance, Matt Toothill and Ben won their event. Special thanks go to Jack Spence and Tom Hall who swam in the U14 and U16 races. Ashley Holness-Wright swam his heart out in U12 and U14 races when he is only 10, he did us proud (he has now qualified for ALL his counties events!). Our president Nigel was also on hand to swim if required. The team came 4th overall.

The B team at Potters Bar had wins for Jessica Sullivan in the U16 100m fly, and Joe Course in the U16 100m Breaststroke. The Open 4x25m Medley team of Bill O’Neil, John Pickford, Alex Combridge, Toby Hosker also won. Sky Draper did a 1 15.77 for 100m free in the U14 age group and Amy Stewart came 2nd in the U16 100m Back. Special thanks go to Lewis Sills, Peter Pickford and Jack Pickford who swam in some of the U12 and U14 races, also Liam Hamilton in the U14 and U16. The team came 5th overall.
Some good PB and a fantastic atmosphere at both events. Thank you to all swimmers

The A team were up against some fierce competition on Saturday but the fantastic effort put in by all swimmers resulted in very respectable fourth place.
We had a number of PB’s most notable (as far as we know) being Lizzie Barrie coming 3^rd in 100m freestyle with a PB of 1.06.63 and Alice Callanan coming 2^nd in 100m backstroke with a PB of 1.19.54. – Well done girls.
Not to be outdone Ollie Combridge put in a couple of big PB improvements in the 100m fly: 1.11.99, 100m back: 1.19.82 and in the 100m free: 1.04.03.
We were short of U16 boys and Jack Spence and Tom Hall had to swim up as well as competing in their age group. Harry Beaumont also had to swim up to the U14 boys. All swimmers swam their best – well done team.

Watford 'B' team swimmers were in action in the first round of the Herts League on Saturday 6th January, and performed well. They recorded four wins, two seconds and seven thirds from the 49 events to finish the night in sixth place. Had Watford not suffered three disqualifications then the team would have finished higher as they were only five points adrift from the team that finished in fifth.
Watford’s winners were: Billy O'Neill (open 100m back), Laura Trew (open 100 back) Jessica Sullivan (under-16 100m fly) and Amy Stewart (under-16 100 back).
Many of our new younger swimmers were competing for the first time and swum their hearts out and were keen and excited about racing. Some were as young as nine and ten. They all behaved remarkably well and were a credit to have on poolside.
There were some great efforts from many swimmers the most memorable being Terence Holness Wright who swam the U16 100 Fly, had a few races to catch his breath and was in the water again swimming the U16 100 Free. Not long after he was back in the water for the U16 Medley Team and the U16 Free relay team. ( I think he would have slept well that night)! Other notable good swims were from Natalie Trew , great to see her swimming and being on poolside cheering on the others, Sian Ayling and Joe Course who both did well to come third in their 100m breaststroke races and Jack Pickford who came in second in the U12 25m back.
Overall an enjoyable night was had by all with lots of potential shown as we look forward to round two on 3rd February.