Author: Sue Haigh

New voluntary roles will have ‘positive impact’ on future of Masters swimming

Four key voluntary roles that will have a positive impact on the future of Masters swimming have been advertised by Swim England.

The Swim England Masters Working Group is searching for new competitions, communications, coaching and open water leads.

Jeroen Peters, the chairperson of the Swim England Masters Working Group, said: “This is an ideal opportunity for those looking to make a positive impact on the future of Masters swimming.

“You must have an appreciation of the needs of swimmers from all types of background.

“It would be beneficial if you are an experienced Masters swimmer or volunteer who has previously been involved in Masters groups or committees.”

Applications for each role close on Wednesday 17 June with shortlisted candidates being invited for a professional discussion week commencing Monday 29 June.

Competitions lead

Essential criteria

  • You must have an in-depth understanding and experience of managing swimming events and the specific issues this elicits.
  • You must have experience of writing effective meet conditions
  • You must have an understanding of the need for and of officials at Masters events
  • You must have an understanding of the needs of different types of Masters swimmers
  • To be an effective communicator

Desirable

  • To have involvement in the organisation of a national Masters event

Find out more details and apply for the role here.

Communications lead

Essential criteria

  • Must have good written and verbal communication skills.
  • Must be an effective communicator, have good listening skills and be able to hold discussions from a non-biased perspective.
  • Must be organised and able to plan own time
  • Must have experience in the organisation of Masters at some level and understand the specific needs of Masters when communicating to the community.
  • To be an effective communicator

Desirable

  • To have involvement in the organisation of Masters Events
  • Have experience of writing short articles/social media either in print and/or web based.

Find out more details and apply for the role here.

Coaching lead

Essential criteria

  • Must be qualified to a minimum of level 2/pool coach
  • Must understand the swimming education programme and be able to effectively lead the education programme for Masters coaches
  • Must be experienced coaching Masters Sswimmers from different levels
  • Must be able to work well as part of a voluntary group and understand the needs of voluntary coaches
  • To be an effective communicator

Desirable

  • Be qualified to a level 3/head coach or have experience at this level
  • Be a qualified open water coach

Find out more details and apply for the role here

Open water competition lead

Essential criteria

  • You must have experience of managing open water events and the specific issues this elicits.
  • You must have experience of writing effective open water meet conditions
  • You must have an understanding of the need for and of officials at open water Masters events
  • You must have an understanding of the needs of different types of open water Masters swimmers
  • To be an effective communicator

Desirable

  • To have involvement in the organisation of a national open water Masters event
  • To be an open water qualified official/referee

Find out more details and apply for the role here

MASTERS NEWS

Bill Letch wins South West Masters Swimming Award





Congratulations to Bill Letch of Exmouth SC who has been awarded the South West Region Masters ‘Swimmer of the Year’ trophy for 2018.


NATIONAL MASTERS INTER COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP

The Regional round of the National Masters Inter County Championship took place at Millfield on Sunday. 
Teams from Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, Cornwall, Gloucestershire and Devon all took part in a varied programme with swimmers ranging in age from 18 to 82.
 
 
The Devon Team, comprised:
 
Mark Ashton      Warren Barrett
Darren Beer       Katelyn Bergin
Emma Bickley Jane Bickley
Fin Bowden              Emma Challis
Matt Clarke          Graham Cridland
Tegan Drew           Tara Dudley
Sue Haigh              Matt Henry
Tom Hughes          Ann Humphris
Rebecca Jenkinson      Bill Letch           
   Nye Levett       Andy Matchett     
Alex McCrae     Fiona Mullin           
 Jamie Page      Shelagh Ratcliffe  
   Adam Reed     Danielle Scagell      
Charlie Smith      Ollie Taverner   
Katie Townsend       Nigel Travers Griffin    
 Simon Veale   Kalon Veale    
  Levin Veal    Sue Walker
Rob Will      Terry Windeatt
 
                            It was in every way a brilliant team effort, with each swimmer ‘pulling out all the stops’ to help Devon win by a convincing margin of over 90 points!!!!
 
                      My thanks go to Kalon Veale for his expert team selection and to Karen Adams and Mel Jeynes for supporting the team in their official capacity.
 
 
The final scores  :
 
Devon     355
 
Gloucestershire         264
 
Wiltshire  240
 
Dorset    230
 
Cornwall   230
 
Somerset    175
 
 
It will be interesting to learn how we have fared against other Regions in the National competition.
 
Sue Haigh
 
 

DEVON MASTERS TAKE 21 NATIONAL TITLES

Congratulations to the Masters swimmers from clubs all over Devon who took part in the National Championships  in Sheffield at the end of October.   By the end of the weekend,  Devon had produced  21 National Champions.

Pride of place must go to Totnes Swimming Club.
Simon Veale swam to victory in  seven events, the 100m and 200 IM, 200m, 400m, 800m freestyle, 50m backstroke and 50m fly.
 
Kalon Veale took the 50m 100m and 200m backstroke  titles along with the 200m IM; Margaret Bickley the 100m back and 200m breaststroke and Dan John the 1500 freestyle.
 
The newly formed club Exe Masters also had its share of gold medals.; Adele Parham in the 400 individual medley, Philippa O’Grady in the 200 individual medley and Sue Haigh in the 200 back with the Exe Masters 72+ mixed freestyle team  of Tara Dudley, Victoria Malcolm, Jim Capron, Adam Tapp winning gold ian exciting tussle with the team from Exeter Swimming Club.
Stephen Hurley of Exeter Swimming Club won the 1500m freestyle and Warren Barrett from the Exeter University alumni  team took the  50 butterfly title.
The Exeter University alumni  team of Warren Barrett, Ilya Skliarov , Nye Levett and Josep Massey also took  the 100+ 4 x 50m freestyle title
There were also many other great swims & podium positions that can be seen from the results below.
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DEVON COUNTY SWIMMERS TRIUMPH IN COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP

County Team Championships 2019
Having finished 3rd the previous year and runners up in 2017, both times to Yorkshire, spirits were high that maybe this was the year that Devon would top the podium.
 
Team coaches Dan Dew – Plymouth, David Hill – Exmouth, Glenn Currie – Exeter, discussed with the squad at their team meeting at the hotel on the night before the racing that it was important to race hard and fast but at the same time support each other in the team and have a good team spirit, most of all be loud, colourful in team colour face paints and have fun.
 
Under the guidance of Lynn Rayment as Team Manager – Plymouth and this season’s chosen captains of Reid Jones – Plymouth and Macy Lawrence – Mount Kelly the team was ready for action.
 
As usual after the opening races the leader board chopped and changed but as racing settled down it wasn’t long before Devon was on top and began to gradually increase their lead. .Team spirit was high and the noise was deafening. 
 
When the half time interval arrived and Devon had a clear lead,  captains Reid and Macy gathered the team for a ‘team talk’ to motivate the squad even more and told them to all support each other and to race to the finish.
 
Racing was going well, even with the re-race of the girls 14/15 backstroke due to a technical problem. Good points were being picked up in all events to extend Devon’s lead, the chasing pack of Northumberland & Durham, Yorkshire, Scotland West and Kent kept on trying but to no avail.
 
Wins from Honey Osrin – Plymouth in the 100m backstroke, Cameron Williams – Dartmoor Darts in the 100m breaststroke, the boys 16/17 year’s Medley relay ( Ra-eez Warley,  Filippo Coacci,  Sam Perks,  Reid Jones) and the girls 16/17 years Medley Relay ( Honey Osrin, Lucia Grant, Olivia Marshall Macy Lawrence all helped to seal the county’s first ever win in this championship. 
Of course, the success of the team was also down to the high amount of top 5 finishes within the 31 races, of which 18 were top 5 finishes, proving the strength and depth of Devon’s swimming talent. To add to this 26 of the 31 races were top 10 finishes. 
 
The Top 5 final leader board was as follows with Yorkshire relinquishing their crown that they had held for 3 years running
 
Place
Club
Points
1.
Devon
469
2.
N & Durham
439
3.
Kent
438
4.
Scot West
419
4.
Yorkshire
419
This year’s team consisted of the following swimmers
 
Reid Jones – Plymouth
James Wheatley – Mount Kelly
Macy Lawrence – Mount Kelly
Imogen Lambert – Mount Kelly
Jasmine D’cunha – Dinnaton
Cameron William – Dartmoor Darts
Joshua Williams – Plymouth
Caoimhe Quinn – Mount Kelly
Sophie Freeman – Plymouth
Joshua Gammon  – Dartmoor Darts
James Hart  – Plymouth
Ella Osborne – Exeter City
Honey Osrin – Plymouth
Finn Broekhoven – Plymouth
Sam Perks – Plymouth
Filippo Coacci – Plymouth
Ruby Griffiths – Plymouth
Blythe Kinsman – Plymouth
Lana Broekhoven – Plymouth
Bella Hodges – Mount Kelly
Hubert Gdaniec – Plymouth
Aidan Watts – Plymouth
Ra’eez Warley – Plymouth
Ella Bardgett – Plymouth
Lucia Grant – Plymouth
Harriette Lewcock – Paignton
Sara Sari – Exeter City
Olivia Marshall – Plymouth
Aiden Symons-Brown – Devonport
 
Thanks must go to the travelling officials,Tom Osborne, Exeter and Elaine Hedger, Barnstaple, who supported the team over the weekend and also to the Devon County President Roger Bossom, and our County Secretary Karen Adams, who were both on poolside cheering on the team.
 
One of the Team coaches Glenn Currie spoke with swim England after the event and he praised the team for their hard work yet fun approach to the championships.
 “We come here and we have some fun. We came to race hard from the start and it’s just a great experience for us all.  We said in our team meeting that we should just go have some fun, race hard and it’s worked.”

MASTERS

MASTERS
 
 
2019  DEVON COUNTY MASTERS MEET 
 
The first Open Devon County Masters meet was held at Plymouth Life Centre on 30th  June.
 
Entries were more than double the previous year and there was some excellent swimming on show which certainly more than justified the Devon County Swimming Committee’s decision to make this an open event. 
 
Graham Milne( 65-69) of Truro set a new British record (subject to ratification ) in the 100m fly with a time of 1:09.09  with Allie Price (50-54) of Cardiff Masters setting two new Welsh records in  the 400m freestyle 05:11.58 and the 100m Individual Medley 1:12.54
 
Congratulations to all those who set Regional records; a special mention goes to Anne Humphis from Barnstable who posted South West Regional records in every one  of her events.
 
Grateful thanks go to all the officials and everyone who helped in the setting up and smooth running of this event. 
 
Sue Haigh 
 
Devon Masters Rep
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