On Saturday 14th October, the B team made the loooooong journey to Leighton Buzzard to compete in the first round of the Speedo League.

I really didn’t know what to expect as I only began my team manager role in the early stages of 2006, so haven’t been to a Speedo League gala since the days when I used to take to the blocks for the Ladies Open 100m IM! This gala had been an absolute struggle to get swimmers for, but nevertheless, we made it to Leighton Buzzard, all in one piece, with a coach full of swimmers (all the wrong ages of course), one without a costume (!) having only gone round one roundabout twice! Phew!

Due to many swimmers being unavailable, and the shortage on numbers in the older age groups, many swimmers were swimming up an age group (three age groups in some cases!). So first off…a big thank you to all of you that swam for me, we made a great team, and everyone rose to the challenge, I was very proud!

So…on to the gala. The competition came in the form of Stratford Sharks B, Dunstable, Camphill Edwardians B and Linslade Crusaders. Once again, all slightly unfamiliar to me, I have heard of Stratford and Camphill obviously, but wasn’t sure of their standard, and all I knew of Linslade Crusaders is that they came down from Division 2 this year so I expected them to be the strongest.

Event 1 & 2: The Open 100m IM – my old event, so continuing the family trend Charlotte went in the water for us finishing in first place with a cracking time, mainly due to swimming the whole fly length without breathing! Well done Charlotte! The men’s event was swum by our very own Nick ‘I don’t need a warm up’ Cruchley! With only 4 lengths of warm up completed by Nick he still managed to win this event two seconds ahead of the competition! Well done to you both. Ten points in the bag…onto the next events…
Events 3 & 4: 11 and under freestyle relays…third place from both the girls and boys here, Ryan Spoor swimming for the lads in his first competition for the club, welcome Ryan!
Events 5 & 6: 13 and under medley relay…a win for the girls here (Hayley Davis-Moore, Ellie Lord, Becky Cole and Becky Irwin) who were all swimming up an age group. The lads took a second place here, again with two swimmers swimming up an age group, only narrowly missing out on victory from Linslade Crusaders. Fantastic stuff guys, well done.
Events 7 & 8: 15 and under freestyle relays…fourth place for the girls, second place for the lads.
Events 9 & 10: Open age group medley relays, ladies taking third place, again with younger swimmers competing and Charlotte’s goggles around her face, the men taking second place hot on the tail of Camphill B, some disappointing splits here lads, I think we can go quicker than this.
Events 11 & 12: The 11 and under 50m backstroke, Phoebe taking second place for the girls, well done, and Sam taking fourth place for the boys. Sam-we need to sort these finishes out, we’ll look at it in training.
Events 13 & 14: The 13 and under 100m breaststroke, Ellie swimming this for the girls (swimming up an age group), with a lovely time and taking fourth place, something to aim for next time. Tom went in for the boys in this event taking an impressive first place, a clear NINE seconds ahead of the rest of the competition – well done Tom!
Events 15 & 16: The 15 and under 100m backstroke, fantastic swims in these events from Hayley and Pete. Hayley took third place for the girls, swimming up three age groups (!), and Pete won his event convincingly. Great stuff.
Events 17 & 18: The Open 100m fly … hmmm, no-ones favoured event! After much persuasion and some potential bribery occurring, Vicky was persuaded to swim this for the girls and finished in third place! Well done Vicky! Our very own coach swam the men’s event, Marc, who took an impressive victory and showed the rest of us how it’s done! I did have the lifeguards on standby but it turned out he didn’t need them!
Events 19 & 20: The 11 and under 50m fly. Lauren swimming this for the girls and taking fourth place in a tight race, well done Lauren, especially as your goggles came off. Jarryd did this event for the boys, not his usual event and as a result got a DQ. This is my fault Jarryd, not yours so not to worry! Thanks for not being frightened of this and just getting on with the job.
Events 21 & 22: The 13 and under 100m backstroke, some great swims here, Becky Cole taking victory for the girls and Tim a fine second place for the lads.
Events 23 & 24: The girls 15 and under 100m fly. Third place here in both events, with Pete having already swum a fab 100m back and Becky (Spoor) swimming up three age groups (!). This was a cracking time Becky well done.
Events 25 & 26: It’s those pesky open swimmers again, Charlotte and Nick, stepping up to the blocks for their second individual of the event, the open 100m backstroke. Charlotte took second place in the ladies event, only three tenths behind the winner, and Nick once again cruising to victory in the men’s event; five seconds clear of the rest of the field.

Just about half way through the gala now, and the points were as follows:

Linslade Crusaders   93 points
Stourbridge B          93 points
Dunstable                85 points
Camphill B              66 points
Stratford B              45 points

So things were looking tight at the top, but if we maintained our current form, a win was looking like a possibility.

Events 27 & 28: The 11 and under 50m breaststroke, good swims here from both Alice and Ryan, with Alice taking fourth place against stiff competition, and Ryan unfortunately getting a DQ here. Ryan – you’ve got to watch how many pulls you do under the water!
Events 29 & 30: The 13 and under 100m butterfly. Both swimmers here swimming up an age group, but an impressive victory for Hayley in the girls’ event, six seconds ahead of the competition in her second individual of the evening, and second place for Jake with a sound swim.
Events 31 & 32: The 15 and under 100m free, Georgina in for the girls taking fifth place in a tough event, David taking first place for SSC in the boys’ event, just half a second ahead of the second placed Dunstable swimmer.
Events 33 & 34: The Open 100m breaststroke not that you’d have known it with our swimmers aged just 13 and 14! Lisa in here for the ladies and a victory of over two seconds from the second placed Dunstable swimmer. Richard Spoor up next, again in his first competition for the club, and a lovely swim to finish in third place, well done!
Events 35 & 36: The 11 and under 50m freestyle events now, Jess in for the girls and Luke in for the boys, Jess taking second place and Luke with a fourth place, good swims from you both.
Events 37 & 38: The 13 and under 100m free, Matt and Becky Irwin in for Stourbridge in these events, Becky in her first ever 100m free race. Good swims from both of you, finishing in third place, we will work on 100m races in training over the remainder of the competition.
Events 39 & 40: The 15 and under 100m breaststroke, same swimmers as events 33 & 34 for us, Lisa and Richard, this time both achieved first place, Lisa even managing to go quicker than in her previous individual, well done – fantastic stuff.
Events 41 & 42: The Open 100m free individuals now, and Vicky’s second individual of the evening, Sam stepping up for his first. Fourth place to both swimmers in notoriously tight events.

So it was nearly time for the final stretch of relays, a quick recap of the points at this stage:

Linslade Crusaders   147 points
Stourbridge B          144 points
Dunstable                138 points
Camphill B                97 points
Stratford B                90 points

Things were looking tight and it was vital that we had some good relay results to maintain second position.

Events 43 & 44: The 11 and under medley relay, girls – a great race, second place, well done. Boys, unfortunately a DQ here for the fly leg, however, as I’ve said this is my fault so no need to be worried about it.
Events 45 & 46: The 13 and under freestyle relay, third place for both the boys and girls here, both were very close races.
Events 47 & 48: The 15 and under medley teams, third place for the girls, this with some swimming up three age groups so really well done, only narrowly missing out on second place. Boys, unfortunately we got another DQ here, for a flyer, but I would like to say a big well done to Jake Seed for taking on board his fly leg of this relay with strength and courage, despite being half the size of any of his competitors! It is scary swimming up three age groups but you really held your own, well done.
Events 49 & 50: Last two events, the open 6 x 2 free relays. Always difficult to know who to choose in such a relay, the ladies managing a fourth place here, some splits disappointing, but due to the lack of numbers and some swimmers doing two individuals, I think everyone was a bit shattered by this point. Well done anyway girls. The lads did well, second place for Stourbridge in this event, I couldn’t help but feel that given another 5m of pool, Nick would have taken first place for us in this race! Some cracking splits in this relay guys, with our two coaches, Pete and Marc really making the difference in this race, and pulling us up a few places. Well done all.

So it was all over…we could slowly start contemplating the loooong drive back to the Midlands. Final gala points were given as follows:

Linslade Crusaders    182 points
Dunstable                165 points
Stourbridge B          163 points
Camphill B               113 points
Stratford Sharks B    108 points

Clearly a slight disappointment here for all involved. We obviously have the ability to achieve top two placings in these galas, we just need to sort out the DQs and the goggle issues and we’ll be sorted! Overall I was pleased with the way that everyone swum, and hopefully all the coaches are aware of what we need to work on over the next few weeks.

The team were as follows: 11s: Sam Donaldson, Luke Shaw, Ryan Spoor, Jarryd Aston-Baugh, Lauren Evans, Alice Maycock, Jess Hickman, Phoebe Cook, 13s: Ellie Lord, Hayley Davis-Moore, Becky Cole, Becky Irwin, Matt Jones, Jake Seed, Tim Wooliscroft, Tom Green, 15s: David Janes, Peter Rought, Richard Spoor, Lisa Henderson, Georgina Chuter, Becky Spoor, Open: Charlotte Simkins, Vicky Benton, Nick Cruchley, Sam Cruchley, Pete Woodhams and Marc Soulsby.

Many thanks to all the swimmers once again, you were fantastic, please endeavour to keep the next round date free – its most likely I will need you all again!! The second round is on the 11th December, venue to be announced. Thanks to all my helpers, Brigitte, Traci, Sian, Maria, Pete, Toni and Marc.

Just one negative thing to add in here - litter. I was disgusted by the amount of litter I had to pick up off the coach when we got back to PTC. I did ask you all to pick up your litter about ten minutes before we arrived back; however, I picked up no less than eleven crisp packets, two drink bottles, and numerous other wrappers. Kids…come on, this isn’t your coach, have some respect for our driver who has to clean the coach when he gets back, before he can go home! I do not want a repeat of this, ever. I do have some lost property to report though – there was a lunch box on the coach, in a Next carrier bag, which I still have, so if this is yours, please let me know. I also still have a black hairbrush from the gala at Wombourne the previous week.

Oh and a new thing for the Speedo League only, swimmer of the round – someone who I think deserves a special recognition for their contribution to the gala. This month I could not decide on one swimmer so have decided to give two prizes out. One goes to Lisa Henderson for two fantastic 100m breaststroke events merely six events apart, truly outstanding, well done. The other goes to Jake Seed for taking the bull by the horns and swimming up in the 15s and under medley relay. There is a bag of Haribo waiting for both of you next time I see you!

That’s all folks (if you’ve got this far!)

Becky Simkins

B Team Manager
 

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