1st round of the Winter league - Hinckley. 4/5
Last weekend, the squad travelled to Hinckley to compete in the first round of the Autumn League. With a very depleted girls team, and in a new division, we were completley unaware of how the team would fair against their new rivals. With Rachel having to time keep, girls Captain Vicky Moore took up the role of team manager, with her fellow Captains Ian Burdett and Jess McGeown helping out Debbie Spicer stewarding the swimmers. Swimming apart, what was evident again at this gala was the clubs team spirit; having lane 1, there was always a line of yellow along the pool cheering on teammate which was great to see. Despite some really great swims, unfortunatly, 4th was all we could manage this round missing so many swimmers (maning some very tired swimmers! 
). Having said this, as you can see below, there were loads of PB’s, which is the main thing and goes to show how hard everyone really did try
| Abigail | Newton | 25m | BK | 24.94 | 24.29 |
| Abigail | Newton | 25m | Fly | ***** | 24.94 |
| Beth | Tomlinson | 50m | Brst | ***** | 1.39.23 |
| Rachel | Hockedy | 25m | FC | ***** | 20.24 |
| Emma | Nelson | 50m | FC | ***** | 41.22 |
| Emma | Nelson | 100m | FC | ***** | 1.36.47 |
| Alice | Cowley | 100m | BK | 1.20.78 | 1.20.22 |
| Alice | Cowley | 100m | Fly | ***** | 1.28.09 |
| Natalie | King | 50m | BK | 45.91 | 42.45 |
| Blake | Russell | 25m | Br | ***** | 24.60 |
| Adam | Crook Rumsey | 100m | Br | 1.26.78 | 1.26.57 |
| Jake | Spicer | 25m | Fly | 16.83 | 16.58 |
| Jake | Spicer | 50m | Br | 48.37 | 44.05 |
| Mark | Crook Rumsey | 100m | FC | 57.64 | 56.63 |
| Charlie | Stevenson | 100m | BK | ***** | 1.29.52 |
| Billy | Wells | 50m | FC | 38.61 | 36.99 |
| Ian | Burdett | 100m | Br | 18.85 | 1.18.65 |
Here is also relay splits that were faster than previous best times (but not official)
| Abigail | Newton | 25m | FC | 19.45 | 18.7 |
| Abigail | Newton | 25m | Brst | 28.4 | 26.58 |
| Beth | Tomlinson | 50m | FC | 38.44 | 37.06 |
| Emma | Nelson | 50m | FC | 42.94 | 39.09 |
| Emma | Nelson | 25m | BK | ***** | 24.42 |
| Alice | Cowley | 50m | FC | 32.77 | 31.94 |
| Natalie | King | 50m | FC | 41.95 | 39.77 |
| Kyra | Blagden | 25m | FC | ***** | 19.60 |
| Kyra | Blagden | 25m | BK | ***** | 23.76 |
| Adam | Crook Rumsey | 50m | FC | 31.48 | 31.03 |
| Adam | Crook Rumsey | 50m | Br | 40.87 | 40.41 |
| Mark | Crook Rumsey | 50m | Fly | 27.41 | 26.77 |
| Mark | Crook Rumsey | 50m | FC | 25.47 | 25.16 |
| Charlie | Stevenson | 50m | FC | 35.44 | 35.24 |
| Jack | Insley | 50m | FC | 31.88 | 29.97 |
| Jack | Bearpark | 25m | BK | ***** | 21.32 |
New for this year, am going to introduce an award which will be presented for each gala. The Star Swimmer will be awarded to the swimmer seen to stand out, not necessarily in their swims, but for helping the team; cheering, helping the stewards etc. The decision will be made between myself, the team manager, captain and steward. It was a tough choice this round with some really great team members, two that were nominated were Alex Callender for his cheering and Abi Newton for gaining a rather large bump on her head after her goggles came off, but she didn’t stop swimming, infact didn’t even stop swimming when she got to the wall ad swam straight into it….now there’s commitment! However after much deliberation, we have in fact decided to award it to 3 swimmers this round. These are 3 swimmers who had a lot on their plate this weekend, having to swim not only races in their own age group, but also the one above. Despite having up to 7 races each, I didn’t hear them moan once, and they got very valuble points for the team. Therefore the 
Star Swimmers this round were Emma Nelson, 
Natalie King and 
Beth Tomlinson. Well done girls, you will recieve a certificate at training this week.
The next round is on 7th Feb, the team list is up on the board already so please check it. With a full team, the club has a lot of potential next round!
Well done everyone, and thanks to everyone that helped
Suzi
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As I was Timekeeping at the gala my report is a brief one.
Well done to everyone who took part especially the 13/u girls Natalie, Emma, Beth who had to swim up in age as well as their own races. Having a massive 19 races between them.
I did notice that there had been great improvements with takeovers and sprint finishes. We have to keep practicing these and im sure we can get even faster.
We had some fantastic swims both individually and in the relays.
It was lovely to see Fiona and Chris had made a special effort to be there coming back from university to swim for us again.
Suzi informs me that we did really well on the PB front I think totalling over 15. I will let her go into more detail in her report.
A special thank you goes out to Cath, Diane and Alan who stepped in at the last minute to do the recorders table it was really appreciated even though we were not meant to be organising the gala!
On a much sadder note for me I was informed by a couple of people at the end of this gala that their were a couple of people swimming no names but I know who you were that you were only swimming because their parents made them and they didn’t really want to be there. I find this really upsetting. I think the majority of us love this sport and get a lot from it !
I will not be offended it you remove your names from the gala sheets and don’t compete in them anymore. Please remember that none of us get paid for being at galas we are there for you, so that you can improve and be fantastic swimmers and get pleasure from competing as part of a fantastic team.
Rachel McGeown Team Manager 01530 224675
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