Newbury District Swimming Club

Youth quartet string excellent performances together at Regional Championships

Four of Newbury's A Squad swimmers took on the best swimmers in the South East in the recent Regional Youth Championships held in Crawley and Guildford.
Jake Jezzard, competing in the 15/16 year age group, won gold in the 200m Backstroke final in 2.13.19s, having qualified second fastest. He also claimed more medals with the silver in the 50m Backstroke final in 28.94s and bronze in the 200m freestyle final in 2.01.30s. Continuing a string of fine performances, he qualified for the finals in the 100m backstroke, finishing 4th in 1.02.26s and the 200m Individual Medley, coming sixth in the final in 2.21.44s. He also finished a commendable 5th in the gruelling 400m Individual Medley in under 5 minutes, touching in 4.59.73s.
Louise McFadzen continued to show her class across all disciplines, qualifying for a hat trick of finals, again in the 15/16 year age group. She came an excellent 4th in the 50m Butterfly in 30.66s, fifth in the long distance 800m in 9.40.72s, sixth in the 200m freestyle final in 2.13.70, as well as two sevenths in the 100m backstroke in 1.08.70s and the 200m Individual Medley in 2.34.54s.
Harry Willingale also competed in the 15/16 year old age group, with a sub-60 performance in the 100m Freestyle, finishing in 59.68 seconds and Rory Butcher, now competing in the 17 years and over category, scored an excellent 26.53s in the 50m freestyle.

Triple gold for Hannah Waddington & Joe Seward

Newbury swimmers headed off to neighbouring club Reading's annual developmental gala last weekend with fantastic success, heading home with yet another sack full of medals and PB's.
Fourteen year old Hannah Waddington won a hat trick of golds in the 100m Breaststroke (1.28.32s), Individual Medley (1.14.48s) and Butterfly (1.14.99s), matched by eleven year old team mate Joe Seward who scored triple gold in the 100m Butterfly (1.37.35s), Individual Medley (1.27.19s) and Freestyle (1.15.60s).
Sasie Spencer and Alice Points won 2 golds, a silver and a bronze apiece; Sasie triumphant in the thirteen year olds 100m IM in 1.25.62s and the 100m Backstroke in 1.23.06s and Alice winning the 100m Freestyle in 1.25.34s and 100m Breaststroke in 1.48.78 in the 10 and under age category.
Sixteen year old Samantha Farquhar continued the success for the girls with 3 silvers in the 100m freestyle (1.09.98s), 100m Breaststroke (1.34.87s) and 100m Fly in 1.23.25s and two bronzes in the 100m IM and 100m Backstroke.
It was also a great day for Amy Quesada-Getgood who was victorious in the 100m Butterfly in the 11 year old age group, touching home in 1.54.76s. Amy also earned herself 3 silvers on the day in the 100m IM, Freestyle and Backstroke.
Success was also flowing freely for the boys, with a trio of silvers for Kieron Cartledge in the boys 10 and under 100m free (1.34.94s), 100m Back (1.48.20s) and the 200m IM (1.46.43s) and in the same age group Luca Vicaria won a smashing gold in the 50m freestyle in 41.53 and two bronzes in the 100m freestyle and 100m IM. Sam Marriott took a brace of silvers in the eleven your olds' 100m Breastsroke in 2.01.92s and 100m Backstroke in 1.46.30s and Callum Parsons a silver and bronze in the 50m free (33.03s) and 100m Back (1.27.35s respectively.
And finally the Newbury medal haul was bolstered even further by a silver for twelve year old Frankie Twyford in the 50m freestyle (34.72s), excellent bronzes for Hannah Russell (15) with two thirds in the 100m Breaststroke (1.35.44s) and 100m Butterfly (1.29.31s), ten year old Bethany Wood in the 50m freestyle in 41.44 seconds and twelve year old Jennifer Orr in 37.52 seconds in the same event.

Triple Gold and 3 new British Masters Records for Dave Milburn

Newbury Master Dave Milburn smashed three British Masters records at the recently held British Master Championships in Sheffield. Swimming in the 50-54 age group, Dave made a clean sweep of the breaststroke events over three days, firstly winning the 100m Breaststroke in 1:11.94s, knocking 2.6 seconds off the record, followed by the 200m Breaststroke in 2:40.70s, 3.5 secs faster than the previous record and lastly the 50m Breaststroke 32.53s, 0.23 secs faster than the record.
Dave now has his sights set on the World Masters Championships in Riccione in Italy in June.
There were also two other Newbury Masters competing in Sheffield. Graham Nicholson came 8th in the 50m Fly in a lifetime personal best time of 30.33s and 5th in the 50m Freestyle in 27.01s in the 45-49 age group and Fernando Vicaria came 6th in the 100m Freestyle in 59.26 in the 40-44 age group, also a personal best.

Eight golds for Zara at Crawley.

Zara Ryan led the way for Newbury at the Level 1 Crawley long course swimming meet winning 8 golds in the 12-13 age category and a silver at last weekend's regional and national chaser meet.
Zara won golds in the 100m free (1.02.85s), 200m free (2.11.81s), 400m free (5.38.74s), 400m IM (5.16.69s), 200m Fly (2.28.09s), 100m Fly (1.06.64s), 200m IM (2.30.04s) and the 100m Breaststroke in 1.18.30s, with a silver in the 200m breaststroke in 2.52.01s.
Millie Pope also won double gold, making a clean sweep of the fly events in the 10-11 years category, winning the 100m in 1.13.33s and 200m in 2.44.07s and came 4th in the 200m IM in 2.47.05s.
Jack Tucker won an excellent bronze in the gruelling 400m IM in the same age group for the boys in 6.10.99s, whilst James McFadzen scored a trio of fourth places in the 200m IM (2.32.45s), 100m Backstroke (1.08.23s) and the 200m Breaststroke (2.53.30s), with sister LouLou also achieving a commendable fourth in the 100m Backstroke in 1.08.66s.

Magnificent Seven Finals Medal at Portsmouth's Easter Meet

There were no days off for chocolate eating for Newbury's swimmers as they headed to the south coast to the Portsmouth Northsea Easter Swim Festival, held over three days of the Easter break.
Newbury gained a magnificent seven finals medals at this Level 1 long course meet, three of which went to Zara Ryan in the thirteen and under category, taking gold in the 200m Individual Medley in 2.28.35s and two silvers in the 100m Breaststroke (1.18.37s) and 200m Freestyle (2.11.66s).
James McFadzen was close behind in the same age group for the boys with a gold in the final of the 50m Butterfly in 31.92s and a silver in the 100m Backstroke in 1.08.34s.
Millie Pope swam well above her age picking up the silver in the thirteen and under 200m Butterfly final in 2.40.03s and Jake Jezzard represented the senior boys well, taking bronze in the 14 and over final of the 200m Backstroke in 2.15.21s.

BAGCAT Award for Lucy at Horsham

A small group of Newbury swimmers competed at the Atlantis Horsham Regional Chaser Meet on March 25th. Thirteen year old Lucy Wilkins won the BAGCAT trophy for her age group after wins in the 200m Individual Medley in 2.50.03s and the 100m Freestyle in 1.22.94s, silvers in the 100m and 200m Breaststroke events and a bronze in the 200m Butterfly in 2.31.09s. Fellow thirteen year olds, Lizzy Shore and Sasie Spencer took gold and bronze in the 400m freestyle in 5.01.36s and 5.12.98s respectively.
Avani Gill won an excellent gold in the ten year olds 200m backstroke in 3.01.29s and Imogen Barrett took home a brace of silvers in the twelve year old age category for the 400m freestyle (5.19.25s) and 200m Butterfly (3.11.50s).

Newbury finalists in Thames Valley Junior League.

Newbury District Swimming Club competed in the final of the Thames Valley Junior League recently which turned out to be a nail-biting finale to the competition. The six teams, Amersham, Maidenhead, Windsor, Abingdon, Bracknell and Newbury all fielded their strongest swimmers.
The competition started very close with each of the 6 teams notching up at least 1 first place in the first 8 races, the Medley relays. Newbury took first in the boys' 9 year old medley and second in the boys' 11 year old relay. Amersham managed to take an early lead after 16 events but there was just a few points separating second to sixth, Newbury held 5th.
There were some significant swims from Newbury in the individual events. First places went to Millie Pope in the 11 year old 50m Fly, Molly Dummett in the 10 year old 50m backstroke, Imogen Jones in 12 year olds 50m backstroke and Ryan Sitton in the 11 year olds 50m backstroke.
After 32 events Newbury were still in 5th place on 102 points, but only 10 behind Windsor in 2nd place. With just the Freestyle relays to go, Newbury fought hard but did not manage to find enough points to move a place and finished 5th.
The team was made up of Imogen Jones, Annabel Mangan, Millie Pope, Charlotte Morton, Matt Pudney, Ben Hutchins, Ben Hall, Charlie Knight ,Avani Gill, Alice Points, Ruth Wyatt, Molly Dummett, Jordan Hobbs, Keiron Cartledge, Max Hall, Sam Garland ,Jenny Orr, Molly Dummett, Lauren Kernan, Antonia Woodgates, Holly Hutchins, Lucy Quesada Getgood, Grace Twyford ,Ryan Sitton, Ben Hutchins, Joe Seward, Warwick Buckland, Ellis Dixon, Luca Vicaria, Brennan Cherry, Olivia Ginja, Thomas Morton, Ellie Cowan, Elliott Rickerby and James McLaughlin.
The final positions were.
1. Amersham 196 points
2. Windsor 176 Points
3. Maidenhead 158 Points
4. Bracknell 142 Points
5. Newbury 135 Points
6. Abingdon 90 points

Jordan and Ruth lead the way at Bracknell as Newbury bag 72 medals in a day !

Ten year olds Jordan Hobbs and Ruth Wyatt topped the NDSC medal table after a fantastic day for NDSC at the Bracknell Level 3 long course meet, held at the Olympic sized pool at Aldershot Garrison, in which Newbury swimmers ended the day on a massive count of 72 medals.
Jordan bagged four golds in the 100m Backstroke (1.30.76s), 200m Freestyle (2.55.47s), 50m Backstroke (42.50s) and 50m Freestyle (36.38s) and a pair of silvers in the 50m Butterfly (45.04s) and 50m breaststroke (36.38s), whilst Ruth secured three golds in the 100m and 200m freestyle in times of 1.21.17s and 2.50.91s respectively and the 50m backstroke in 42.17s, together with a bronze in the 100m Backstroke in a time of 1.33.13s.
The youngsters continued to lead the way showing the strength and depth coming up through the squads with eleven year old Molly Dummett adding 2 golds and an impressive 5 silvers to the loot. Molly's golds came in the 50m Backstroke (38.95s) and freestyle (34.85s) events, with her quintet of seconds in the 100m (1.13.78s) & 200m freestyle (2.44.46s), 100m Breaststroke (1.40.97s) and Backstroke (1.22.27s) and 50m Fly (40.03s).
The thirteen year old girls had a strong day with clean sweeps of the medals in the 100m Freestyle (Lizzy Shore,1.06.88s, Fiona Crane, 1.09.09s and Louise Barlow, 1.09.96s) , 100m Breaststroke (Lizzy Shore, 1.30.75s, Fiona Crane, 1.36.00s and Lucy Wilkins, 1.36.63s) and 200m Freestyle(Fiona Crane, 2.27.32s, Lizzy Shore, 2.28.88s and Lucy Wilkins 2.34.95s). Lucy also touched home first in the 100m Butterfly in 1.23.53s and the 50m Breaststroke in 44.31s, whilst Lizzy also added another gold to her day's work in the 100m Backstroke, with Fiona taking the bronze in the same event in 1.23.44s.
Elsewhere for the girls, Avani Gill won the ten year olds 100m backstroke in 1.30.59s and came third in the 200m freestyle in 2.55.66s, whilst fellow ten year old Alice Points also got a bronze medal in the 100m Butterfly in 1.45.97s. Lauren Kernan came home third in the eleven year olds 100m Backstroke in 1.28.70s and nine year old Holly Hutchins took the bronze in the 50m Breaststroke in 50.77s.
Imogen Jones had another great day of swims with a pair of golds in the 100m Backstroke (1.14.95s) and 50m Backstroke (35.20s) and four bronzes in the 50m, 100m & 200m Freestyle and the 50m Butterfly.
In the older girls categories Abi Wood secured all 3 golds in the freestyle events in times of 30.66s, 1.05.78s and 2.22.28s and a bronze in the 50m Breaststroke in 41.35s, with teammate Hannah Waddington touching first to win the 100m Backstroke in 1.16.75s, three silvers in the 100m Freestyle and Butterfly and a brace of bronzes in the 200m freestyle and 50m Fly, whilst Erin Laverton took home the silver in the fifteen year old age group in the 50m Backstroke in 37.17s.
The boys' day was equally as successful. Ten year old Sam Garland won a gold in the 100m freestyle in 1.23.04s and a bronze in the 100m Backstroke in 1.38.95s. Jack Tucker continued his excellent season with a tidy half dozen medals for his day's work; two golds (100m Fly & 200m Freestyle), two silvers (100m Backstroke & 50m Freestyle) and two bronzes (50m Backstroke & Breastroke). Ben Hutchins again showed his strength in the Breaststroke discipline winning the 100m event for the eleven year olds in 1.28.13s, also taking a bronze in the 200m freestyle in 2.49.45s.Ryan Sitton took silver in the 200m Freestyle in 2.38.93s and Callum Parsons a bronze in the 50m Backstroke in 42.17s.
Harry Willingale showed his strength, winning medals across all four strokes with gold in the 100m Breaststroke in 1.21.65s, silvers in the 50m Butterfly and Backstroke and bronzes in the 100m Backstroke and 200m Freestyle, also bagging a silver in the 100m Freestyle in a time of 1.00.01s, agonisingly close to hitting his goal of a sub-60 second long course 100m.
The successes of the day were rounded off nicely with medals 71 & 72 in the evening's Level 1 Distance Meet with eleven year old Millie Pope taking gold in the 800m event in 10.25.70s and Jake Jezzard also winning the 16 year olds boys 1500m race in 17.15.63s.

Another fourteen medals for NDSC at County Champs

NDSC continued their medal haul at this year's County Championships with a further 7 golds, 5 silvers and 2 bronzes on day 4.
Zara Ryan, Millie Pope and Imogen Jones were the day's golden girls winning 3, 2 and 1 gold respectively.
Zara once again dominated the 13 year old age group winning the 400m Freestyle in 4.32.21s, the 50m Breaststroke in 36.52s and the 100m Individual Medley in 1.08.70s, which also earned her the Junior Championship title in that event.
Millie Pope secured two golds in the 400m Freestyle in 5.00.94 s and the 100m Individual Medley in 1.18.97s, whilst Imogen Jones continued her winning run of backstroke performances striking gold in the 50m event for the twelve year olds in 34.22s.
Imogen and Zara also qualified in the Junior Championship final in the 50m Backstroke coming 7th and 8th in times of 33.84s and 34.67s respectively.
Loulou McFadzen finished fourth in the 15 year old age group which also saw her through to the Championship final, finishing 5th in a time of 32.02s.
It was also a successful day for the boys. Jake Jezzard collected gold in the 100m IM in a time of 1.02.47s and a brace of bronzes in the 400m freestyle in 4.14.81s and the 50m backstroke in 28.58s. Jake's backstroke performance was enough to see him through to the County Championship final in which he finished 5th overall.
Jack Tucker and James McFadzen continued the boys successful day, with two silvers apiece; Jack in the twelve year old age category in the 50m Backstroke in 36.13s and 100m IM in 1.18.47s and James in the 13 year olds in the same events in 31.18s and 1.10.07s. James also competed in the 50m Backstroke Junior Championship final, finishing 7th overall.
Eleven year old Ben Hutchins again swam a magnificent 50m Breaststroke in 38.49s to take silver.
Unfortunately, the event was abandoned before the end of the day's programme, which meant that the Relay events could not be completed.

NDSC increase medal haul at County Champs Long Distance Events

Half a dozen Newbury swimmers competed in the long distance meet of this year's County Championships held at the 50m pool at Aldershot Garrison.
First up was 11 year old Millie Pope in the girls 800m freestyle, who led at every split time to start the day off in winning style taking gold in 10.29.42 seconds. Twelve year old Imogen Jones then secured a commendable 5th place in a new PB of 10.42.95 seconds and Zara Ryan took the second gold of the day for the ladies in the thirteen year old age group in 9.35.13 seconds, again taking the field by storm, leading her age group at every split. This also gave her a silver in the Junior Championship placings and bronze in the overall County Championship placings for the long distance event.
The girls medal haul was completed by 15 year old Louise McFadzen, who took the bronze in her age category in 9.46.90 seconds.
Matthew Pudney then started off the boys' campaign with a silver in the gruelling 1500m freestyle, coming home in a time of 20.36.94 seconds, with older team mate Jake Jezzard also taking silver in the hard fought 15/16 year category in a time of 17.18.78 seconds, also giving him the overall silver in the County Championship placings for the long distance competition.
This weekend sees the final events of this year's competition with many Newbury swimmers again competing to round off this year's championships.

British Record breakers and 2012 Olympic Trials for NDSC

Having qualified for the 100m Butterfly, our very own Zara Ryan was lucky enough to be one of the first swimmers to compete in the fantastic all-new Olympic Swimming Complex at the recent British Gas Championships, which also doubled up as the UK swimming trial for the forthcoming London 2012 Olympics.
At just thirteen years of age, Zara was one of the youngest competitors at the open age group event, which saw such household names as Rebecca Adlington and Liam Tancock book their places in the UK team for the London Olympics.
Accompanied by Derek, making a return to his East End roots, Zara recorded a fantastic time of 1.05.37 seconds in the first heat of the 100m Butterfly, knocking a whopping 1.16 seconds off her previous lifetime best.
Just six years after swimming in her first competitive events like the Thames Valley Junior League, Zara was competing in the same event as Sweden's World Record holder, Sarah Sjoestroem, who recorded a time of 58.28 seconds in a later heat.
On the day, Zara's time was the third fastest of the thirteen year olds in the whole country competing in the event.

Meanwhile, our superstar Masters' Breastsroker Dave Milburn set a new British record in the 200m Breaststroke, competing at the Bracknell Masters Open Meet. Dave has just moved up into the 50-54 age group and smashed nearly 5 seconds off the previous record of 2.40.39 seconds, cheered home by a large number of fellow Newbury Masters swimmers. After coming home in 2.35.81 seconds Dave commented, "At the end of the race the first thing I heard was an enormous cheer, so I guessed I had broken the record. I was hoping to break it by a few 10ths of a second and was very surprised when I turned to the electronic scoreboard and realised I had knocked almost 5 seconds off the existing record!"

The time gives Dave a Fina World Ranking in the Masters All Time Top 10 for the 200m Breaststroke in the 50-54 age group with the 7th fastest time.

At the end of the day Dave was also awarded Male Swimmer of the Competition, based on the highest number of Fina points (age adjusted) for his best 5 events.

He is now planning to enter the British Masters Long Course Championships at Sheffield in May and possibly the World Masters Championships in Italy in June.

Newbury Triumph in Thames Valley Junior League

A team of Newbury's best 33 junior swimmers took part in the second round of the Thames Valley Junior League at Bracknell Leisure Centre. They were up against Windsor, Chesham, Chalfont and Bracknell swim clubs.
The competition consists of 43 head to head relays and individual races. The event started well for Newbury with the 12 year old girls (Imogen Jones, Annabel Mangan, Millie Pope, Charlotte Morton) taking 2nd place in the Medley relay while the 12 year old boys (Matt Pudney, Ben Hutchins, Ben Hall, Charlie Knight) managed third place. There were also second place finishes for the 10 year old girls (Avani Gill, Alice Points, Ruth Wyatt, Molly Dummett), the 10 year old boys (Jordan Hobbs, Keiron Cartledge, Max Hall, Sam Garland), the 11 year old girls (Jenny Orr, Molly Dummett, Millie Pope, Lauren Kernan) and the 9 year old girls (Antonia Woodgates, Holly Hutchins, Lucy Quesada Getgood, Grace Twyford) medley relays. First place fell to the 11 year old boys (Ryan Sitton, Ben Hutchins, Jack Tucker, Joe Seward) and the 9 year old boys (Warwick Buckland, Ellis Dixon, Luca Vicaria, Brennan Cherry) in the medley relay.
After the first 16 events Newbury were placed second overall, but only 2 points behind Bracknell. With the lead in sight the individual swimmers raised their game. Millie Pope (Twice), Lauren Kernan, Jack Tucker, Molly Dummett (Twice) and Ben Hutchins all won their events. Second places went to Alice Points, Jordan Hobbs, Annabel Mangan, Millie Pope and Ryan Sitton. Imogen Jones, Keiron Cartledge, Charlie Knight, Ruth Wyatt, Max Hall and Ben Hall all finished well only just outside the top two in their individual events.
The result of this push saw Newbury climb into first place after 32 events. The excitement was gripping but with only a 3 point lead on 164 points, Newbury still had work to do.
The 9 year old mixed medley (Holly Hutchins, Grace Twyford, Thomas Morton, Luca Vicaria) and mixed free style relay (Antonia Woodgates, Ellis Dixon, Luca Vicaria, Olivia Ginja) teams put Newbury in good standing with a third and first place respectively. So it was all down to the freestyle relays to hold the winning position. The 9 year old girls (Holly Hutchins, Lucy Quesada Getgood, Olivia Ginja, Grace Twyford) managed second place and the 9 year old boys (Warwick Buckland, Thomas Morton, Luca Vicaria, Brennan Cherry) came 3rd. Next up were the 10 year old girls (Avani Gill, Alice Points, Ruth Wyatt, Molly Dummett) who won their race with an outstanding performance. In the remaining 6 relays Newbury took second place with strong performance from Elliott Rickerby and James McLaughlin. This was enough to give Newbury a 5 point lead and first place in the second round of the Thames Valley Junior League. The win secured Newbury a place in the final at Maidenhead on 3rd March. The final positions were.
1. Newbury 207 points
2. Windsor 202 Points
3. Bracknell 199 Points
4. Chesham 142 Points
5. Chalfont 82 points

Winning ways at Wycombe for NDSC

NDSC travelled to High Wycombe for the weekend for their annual Level 1 Long Course Meet, competing against over 20 other clubs across a range of age groups for both boys and girls.
First off were the girls in the 100m Breaststroke with Molly Dummett setting the pace in 1.36.09, four seconds inside her entry time to win the 10 year old age category. The boys got off to an equally good start with James McFadzen and Jake Jezzard both winning their 100m Backstroke age groups; James in a fantastic new PB of 1.08.10, just 0.9 seconds away from his National Qualifying Time and Jake in 1.02.25seconds.
The girls' success continued with nine year old Olivia Ginja winning the 50m Butterfly in 52.11seconds, competing in her first long course gala. Millie Pope scored her first gold of the weekend in a new PB of 34.71s and Molly Dummett was third in a time of 40.84seconds in the 10 year old age group, nearly 2 seconds inside her entry time and Avani Gill scored a PB in 42.60 seconds.
James McFadzen then scored his second gold of the morning winning the boys 13 year old 50m Breaststroke in 37.16s and Harry Willingale won his age group in the same event in 37.88seconds.
Flipping onto their backs, Molly Dummett continued her successful performances with a silver in the 200m event in 2.56.03s and Ruth Wyatt set a new PB in 3.15.90secs.
Despite being drawn in Lane 6, James McFadzen powered to a 2.20.08s PB in the 200m Freestyle to take third, while Harry Willingale and Jake Jezzard both took the silver In their categories.
Lois Ryan then started the next session with a fabulous win in the nine year olds 200m IM in 3.25.31 seconds, a new PB, with older sister Zara making it a family double by winning the event for the thirteen year olds in 2.29.80 seconds, tantalisingly close to the NQT, missing it by less than a second.
Harry Willingale added another solid swim in the 100m Freestyle to take gold in a time of 1.02.43s and Jake Jezzard touched in third for the 16 year olds in 58.48 seconds.
In the girls 100m Fly, Millie Pope swam a great 0.57second PB in 1.15.48 seconds to take another gold, as did Zara Ryan in 1.09.09secs.
In the final boys’ swims of day 1, Ryan Sitton took the bronze in the 50m Backstroke 11year old age group in a time of 40.18secs, with James McFadzen and Jake Jezzard repeated their golden double for Newbury in times of 33.26s and 29.42seconds, a brilliant sub-30 second swim.
The girls finished off their day with Lois Ryan winning silver in the 200m breaststroke in 3.49.93 seconds, Molly Dummett taking bronze in 3.30.64 seconds and Zara Ryan gold in 2.54.57seconds.
Sunday saw many of the swimmers returning for a second day of competition with Molly Dummett and Millie Pope joined my team mate Imogen Jones in the 100m Backstroke, with Molly & Imogen immediately getting off to a flying start with golds in their age group in times of 1.22.76s, a new PB, and 1.16.70s and Millie finishing in a new PB of 1.19.86 from lane 6 just pipped to fourth outside the medals.
Jake then added another bronze to his collection in the 50m Fly in 28.95s, a gold in the 200m Backstroke in 2.14.75s and silver in the 100m Butterfly, whilst twins Avani & Ajai Gill celebrated their tenth birthday with a number of PB's and a bronze for Avani in the 50m Backstroke in 41.40 seconds. In the girls 200m Freestyle Molly Dummett and Millie Pope both won silvers in PB's of 2.45.08secs and 2.30.41 respectively.
In the last session of the weekend, Harry Willingale continued Newbury's winning ways claiming the gold in a PB of 2.31.44seconds, with Jake Jezzard adding another silver to his weekend's work also a new PB in 2.18.33seconds.
Next up was the girls 100m Freestyle, with Millie Pope taking the bronze in 1.10.30seconds and Imogen Jones swimming a new PB in 1.09.99seconds; Imogen then adding gold to her medal tally in the 50m Backstroke in a new PB of 36.23s.
Harry added yet another PB in the 50m Freestyle in 28.72 seconds to give himself another bronze to take home.
In the last event of the weekend for the girls, Lois Ryan and Olivia Ginja made it a one-two for Newbury in the gruelling 200m Butterfly in times of 3.53.91s and 4.35.80seconds, with a bronze for Millie Pope in 2.50.39secs and a gold for Zara Ryan in a PB of 2.26.27 seconds.
The boys rounded off the weekend with the 200m Breaststroke with time trials from Harry Willingale in 3.00.06seconds and Jake Jezzard in 2.50.07s.

Windsor Report

NDSC continued their busy start to 2012 with a string of royal performances at the Windsor Open Meet.
Zara Ryan was queen of the medals with 5 golds in the 100m Breaststroke (1.18.50s), 200m Breaststroke (2.46.56s), 200m IM (2.26.22s), 400m IM (5.10.35s) and a fantastic National Qualifying Time to win the 100m Butterfly in 1.05.75s and a silver in the 200m Freestyle (2.12.07s).
Ten year old Molly Dummett took her age group by storm winning a gold in the 200m Breaststroke in 3.24.38s, four silvers in the 100m Freestyle (1.12.79s), 100m Backstroke (1.22.96s), 100m Breaststroke (1.36.17s) and the 200m IM in 3.00.53s, coming home third to take the bronze in the 200m Backstroke in 2.53.19s. Also in the same age group, young Alice Points took gold in the 200m Butterfly in 3.34.70s.
In the eleven year old age group, Millie Pope reigned supreme in the Butterfly events taking gold in both the 100m in 1.14.81s and 200m in 2.46.80s.
Imogen Jones and Imogen Barrett both earned medals in the twelve year old category with two silvers in the backstroke events (1.14.83s & 2.36.62s) and a bronze in the 200m Butterfly (3.07.01s) respectively.
In the older girls age groups, Loulou McFadzen had an excellent meet with 3 silvers (200m freestyle in 2.15.20s, 100m backstroke in 1.05.99s and the 200m IM in 2.31.19s) and 2 bronzes (200m Backstroke in 2.21.70s and 100m Butterfly in 1.09.10s) in a highly competitive age 15 grouping and Sam Farquhar earned a gold in the 200m IM in 2.48.67s and bronze in the 200m Freestyle in 2.28.31s in the 16 year old category.
Competition was also fierce for the boys with Jake Jezzard and Harry Willingale only taking minor placings in the 100m Freestyle, despite both swimming sub-60 second times of 56.76s and 59.99s.
Jake went on to take 4 silvers in the 200m Freestyle in 2.00.11s, just missing out on breaking the 2 minute mark, the 100m Backstroke in 1.00.60s, the 200m Backstroke in 2.10.81s and the 200m Butterfly in 2.20.61s and two bronzes in the 100m Fly in 1.01.96s and the 200m IM in 2.15.95s.
Eleven year old Ben Hutchins continued his fantastic string of performances in Breaststroke events with bronzes in both the 100m and 200m events in 1.29.65s and 3.06.57s.
James McFadzen also had a successful weekend with a silver in the 200m Breaststroke in 2.50.58s and a brace of bronzes in the 100m Breaststroke in 1.20.28s and the 200m IM in 2.33.32s.
Overall Newbury finished in an admirable 6th place out of 20, once again finishing above many larger clubs with bigger teams of swimmers.

Newbury off to a strong start in the Thames Valley Junior League

The NDSC junior swim team got off to a strong start in the first round of the Thames Valley Junior League on Saturday with a solid 3rd place. With the Medley relays to start, the 10 Year old girls, Avani Gill, Ellie Cowan, Ruth Wyatt and Molly Dummett snatched first place in 1.15.81s along with the 11 year old boys, Ryan Sitton, Ben Hutchins, Jack Tucker and Matt Smith in 1.11.17s. The 9 year old boys came in first but were unfortunately disqualified for a close takeover. There were 3 second placing with the boys 12 & 10 year olds and the girls 11 year olds. After the medley relays Newbury were in joint 3rd place.
On to the individual events and there were wins for Millie Pope and Jack Tucker and double successes for Molly Dummett and Ryan Sitton, closely followed by two excellent second places for Max Hall and further commendable seconds for Imogen Jones and Ben Hutchins. The 9 year old mixed medley relay team also managed a second place in 1.25.53s with Lucy Quesada Getgood, Grace Twyford, Holly Hutchins and Olivia Ginja all swimming well. With just the free style relays and the squadron relay to go, the team had surged in to second place ahead of Maidenhead, but still behind Amersham.
The 12 year old boys, Ben Hall, Charlie Knight, Jack Tucker and Matt Pudney , along with the 10 year old girls, Avani Gill, Alice Points, Ruth Wyatt and Molly Dummett both managed first places in times of 1.01.28s and 1.07.25s respectively. There was a second place with the 11 year old boys, Jordan Hobbs, Keiron Cartlege, Sam Garland and Max Hall in 1.08.32s, but it was not enough to stay in second place overall and the team finished in a very respectable 3rd place.
Standings after Round 1 are:
Amersham A team 218 points
Maidenhead Marlins 187 points
Newbury 184 Points
Windsor 160 Points
Reading 100 Points
Slough & Eton 33 Points

NDSC off to a flying start in 2012

NDSC's under 14 swimmers got 2012 off to a flying start at the Basingstoke Bluefins New Year Open Meet bagging a fantastic haul of 37 medals between them, with Lucy Wilkins (13) returning with 7 medals in total and Louise Barlow (12) with six.
Nine year old Ajai Gill set the pace with a bronze in the opening 200m Freestyle event in 3.21.73s, with Ryan Sitton and Ben Hutchins also getting gold and bronze in the same event for the 11 year olds in times of 2.39.73s and 2.44.044s respectively.
Lucy Wilkins then got the girls off to an equally flying start winning the 13 year old 200m Butterfly in 2.58.81s.
The boys' success continued in the next event with Ajai adding another bronze in the 50m Breaststroke in 57.14s and Elliott Rickerby the gold for the eleven year olds in 46.26s.
The girls then went from strength to strength with 12 year old Lexi Fellows getting silver in a county qualifying time of 31.77s in the 50m freestyle, Louise Barlow taking bronze in a PB of 32.01s and Lucy Wilkins adding a second gold to her afternoon's work in 32.21s. Louise Barlow then added another gold to the tally in the 100m Breaststroke in 1.35.28s.
The boys finished the first session strongly, with Ajai Gill stepping up to take the silver in the boys 9 year old 100m IM in 1.47.48s, Jordan Hobbs winning gold in the 10 year old ctergory in 1.35.60s and Elliott Rickerby the bronze in for the eleven year olds in 1.30.74s.
The second session took the swimmers late into Saturday evening, but that didn't stop the medals and excellent swims rolling in.
Ajai Gill and Ben Hutchins put in golden performances in the 200m Backstroke in 3.29.65s and 3.04.16, with Joseph Seward coming home in a commendable 4th place for the 11 year olds in 3.13.27s.
Louise Barlow took silver in the 200m Breaststroke in 3.25.11s, closely followed by Fiona Crane in 3.25.41 for the bronze, both setting new personal best times. Lucy Wilkins also took bronze in the thirteen year old age category in 3.20.45s.
Lexi Fellows then took gold in the 50m Backstroke in 38.33s with another bronze for Fiona Crane in 38.93s for the 12 year olds and Lucy Wilkins added another bronze for the 13 year olds in 38.22s, just pipping Sasie Spencer to 4th in 38.26s.
Matt Pudney booked himself another slot at the county championships, coming home third in the 100m freestyle for the boys in 1.12.65s, whilst Lexi Fellows and Lucy Wilkins showed their strength in the 100m fly rounding off the evening for the girls with another silver and bronze in their respective age groups in 1.25.39s and 1.23.97s.
The last event of the evening was the boys' 200m IM with Joseph Seward getting silver in the eleven year olds in 3.14.86s.
Sunday morning saw a good team of Newbury swimmers reconvene in Basingstoke in the hope of elevating the medal haul even further. The swimmers didn't have to wait long before more success came their way, with Fiona Crane and Louise Barlow winning silver and bronze in the 200m freestyle in 2.31.87s and 2.32.25s, with Lucy Wilkins also adding another silver for the thirteen year olds in 2.32.55s.
Sasie Spencer won bronze in the 100m Backstroke in a time of 1.22.30s and Louise Barlow added another silver to her weekend's loot in the 100m IM in 1.24.88s.
In the final session of the weekend Sasie Spencer stormed home to take the gold in the opening 200m Backstroke event in the 13 year old age group in 2.54.65s, followed by an equally impressive gold for Elliott Rickerby in the 200m Breaststroke boys 11 year old age group in 3.38.88s.
Lucy Wilkins secured her seventh medal of the meet taking the bronze in the 50m Butterfly in 36.83s and Louise Barlow made it a half dozen of medals over the two days with a silver in the 100m Freestyle. Ajai Gill secured another bronze in the 50m Backstroke in 48.10s bringing his total to five.
In the final event of the competition nine year old Olivia Ginja took home the silver in the girls 200m IM in a time of 3.55.52s, whilst Fiona Crane took her own medal tally to four with a new PB of 2.58.92s to take bronze in the 12 year old age group.

Swimmers show stamina in final long distance rounds of NDSC Club Championships

NDSC rounded off this year's club championships with the final two rounds of long distance events at Northcroft.
Both boys and girls stepped up to the 400m freestyle event last Thursday, with many of the club's younger swimmers competing over this distance for the first time. An amazing fifteen swimmers finished within their county qualifying times in the event. For the girls in the 10 and under age group Molly Dummett (5.53.83s) and Ruth Wyatt (6.11.63s), Millie Pope (5.06.20) and Imogen Jones (5.14.99s) in the 11/12 years groupings, a trio of thirteen year olds with Zara Ryan (4.36.50s), Lizzy Shore (5.13.41s) and Lucy Wilkins (5.13.80), Abi Wood (5.02.41s)for the 14 year olds and LouLou McFadzen (4.42.57s) for the fifteen year olds. The boys enjoyed similar success with Jack Tucker (5.46.76s) for the eleven year olds, Matt Pudney (5.25.00s) in the twelve year old age group, James McFadzen (5.00.04s) for the thirteens and Luc Schreiber (4.50.00s), Harry Willingale (4.50.45s) and Jake Jezzard (4.20.80s) rounding off the evening's swims with qualifying times in the upper teenage events.
Following the excitement of the Thursday evening events, Sunday evening saw the even more gruelling 800m freestyle for girls and 1500m for boys.
The 800m and 1500m are open events with the usual age groups being combined into girls 14 years and under and ladies 15 years and over. This, however, did not stop 13 year old Zara Ryan taking the junior crown in a time of 9.31.90s, which qualifies her for the event at the 2012 Berks and South Bucks County Championships. Second and third place Abi Wood (aged 14, 10.19.16s) and Millie Pope (aged 11, 10.36.23s) also showed their stamina, coming home inside their respective qualifying times, as did 12 year old Imogen Jones in a time of 10.54.13s. Louise McFadzen won the ladies 15 years and over class in a time of 9.37.78s, which also books her place in the county championships over the distance. Young Lois Ryan took the opportunity to take a 400m split time at the halfway point, improving on her time from three days earlier to book her place alongside elder sister, Zara, in the county championships in a time of 6.27.19s.
In the boys junior event, only James McFadzen had previously competed over the 1500m distance, comfortably winning inside the county qualifying time in 19.31.77s. However, commendable swims were all completed over this maximum distance by eleven year olds Jack Tucker (23.02.90s), Ben Hutchins (23.17.12s) and Matthew Bilella (26.27.54s), twelve year old Matthew Pudney (21.13.55s) and thirteen year old Joseph Bilella in 25.59.90s.
In the upper 15 and over age group Jake Jezzard finished a strong club championships with an excellent 17.10.44s win over second place Harry Willingale who came home in 19.11.71s, knocking nearly 2 full minutes off his previously recorded time.

National Arena League: Division One West, FINAL

Not content with their own club championship events, a team of Newbury swimmers headed off to Horsham on Saturday night for the Division One West "A" Final of the National Arena Swimming League; the result of Newbury's 2nd place finishes in the two previous rounds of the competition. The team qualified for the "A" final of the event as joint 5th placed team out of the 17 Clubs competing in Division One West of the League's South Region.
The final took place on Saturday 10th December in Horsham where Newbury's opponents were Mid-Sussex Marlins, Guildford B, City of Southampton, Brighton and Maidenhead. The Newbury team comprised:
11 and Under Girls - Millie Pope, Lauren Kernan, Molly Dummett, Ruth Wyatt,
11 and Under Boys - Ben Hutchins, Jack Tucker, Elliot Rickerby, Ryan Sitton, Matthew Bilella
13/U Girls - Lucy Wilkins, Lizzie Shore, Imogen Jones, Amy McBride, Zara Ryan
13/U Boys - James McFadzen, Matthew Pudney, Will Butcher, George Tyler
15/U Girls - Louise McFadzen, Susy Hill, Abigail Wood, Paige Pope
15/U Boys - Luc Schreiber, Harry Willingale, Jafer Shah
Open Girls - Sam Farquhar
Open Boys - Dave Milburn, Fernando Vicaria, Jake Jezzard,

With a few Newbury swimmers missing from the previous rounds, the team had their work cut out with some swimmers taking part in as many as 9 races! Added to this, the opposition was a lot stronger (and their supporters a lot louder) than in previous rounds when it had been possible for Newbury to claim top three finishes in almost three-quarters of the 50 events. This time, and despite everyone' best efforts, there were only 17 top three placings and no wins for our relay swimmers. However, some fine and gutsy swims in the individual events were rewarded with first places for Jake Jezzard in Open Backstroke, Ben Hutchins in 10-11 Breaststroke, Zara Ryan in 13/U Butterfly and Jack Tucker in 10-11 Freestyle.

The final score put Newbury in sixth place with 143 points, 5th was Mid-Sussex Marlins with 146, 4th was Maidenhead with 154, 3rd was Brighton with 188, 2nd was Guildford B with 203 points and the overall winner was City of Southampton with 210 points. However despite this result, there have been some fantastic swims and PB's by Newbury swimmers throughout the series and to have qualified for the "A" final is a huge achievement in itself especially for a small and (young!) squad. All who took part should be very proud of themselves!

Avani Gill & Molly Dummett too speedy for Swindon's Santa Meet

Two of Newbury's youngest swimmers led the way at last weekend's Tigersharks' Christmas Meet in Swindon, being issued with Speeding Tickets for finishing faster than their permissable age group times. Ten year old Molly was just too fast in two events, the 100m IM, finishing in 1.24.48s and the 200m Backstroke in 2.52.26s, whilst Avani sped home in the 100m IM in 1.35.38s at just 9 years old.
Molly's weekend continued in fine form with a further three golds in the 50m Breaststroke (46.17s), 50m Backstroke (38.98s) and the 200m Breaststroke (3.31.74s), a silver in the 50m Freestyle in 34.36s and a bronze in the 200m IM in 3.02.38s.
Close behind was eleven year old Jack Tucker, who collected four bronzes and a host of PB's over the weekend. Swimming against older twelve year olds in a combined 11 & 12 age group, Jack secured commendable thirds in the 50m Freestyle (32.25s), the 50m Breaststroke (43.83s), the 100m IM (1.22.34s) and the 50m Backstroke in 39.12s.
Eleven year old Ben Hutchins continued his outstanding run of Breaststroke performances, with a silver in the 200m event in 3.13.21s, followed by a gold in the 50m sprint event in 40.75s.
Many swimmers also hit their County Qualifying times with Lizzy Shore and Imogen Barrett qualifying in the 100m Free in 1.08.01s and 200m Butterfly in 3.14.96s respectively.
Harry Willingale also took home a handful of medals, county qualifying times and PB's, swimming in the 15+ age group with silvers in the 200m Breaststroke in 2.58.02s and the 100m IM in 1.10.88s 4th in the 200m IM in 2.33.28s and a 5th in the 100m Backstroke in 1.12.78s.
A long, but successful weekend was rounded off with another county qualifying time for Lizzy Shore in the 200m Freestyle in 2.28.98s in the 13/14 year old age group and a bronze for Louise Barlow for the 11/12 year olds in 2.30.40s in the same event.

Five national qualifying times for Newbury Swimmers at SE Winter Champs

Jake Jezzard, LouLou McFadzen and Zara Ryan secured five national qualifying times (NQT) at the South East Region Winter Championships, booking their places at the climax of the swimming calendar at the national championships in Sheffield next summer.
The competition is run as a series of open events, with no age group categories. First to swim was Zara in the 100m Breaststroke in which she swam a 0.29s PB in 1.18.37s, just 0.41s outside her NQT, finishing 12th from a seed position of 15th.
LouLou McFadzen was next to swim in the 100m Butterfly, massively out-performing her seed position of 53 to finish 25th in a PB of 1.09.74s, closely followed by another outstanding performance in the 50m backstroke, knocking another 0.6s off her PB touching in 32.44s.
Jake Jezzard then stepped up to swim the 100m Backstroke, qualifying for the final in a PB of 1.02.65s, just 0.42s outside the NQT. Spurred on by this performance, he raised the bar in the final, seeded 3rd, he secured silver and smashed the national qualifying time in 1.01.97s, confirming a well-deserved trip to Sheffield next summer.
On day two, the top class performances continued, with Loulou again out-swimming her seed position to get a regional time in 1.03.61s in the 100m Freestyle. In the last event of the morning, she qualified 5th fastest for the final of the 100m backstroke in an NQT of 1.07.70s.
The success continued after lunch with Zara back in the pool in the 200m Butterfly. Seeded 15th, she finished 10th overall and got her national time by 0.63s with a time of 2.27.43s. LouLou was next swimming in the longer distance 400m Freestyle. Seeded 36th, she finished 17th knocking 4 seconds off her PB in 4.43.65seconds, 5 seconds inside her regional qualifying time.
A fantastic weekend was rounded off with another NQT from Jake in the 200m Backstroke in 2.13.74s, 0.71s inside the qualifying time.

James Mcfadzen pulls in half a dozen golds at Christmas Cracker Meet

Newbury's elite A & B Squad members travelled to the south coast for the weekend in a bid to secure county and regional qualifying times, at the Portsmouth Northsea Christmas Cracker Level 1 Meet.
James McFadzen showed his class in the 50m long course pool to win a fantastic six golds in the 200m IM (2.35.47s), 100m Freestyle (1.06.21s), 100m Breaststroke (1.24.32s), 200m Backstroke (2.38.48s), 50m Freestyle (30.24s) and 100m Backstroke (1.09.99s) and a silver in the 200m Breaststroke (2.53.60s) in the 12 year old boys age group.
Thirteen year old team mate, Zara Ryan took home an excellent five golds in the 400m Individual Medley (5.20.66s), 100m Butterfly (1.08.66s), 200m Individual Medley (2.30.36s), 200m Butterfly (2.32.70s) and joint first in the 100m Breaststroke (1.20.19s), a silver in the 200m Breaststroke (2.53.18s) and a bronze in the 400m Freestyle (4.44.10s) and Jake Jezzard secured five silvers in a toughly fought 15/16 year old age group in the 200m Individual Medley (2.18.43s), 200m Freestyle (2.02.99s), 200m Backstroke(2.15.47s), 400m Freestyle (4.25.48s) and the 100m Backstroke (1.03.15s), plus finishing the 100m Freestyle in under a minute in a speedy 57.83s.
Ten year old talent, Millie Pope continued her outstanding season with 2 golds in the 100m and 200m Butterfly events in 1.18.96s and 2.51.40s respectively, a silver in the 200m Freestyle (2.31.38s) and three bronzes in the 50m Freestyle (31.93s), 100m Freestyle (1.10.28s) and the 200m Backstroke (2.53.66s) in the youngest of the age group categories.
Completing the medals haul for NDSC were backstroke specialists Imogen Jones and LouLou McFadzen, who both won silvers in their respective age groups in the 200m Backstroke, Imogen finishing in 2.37.30s and LouLou in 2.28.30s.
Other swimmers were competing in their first Level 1, 50m long course meet, holding their own and securing personal best times and county qualifying times. Molly Dummett, Fiona Crane, Louise Barlow, Lucy Wilkins, Lizzy Shore, Matt Pudney, Luc Schreiber & Harry Willingale all played their part, with Harry creeping ever closer to that sub-60 second result in the 100m Freestyle, just missing out in 1.01.74s.

NDSC Masters shine at Berks & South Bucks Masters County Championships

Newbury Masters had one of their best competition results on Saturday 26 November finishing 4th overall club in the 2011 BERKS AND South Bucks County Championships. The squad with ages ranging from 26 to 65 consisted of Peter Barlow, Adrian Barker, Adrian Cohen, Kay Crosse, Mike Friday, Andy Gore, Dave Milburn, Lindsay Kelly Onay, Kevin Payne and Fernando Vicaria.
Proving that age is no barrier to success, the team notched up 13 Golds, 13 Silvers and 8 Bronze medals in individual results with every team member finishing with at least one medal, as well as achieving a host of personal best results. In addition Dave Milburn in notching up 7 individual gold medals finished second in the top man class on the day. There were many outstanding performances and some really close results such as Fernando Vicaria winning the 40-44 age group 50m freestyle in a time of 26.85sec and Adrian Barker winning his age group in the same event by just 0.01 of a second, but the stand out result came in the final event of the evening, the medley relay. In Masters events relay teams are grouped by cumulative age of the swimmers and for the first time Newbury were able to enter a 200+ age group team. Competing against 6 other teams in the same age group Kay Crosse, Dave Milburn, Lindsay Onay and Adrian Barker came from behind to snatch first place by 0.03 seconds completing a successful evening for all concerned.

NASL Round 2 report

National Arena League Round 2

In Round 2 of the competition which took place on Saturday 12th November in Maidenhead, Newbury was up against Littlehampton, Kingston Royals, City of Southampton, Chalfont Otters and Fareham Nomads. The Newbury team comprised:

11 and Under Girls - Millie Pope, Lauren Kernan, Molly Dummett, Ruth Wyatt, Avani Gill
11 and Under Boys - Ben Hutchins, Jack Tucker, Elliot Rickerby, Ryan Sitton, Matthew Billela
13/U Girls - Lucy Wilkins, Lizzie Shore, Imogen Jones, Amy McBride, Zara Ryan
13/U Boys - James McFadzen, Matthew Pudney, Will Butcher, George Tyler
15/U Girls - Louise McFadzen, Susy Hill, Abigail Wood, Paige Pope
15/U Boys - Luc Schreiber, Harry Willingale, Jafer Shah
Open Girls - Sam Farquhar, Clare Wills
Open Boys - Dave Milburn, Aman Shah, Jake Jezzard, Rory Butcher

Newbury got off to a great start with consecutive wins for Loulou McFadzen and Jake Jezzard in the Open IM. In the individual races further wins followed for Millie Pope (10-11 Backstroke, 10-11 Butterfly), Zara Ryan (13/U Breaststroke, 15/U Butterfly, 13/U Butterfly), Loulou McFadzen (Open Fly, Open Backstroke), Aman Shah (Open Backstroke, Open Freestyle) and Ben Hutchins (10-11 Breaststroke).

In the relay events, top honours went to 9-11 years boys in both the Freestyle (Elliot Rickerby, Ben Hutchins, Ryan Sitton and Jack Tucker) and the Medley relay (Matthew Billela, Ben Hutchins, Jack Tucker, Ryan Sitton). Whilst the Men's Open Medley Relay team (Aman Shah, Dave Milburn, Jake Jezzard, Rory Butcher) and the Girls 13/U Freestyle Relay team (Lizzy Shore, Lucy Wilkins, Amy McBride, Zara Ryan) also scored the maximum 6 points for their performances.

Strong second places went to Girls 13/U Medley Relay team (Lucy Wilkins, Amy McBride, Zara Ryan, Lizzy Shore) and the Ladies Open Medley Relay team (Loulou McFadzen, Clare Wills, Zara Ryan, Sam Farquhar) whilst their 15/U team-mates did the double finishing second in both the Freestyle Relay (Abbey Wood, Suzy Hill, Paige Pope, Loulou McFadzen) and Medley Relay (Suzy Hill, Abbey Wood, Paige Pope, Loulou McFadzen). Masters' swimmers Clare Wills and Dave Milburn picked up a valuable 5 points apiece for their respective Open Breaststroke performances as did Suzy Hill (15/U Backstroke), Jack Tucker (10-11 Freestyle) and Loulou McFadzen (Open Freestyle) for their swims.

Despite everyone's best efforts and some heroic team and individual performances which saw Newbury claim 38 top three finishes, The City of Southampton ultimately proved too tough an opponent. In the thrilling finale to the event, CoS nudged both the 6-person Ladies (Zara, Clare, Abbey, Sam, Paige and Loulou) and Mens cannon relay teams (Jake, Harry, Luc, Rory, Dave, Aman) into second place to finish in top spot overall with 258 points to Newbury's 222 points. Kingston Royals finished 3rd with 187.5 points, Littlehampton 4th with 140 points, Chalfont Otters 5th with 125 points and Fareham Nomads with 103.5 points.

Jake rockets to record heights

Sixteen year old Jake Jezzard put in a trio of explosive bonfire night performances to break three NDSC records in the third round of this year's club champs. Starting with a win in the punishing 400 Individual Medley in 4.49.95 seconds, Jake then went onto break Daniel Morris' 15 year old record in the 200m Backstroke in 2.13.63s and finished off the evening with an excellent sub-60 second 55.50s performance in the 100m Freestyle.
Eight records went up in smoke in total with Zara Ryan (400m IM - 5.10.29s and 100m Freestyle -1.02.49s) and LouLou McFadzen (400m - IM 5.17.70s & 200m Backstroke 2.25.39s) breaking two apiece and James McFadzen setting a new standard in the 200m Backstroke in 2.32.88s.
In an evening of sparkling performances all round , many swimmers hit new personal best times and qualified for the forthcoming 2012 County Championships. Millie Pope, Imogen Jones and Samantha Farquhar also lit up the pool winning three golds each, matched in the boys' events by Jack Tucker and Harry Willingale all winning their respective age groups in the 400m Individual Medley, 200m Backstroke and 100m Freestyle.
Some of the club's youngest swimmers stepped up to compete in the gruelling multi-stroke 400m Individual Medley for the first time, with nine year old Lois Ryan and ten year old Alice Points both finishing in an admirable 7.25.45s and Amy Quesada-Getgood also completing the distance in 7.43.12s.
Competition in the development squads was also hot with 12 year old Anh Bradshaw winning the girls 25m Freestyle in 18.42s, with Lauren Wheeler (11) in second in 19.65s and Lucy Quesada-Getgood (9) third in 18.99s. In the boys event twelve year old Hasan Ahmed was first to touch in 18.94s, with 9 year olds Ellis Dixon (19.49s) and Luca Vicaria (19.61s) taking second and third.
In the 50m Sprinters Freestyle event, Lowri Hill pipped Verity Osborne to first place on a judges' decision, both in a time of 38.40s, with Bethany Wood in the Bronze position in 42.38s. Luke Harborne won the boys' event in 39.21s, Lucas Gore was second in 40.19s and James McLaughlin third in 40.47s.
Avani Gill returned from injury to take double gold in the nine year old girls age group with a 3.18.27s in the 200m Backstroke and a 1.29.56 in the 100m Freestyle, whilst brother Ajai Gill matched her with golden performances of 3.36.71s in the 200m Backstroke and 1.35.22s in the 100m Freestyle. Ten year old Jordan Hobbs and 13 year old Will Butcher also collected double gold in the same events, with Jordan slicing 10 seconds off his seed time in the 100m Freestyle in 1.27.00s and Will knocking 26 seconds off in the 200m backstroke in 2.53.52s.

Newbury Trio Represent Berkshire & South Bucks at Inter County Swim Champs

Three of Newbury's top swimmers recently travelled to Ponds Forge in Sheffield to represent Berkshire and South Buckinghamshire in Division One of the British Gas ASA National County Team Championships.
James McFadzen, LouLou McFadzen & Zara Ryan all made the trip, together with 21 other swimmers from around the county to take part in this top level national event in which 38 counties, many much larger than Berks & South Bucks compete in an exciting atmosphere, where the split pool arrangement allows two staggered races to be run simultaneously.
Zara Ryan competed in three events finishing in 4th place in the 12/13 year olds 100m Butterfly in 1.07.08s, 7th in the 12/13 years girls breaststroke in 1.15.49s and also swimming the third leg in the 12/13 years girls medley relay team finishing in 9th place in an overall time of 2.07.85s.
James McFadzen competed in the same age group for the boys, putting in a solid performance for 17th in the 100m Backstroke in 1.08.10s. James also swam the backstroke leg in the 12/13 years boys 4 x 50 m medley relay in 32.69s with the team finishing in 18th in 2.08.51s whilst older sister Loulou also swam the opening backstroke leg of the 14/15 years girls 4 x 50m medley relay in 31.92s to help the team to an excellent seventh in 2.02.27s.
Overall B&SB finished in a creditable 12th place overall with only 25 points separating 7th & 12th places.

Congratulations to James, Loulou & Zara !

Solid start in Round 1 of this year's National Arena Swimming league

Round 1 of this year's National Arena Swimming League saw a strong Newbury team travel to Maidenhead to compete in the South Division One West clash against opponents from Maidenhead Marlins, Littlehampton, Winchester Penguins and Havant & Waterlooville.
First places were won by Zara Ryan (13/U Breaststroke (1.16.73s), 15/U Butterfly (1.08.82s), 13/U Butterfly (1.10.53s), James McFadzen (13/U Breaststroke (1.23.38s), Jake Jezzard (Open Butterfly, (1.01.59s), Loulou McFadzen (Open Backstroke, (1.09.31s), Ben Hutchins (10-11 Breaststroke, (40.43s), Clare Wills (Open Breaststroke, (1.21.25s) and the Boys’ 9-11 Medley Relay team (Matthew Bilela, Ben Hutchins, Jack Tucker and Ryan Sitton, (2.42.16s).
Solid second places went to Loulou McFadzen (Open IM (1.12.92s), Open Butterfly (1.10.94s), Open Freestyle(1.03.22s), Girls 13/U Medley Relay team (Lucy Wilkins, Amy McBride, Zara, Lizzie Shore (2.18.56s), Boys 15/U Freestyle Relay team (Luc Schreiber, Jafer Shah, James McFadzen, Harry Willingale, (1.54.15s), Ladies Open Medley Relay team (Loulou McFadzen, Clare Wills, Zara Ryan, Sam Farquhar, (2.11.94s), Millie Pope (10-11 Backstroke (37.25s, 10-11 Butterfly, (35.81s), Matthew Bilella (10-11 Backstroke, (40.67s), James McFadzen(13/U Backstroke, (1.13.10s), Jake Jezzard(Open Backstroke (1.01.75s), Jack Tucker (10-11 Freestyle, (33.88s).
With third place finishes in a further 15 events, Newbury finished in the top 3 in 36 of the 50 events, despite the fact that many swimmers had to swim up an age group and were leading the competition until well past the mid-way point. Sadly, a strong second half ultimately clinched victory for Maidenhead Marlins with 168 points to Newbury's 155. Winchester Penguins finished a very close 3rd with 154 points, Havant & Waterlooville 4th with 151 points and Littlehampton in 5th with 111 points.
Congratulations to all who took part and in particular to Ben Hutchins and Matthew Bilella who were competing for Newbury for the first time in a league event.
The Newbury team comprised:
11 and Under Girls: Millie Pope, Lauren Kernan, Molly Dummett, Ruth Wyatt, Avani Gill
11 and Under Boys: Ben Hutchins, Jack Tucker, Elliot Rickerby, Ryan Sitton, Matthew Bilella
13/U Girls: Lucy Wilkins, Lizzie Shore, Imogen Jones, Amy McBride, Zara Ryan
13/U Boys: James McFadzen, Matthew Pudney, Will Butcher, George Tyler
15/U Girls: Louise McFadzen, Susy Hill, Abigail Wood, Hannah Waddington
15/U Boys: Luc Schreiber, Harry Willingale, Jafer Shah
Open Girls: Sam Farquhar, Clare Wills
Open Boys: Jake Jezzard, Rory Butcher
The next round of the competition will take place at Maidenhead on 12th November.

Club Champs Round 2 Report

Sunday evening brought round two of NDSC's Club Championships with tightly fought contests in the 200m Individual Medley, 100m Backstroke, 100m Breaststroke and gruelling 200m Butterfly in all age groups.
Millie Pope, Sam Farquhar, Harry Willingale and Jake Jezzard all won four golds in their age groups, with Jake being an agonising 0.1 second away from bettering Aman Shah's 2009 record in the 200m IM in a fantastic time of 2.18.38secs. Millie Pope's performance in the 200m Butterfly was particularly impressive in a time of 2.54.15 seconds leading the field overall, including swimmers over 5 years her senior.
Nine year old Ellie Cowan did hit record breaking form in the 100m Breaststroke though in a time of 1.48.72, breaking a record which had stood for 15 years. Ellie also took gold in the 100m Backstroke in 1.39.10s, with Lois Ryan also having an excellent evening with three silvers and gold in the 200m IM and Olivia Ginja being first home in the 200m Butterfly in 4.02.07s, showing strength coming up through the club with the younger members. This was also echoed in the nine year old boys category with Ajai Gill taking three golds in the 200m IM, 100m Backstroke and 100m Breaststroke knocking a huge 14 seconds from his seed time.
The Cruisers and Sprinters had their chance to compete in two events each for the development squads with the honours being well shared. Millie Mayo won the 25m Breaststroke in 24.20secs at the first attempt, Anh Bradshaw was second in 25.22 seconds, taking an impressive 8 seconds off her seed time and Lauren Wheeler third in 25.22 secs. In the 25m Backstroke it was again Millie Mayo who came home first in 21.24 seconds with nine year old Lucy Quesada-Getgood in silver in 23.26 seconds and fellow nine year old Antonia Woodgates in bronze position in 23.56 secs.
Ten year old Alexander Tomlinson won the 25m Breaststroke for the boys in 24.90, with Ellis Dixon in second in 24.93 secs and Sam Marriott in third in 25.93 secs. Sam went onto victory in the 25m Backstroke coming home in a time of 22.56 secs, just pipping Alexander Tomlinson and Michael Hanafin to second and third respectively, both with times of 22.62 seconds, split only by the judges' decision.
The sprinters stepped up to 50m in the same strokes with Michaela Graterol Munoz continuing her run of successes with a gold in the 50m Breaststroke in 52.76 seconds. Second was eleven year old Bryony Etheridge in 52.79 s and third Lowri Hill in 54.44s. Micaela took bronze in the 50m Backstroke to 12 year old Verity Osborne who won in 44.79s and Lowri Hill traded her previous Bronze up to Silver in 45.98s.
Sammy Hart was victorious in the 50m breaststroke for the boys knocking over 5 seconds off his seed time in 51.93s. Keiron Cartledge was second in 52.98s and James McLaughlin third in 56.55s. Sam Garland won the 50m Backstroke in 48.19s, Alex Colston was second in 48.44s and Warwick Buckland third in 53.57 secs.
In the rest of the girls age group events, Molly Dummett took three golds in the ten year old category in the 200m IM (3.11.47s), 100m Backstroke (1.27.61s) & 100m Breaststroke (1.48.94) and Imogen Jones took another hat-trick of golds in the twelve year old age group, with a striking display of 1.14.58s in the 100m backstroke, after just finishing ahead of Louise Barlow in the 200m IM for them both to come home sub-3 minutes and Louise going on to take the other available gold in the 100m Breaststroke in 1.37.25s.
With both Zara Ryan and Loulou McFadzen being away on County competition duty, Lucy Wilkins and Susie Hill ceased the opportunity for success with Lucy winning two golds in the 100m Backstroke (1.22.60 s) and 200m Butterfly (3.09.12s), a silver in the 200m IM (2.50.53s) & bronze behind Amy McBride (1.25.77s) and Lizzy Shore (1.33.95s) in the 100m Breaststroke, with Amy taking the victory on the 200m IM in 2.47.18s in the highly competitive 13 year old age group and Susie taking three golds in the 15 year old age bracket in the 200m IM, 100m backstroke and 100m Breaststroke.
Jordan Hobbs also bagged 3 golds in the 200IM, taking 7 seconds off his seed time, the 100m Backstroke (1.37.02s) and 100m Breaststroke (1.57.96s), as did Matt Pudney, now swimming as a 12 year old.
Ben Hutchins and Ryan Sitton shared the golds with two apiece for the 11 year olds; Ben taking the honours in the 200 IM in 3.09.25 - a huge improvement on a seed time of 3.32.04s - and the 100m Breaststroke where he is establishing himself as a bit of a superstar coming home in an excellent 1.32.22s. Ryan's golds came in the 100m backstroke in 1.27.60 s and the 200m Butterfly in 3.53.03s - the first time he had competed over this distance in fly.

Congratulations to our National Swimmers !

Three swimmers from Newbury District Swimming Club qualified for the recent British Gas National- Age Group Championships (21-25.7.11) and Youth Championships (27-31.7.11) at Ponds Forge, Sheffield.

Zara Ryan competed in six events over five days. On day one she postponed her 13th birthday celebrations and completed the 200IM in 2:31.20.

On the second day Zara went one better, qualifying seventh for the 100m Butterfly final in a time of 1:06.53. In the final, Zara was a tantalising fourth at 50m but finished 8th in 1:06.57.

The next morning Zara completed two events within an hour of each other - the 200m Freestyle in 2:14.02 and the 200m Butterfly in 2:30.51.
By the end of day three, Zara's times in the four different events were enough to secure her 14th position out of the 78 girls competing in the National 13 year old girl BAGCAT competition.

On days four and five Zara also completed the 100m breaststroke in 1:19.96 and the 400m individual medley in 5:23.94.

Competing in his first National Age Group competition, twelve year old James McFadzen finished just outside his best for 100m backstroke with a time of 1:12.77 whilst fourteen-year old sister Louise competing in the same event at the National Youth Championships again finished slightly outside her best in a time of 1:09.50

Louise, Zara and James are all pupils at St Bartâ's - have all been chosen to represent Berkshire in the National Inter-Counties competition at Pond's Forge, Sheffield on the 16th October 2011.

New Season - New Records for NDSC

The new competitive season kicked off for Newbury's swimmers at the weekend, with the start of the 2011 Club Age Group Championships at Northcroft on Sunday evening.
Nine records tumbled in total as the round one events took place. Three records came from the development squads with Michaela Graterol Munoz setting a new all time fastest in the 25m Girls Butterfly in a speedy 19.22secs. New records were set in both the male & female classes of the 50m Sprinters' Butterfly with Ben Hutchins recording a record time of 46.05secs and Verity Osbourne 43.63 secs.
In the age group categories Zara Ryan set new standards with a clean sweep of golds and records in all four events (100m Individual Medley 1.09.68s, 200m Breaststroke 2.50.41s, 200m Freestyle 2.13.47s, 100m Butterfly 1.09.81s) in the 13 year old category. Amy McBride also put in an impressive performance for the silver in the 200m Breaststroke in 3.03.16 seconds, also breaking the previous record time.
Loulou & James MacFadzen also had clean sweeps of golds and broke a record each; Loulou in the 15 year olds 100m Butterfly in 1.13.65s and James in the Boys 12 year old 200m Breaststroke in a time of 3.03.49 seconds.
There were four golds apiece in their respective age categories for Millie Pope, Abigail Wood, Samantha Farquhar, Ajai Gill, Will Butcher, Harry Willingale & Jake Jezzard.
Avani Gill won three golds in the 100m IM, 200m Freestyle and 100m Butterfly, with Ellie Cowan taking the gold in the 200m Breaststroke for the youngest of the girls' age groups in 3.53.88s. The same was true for Imogen Jones for the twelve year old girls, with Louise Barlow winning the 200m Breaststroke in 3.30.53s. Eleven year old Jack Tucker won golds in the 100m IM, 200m Freestyle and 100m Butterfly, with Ben Hutchins taking the honours in the 200m Breaststroke in 3.16.85 seconds.
Molly Dummett also won three golds for the ten year olds in the 100m individual medley, 200m Breaststroke and 100m Butterfly Jordan Hobbs mirroring the same for the 10 year old boys.

Newbury bag 25 medals at Fareham Nomads meet

An excellent turnout of Newbury swimmers made the trip to the south coast for the 2011 Fareham nomads open meet and were duly rewarded with an impressive stack of 25 medals and seventh place overall in a contest including many of the south's top clubs who had travelled from far and wide to be there.
Millie Pope had a fantastic weekend winning five golds (200m IM (2.52.46s), 50m Fly (36.06s), 200m Free (2.29.56s), 100m Backstroke (1.21.10s), 100m Fly (1.19.86s)), 3 silvers (50m Breaststroke (43.43s), 100m Free (1.11.64s) & 100m Breaststroke (1.38.88s)) and a bronze (50m Free in 34.28s) in the 10 year old age category, which also earned her the 'Top Girl' prize with 71 points. Jake Jezzard also pulled together a string of fantastic performances to win the 'Top Boy' prize for the 15 year old age group with 62 points, scooping a gold (50m Backstroke in 29.78s), 3 silvers (200m Freestyle (2.03.03s), 100m Backstroke (1.04.30s) and 50m Breaststroke (34.54s)) and 3 bronzes (100m Breaststroke (1.18.52s), 50m Fly (28.91s) and 200m IM (2.20.49s))along the way.
Ten year old Ben Hutchins excelled in the Breaststroke to win gold in both the 50m and 100m events in 41.47s and 1.34.66s respectively, whilst Amy McBride won three silvers in the 12 year old girls category in the 200m IM (2.43.98s), 50m Breaststroke (40.54s) & 100m Breaststroke(1.25.87s). Imogen Jones, now also competing as a twelve year old, continued her fine run of backstroke form winning a silver in the 100m in 1.16.42s and a bronze the 50m in 35.70s.
Young Avani Gill and Harry Willingale completed the medals tally with a bronze apiece; Avani coming home in 43.39s in the nine year olds 50m Backstroke and Harry in 1.00.56s in the fourteen year olds 100m Freestyle.

Micaela cruises to a hat trick of records

Eleven year old Micaela Graterol Munoz took the pool by storm in the fast-paced separated medleys gala at Northcroft on Sunday evening, breaking three records in her wake in the 25m Cruisers category. Micaela's successes came in the Backstroke (20.61s), Butterfly ( 19.20s) and Freestyle (16.95s) events in an exciting evening of 25m and 50m sprint races which saw both young and old break a spectacular 15 records in total.
In the age group categories, national finalist, Zara Ryan also broke three records having moved up to the 13-14 year old category, taking the butterfly in 30.53s, the breaststroke in 38.01s and the freestyle in 29.80s.
Outstanding performances in the boys' events also saw Jake Jezzard and James McFadzen break two records apiece; James in the 11-12 age group in backstroke (33.69s) and breaststroke ( 39.83s) and Jake the backstroke in 30.39s and the butterfly in 28.57s.
More ladies backstroke records fell as Imogen Jones stormed home in 36.15s to win the girls 11-12 year old title, swim-mum Liz Pudney set a new standard for the over 21s in 44.24s and thirteen year old Elizabeth Wilcox finished the 50m Sprinters class event in 40.26s.
Loulou McFadzen boosted her preparations for the Nationals by breaking the butterfly record in the 15-16 year old girls category in a time of 31.70s and young Ben Hutchins showed great potential in setting a new Sprinters squad breaststroke record in 44.57s.
In the boys age group events, ten year old Jordan Hobbs took three golds in the backstroke (46.29s), butterfly (48.94s) and breaststroke (53.41s), whilst Rhidian Hill made it a clean sweep across all four sprint events in the 13-14 year old age range, winning the butterfly in 41.29s, the backstroke in 40.07s, the breaststroke in 48.75s and the freestyle in 33.87s.
Young Molly Dummett continued her successful comeback with a quartet of golds in the 10 and under age group, winning the fly in 43.44s, the backstroke in 41.61s, the breaststroke in 47.48s and the freestyle in 36.80s, whilst fellow ten year old, Alexander Tomlinson took a brace of golds home from the butterfly in 21.74s and the freestyle in 19.24s.

Newbury swimmers in record breaking form at home gala

Newbury swimmers smashed five Open Meet Records on Saturday at the NDSC Open Meet on an action-packed day in which swimmers of all levels won medals, achieved excellent new PBs and received speeding tickets for just being too fast !
First in record-breaking form was Harry Willingale, winning his heat of the 13-14 year old 100m Freestyle in 1.00.51secs, before going on to win gold in the final in 1.00.73secs, with Luc Schreiber in fifth in 1.04.30s.
Two records were broken in the 200m Individual Medley event, with Lucy Wilkins swimming a fine 2.45.89 secs in the 11-12 years girls category and Jake Jezzard breaking the record in the 15+ boys race in 2.21.61 seconds. Amy McBride then continued the success for the 11-12 year old girls breaking the 100m Breaststroke record in 1.26.88 seconds in the heats and 10 year old Ben Hutchins smashed his seed time of 50.37s to set a new record in the 10 & under Boys 50m Breaststroke in 44.91 seconds.
Millie Pope started session one off well for the 10 and under girls with a speeding ticket in the 100m Individual Medley in a time of 1.22.50s, leaving Molly Dummett to first place in 1.32.67s and Ruth Wyatt to the silver in 1.32.67s, smashing twelve seconds off her seed time. Abi Wood took third in the girls 13-14 year old 200m IM in a time of 2.45.62 seconds knocking nearly 5 seconds off her seed time and second in the 100m freestyle in 1.05.71s.
Newbury dominated the medals and placings in the session one finals with, with Imogen Jones leading the way home for the 11-12 year old girls in the backstroke in 1.16.84s, followed by Lucy Wilkins in third in 1.19.57s and Lizzy Shore in sixth in 1.21.34s. The boys took places 2 to 5 in their final with Jack Tucker taking the silver in a PB of 1.24.48s, Matthew Pudney the bronze in 1.25.83s, Will Butcher fourth in 1.28.00s and Ryan Sitton fifth in 1.28.75s.
Senior Captains, Samantha Farquhar and Jake Jezzard added lead by example in their finals with Samantha taking third in the 15+ 100m Fly in 1.20.78s and Jake winning the boys event in 1.03.51s.
The 10 & under girls again dominated the final for the 50m Breaststroke. Millie Pope was first to touch in 46.41s, with Mollie Dummett a close second in 47.46s and Amy Quesada-Getgood, Lois Ryan and Ruth Wyatt taking the minor placings. Elliot Rickerby and Jordan Hobbs took 3rd and 4th respectively in the boys' event, behind the aforementioned record-breaking Ben Hutchins.
Lizzy Shore and Amy McBride won silver and bronze in the girls 11-12 years 100m freestyle in a closely fought 1.10.07s and 1.10.24s with the boys rounding off the session with a golden performance from Matt Pudney in 1.14.22 seconds, with Jack Tucker in second in 1.17.38seconds. Lucy Wilkins, Fiona Crane, Will Butcher and Ryan Sitton followed up in fifth & sixth in their respective events.
Newbury's spirits were not dampened by the lunchtime downpours in session 2, as Amy McBride and Lizzy Shore followed Lucy Wilkins home in her record breaking 200IM, again with the smallest of margins splitting the two in 2.48.34s and 2.48.55s. The boys took the top four places with Jack Tucker winning gold in 3.05.47 seconds, blowing nearly 6 seconds off his seed time, Matt Pudney adding a silver to his name in 3.13.02s, Will Butcher winning bronze in 3.15.15s and Ryan Sitton fourth in 1.24.48s.
The ten & unders retained their dominant form in the 50m Freestyle with the girls taking 5 of the top six placings. Won by Molly Dummett in 35.14s, with Ruth Wyatt in third in 38.30s, Avani Gill in fourth in 38.52s, Ellie Cowan in fifth in 40.26s and Alice Points in sixth in 40.86s. The boys event was won by Max Hall in 37.24s, closely followed by Elliott Rickerby in 37.83s and Jordan Hobbs in fifth in 39.77s.
In the 13-14 100m Butterfly events, Harry Willingale continued his successful day with a second in 1.14.06s and Hannah Waddington won a bronze in 1.19.02s. Jake Jezzard and Rory Butcher fought it out in the 100m backstroke and freestyle finals in the 15+ age category with Jake taking two more golds in 1.04.51s and 56.90s and Rory a silver in the backstroke in 1.08.22s and fourth in the freestyle.
There was a clean sweep for the under ten girls in the 50m backstroke final with Molly Dummett again taking the gold in 41.53s, Avani Gill the silver in 42.56s and Ruth Wyatt the bronze in 43.96s. Max Hall, Elliot Rickerby and Ben Hutchins all swam solidly in their final to finish second, third and fifth.
Samantha Farquhar and Rory Butcher got Newbury off to a flying start in the final session of the day with thirds in the 200m IM in 2.49.27s and 2.40.17s.
Newbury's stamina shone through as swimmers continued to put in flying performances in the last of the finals after a gruelling day of competition. Molly Dummett added her fourth gold of the day, taking the 50m Fly title in 44.52s in an all-Newbury final. Second went to Ellie Cowan in 44.82s, third Kate Eastwick-Jones in 45.47s, fourth Avani Gill in 47.68s, fifth Lois Ryan in 50.41s and sixth Finola Mangan in 51.17s. Elliot Rickerby secured his place on the leader board with another silver in the boys event in 47.16s.
Following Amy McBride's record breaking swim in the heats of the girls 100m breaststroke she swam even faster in the final, only to pick up a speeding ticket ! Lizzy Shore then took the gold in 1.30.24s, closely followed by Lucy Wilkins in 1.31.65s. Jack Tucker turned in another PB to win the boys event in 1.37.90 with Charle Knight coming home third in 1.49.01s. Will Butcher and Joe Seward took fourth and fifth.
Hannah Waddington added a silver to her day's work in the 100m 13-14 years backstroke, with Abi Wood in sixth and Harry Willingale third in the boys event. Jake Jezzard added another gold in the 100m Breaststroke in 1.18.97s with Rory Butcher and Samantha Farquhar both taking bronze in the same event.
In the last finals of the day, Amy McBride (1.20.07s) and Will Butcher (1.36.74s) were second in the 11-12 100m Butterfly, with Lucy Wilkins fourth and Lizzy Shore sixth.
The prizes for Top Girl and Top Boy swimmers went to Tiegan Dixon from Tilehurst with 33 points, closely followed by Molly Dummett with 29 in second place and Lucy Wilkins in 3rd with 20 points. In the boys category, the overall winner was Newbury's Jake Jezzard with 36 points, with young Elliot Rickerby an great third overall with 23 points.
Overall standings for the participating clubs were NDSC in first place with a fantastic 383 points, Tilehurst in second with 227 and Reading in third with 161.

Zara & Millie scoop BAGCAT Awards at Final Weekend of Regionals

A successful final weekend of the 2011 South East Regional Swim Championships saw both Zara Ryan and Millie Pope finish in the overall rankings to scoop coveted BAGCAT awards. Zara's string of fantastic performances throughout the championships won her the 12 year old age group with a points total of 2365 and Millie came an excellent 7th with a points tally of 1494 in her first season competing at this level.

Zara added to her already impressive loot from the previous weekend with two more gold medals in the 200m freestyle (2.14.46s) and 200m Breaststroke (2.50.81s) and two more silvers in the 100m freestyle in a time of 1.02.62s, despite being seeded 6th, and in a hard fought 400m Individual Medley in a time of 5.17.66s. Zara went on to win the 200m freestyle final in a time of 2.13.02secs, inside the National Qualifying Time, adding to the number of events she will be heading to Sheffield for in July. She narrowly missed out on her second NQT of the day, finishing the 200m Breaststroke just 0.19 seconds outside the qualifying time.

Competing in the same event, 12 year old Amy McBride also held her own finishing a commendable 17th overall in a time of 3.07.52 secs.

Millie Pope swam a succession of PB's in her events starting off by blitzing an incredible 4 seconds from her 100m freestyle time in 1.11.63s to finish in 7th in her age group. She then took 3 seconds off her 200m freestyle time in the heats stage in a time of 2.33.66s and then knocked a further 1.22 seconds off in the final to come home 5th in 2.32.44seconds. Seeded 31st in the 200m Backstroke, Millie swam a fantastic 8 second PB in a time of 2.53.28 seconds to finish 5th overall.

Waving the flag for the boys, Junior Captain, James McFadzen secured a great bronze in the 100m backstroke in a time of 1.11.92 seconds and set his own new PB's in the 200m Individual Medley of 2.40.64 seconds, shaving off 0.8 seconds and knocking off a more significant 4.4seconds in the 100m Breaststroke to finish a worthy 6th in 1.21.96 seconds.

This weekend sees NDSC's flagship event of the year with the annual Open Meet at Northcroft Leisure Centre on Saturday in which a large number of swimmers from the development squads right through to the top competitive squads will take on each other and swimmers from Reading and Tilehurst.

Newbury Swimmers happy to pick up Speeding Tickets in Reading

10 Newbury District swimmers were 'too fast' at the recent 9th Allan Eyles Meet at Reading Swim Club, with Lucy Wilkins (100m Breaststroke 1.31.97s), Elliot Rickerby (100m Freestyle, 1.27.01s, 100m IM, 1.38.63s, 100m Breaststroke, 1.49.78s, 50m freestyle, 39.47s, 100m Backstroke, 1.37.33s), Ruth Wyatt (50m Freestyle, 37.07s, 100m Backstroke, 1.34.03s), Annabel Mangan (50m Freestyle, 36.39s, 100m Backstroke, 1.28.63s), Samantha Farquhar (50m Freestyle, 31.72s), Ben Hutchins (100m IM, 1.40.14s, 100m Backstroke 1.40.73s, 100m backstroke, 1.39.98s), Ben Hall (100 IM, 1.27.87s, 50m freestyle, 33.73s), Harry Willingale (100 IM, 1.12.42s, 50m freestyle, 28.39s), Imogen Barrett (100m Backstroke, 1.26.41s, 100m freestyle, 1.17.85s), Kerry Read (100m Backstroke, 1.27.28s), picking up 21 speeding tickets between them.

9 year old Lois Ryan won the girls 10 and under 100m Breaststroke in 1.50.00s, 6.3 seconds faster than her seed time, with team mate Amy Quesada-Getgood a close second in 1.50.90 secs. Gold and silver were repeated in the eleven year old age group with Imogen Barrett taking first in a PB of 1.42.62secs and Annabel Mangan in second with 1.43.47secs.Fiona Crane took bronze in the 12 year old category in 1.36.79s and Samantha Farquhar silver for the 15 year olds in 1.33.50secs.

The boy's campaign got off to a sterling start, with Will Butcher taking silver in the 100m freestyle in 1.23.56s.

9 year old Alice Points took second in the 50m freestyle in 41.69 seconds.

More medals in the 100 backstroke as Amy Quesada-Getgood took bronze for the 10 and unders in 1.39.46 secs, Lauren Kernan an excellent gold for the eleven year olds in 1.29.53secs and Fiona Crane and Samantha Farquhar taking silvers for the 12 & 15 year olds in 1.27.40s and 1.22.03seconds respectively.

A double gold for the boys in the 100m Butterfly for Ben Hall in 1.38.97s and Harry Willingale in 1.14.06 seconds and a silver for Will Butcher in 1.40.68 secs was followed by more success in the 100m Breaststroke with two golds (Ben Hall, 1.46.24s & Harry Willingale, 1.24.91s) and two Bronzes (brothers Matthew Bilella, 1.54.41 secs and Joseph Bilella, 1.47.32 secs).

There was a great one-two for Ruth Wyatt (1.26.43s) and Avani Gill (1.30.06s) in the girls 100m freestyle for the 10 & unders, with a bronze for Annabel Mangan in 1.20.33 in the eleven year old category and two more Newbury golds for Fiona Crane (1.15.25s) and Samantha Farquhar (1.10.29s).

More medals for the Bilella brothers in the 50m freestyle with Matthew taking gold in 37.99s and older sibling Joseph silver in 38.00s.

A clean sweep for the young girls in the 100m IM with Avani Gill coming home in first (1.40.44s), Alice Points in second (1.41.76s) and Amy Quesada-Getgood in third with 1.42.50s. Imogen Barrett was third in the 11 year olds age group in 1.28.52secs, Fiona Crane added another silver in 1.28.53 secs and Samantha Farquhar went one better to take gold in 1.22.00.

The final event for the boys and even more medals were added to the day's loot with Ben Hall and Matthew Bilella taking the first two placings in the 100m Backstroke with 1.33.44s and 1.37.00s respectively and Harry Willingale taking gold for the 14 year olds in 1.15.06 seconds.

In the last event of the day, the 10 & unders took the top 4 placings in the girls 100m Butterfly (Alice Points - 1.51.28s, Lois Ryan - 1.57.90s, Avani Gill - 1.59.34s and Olivia Ginja - 2.02.91s), Lucy Wilkins took gold in 1.23.86s and Samantha Farquhar won the last gold of the day in 1.23.16s.

Fantastic performances all round from Newbury's younger swimmers, with notable PB's also by Ellie Cowan, Isabelle Butcher, Bethany Wood and Ajai Gill.

Dream team five take Regionals by storm

A quintet of Newbury swimmers spent the bank holiday weekend in fantastic form at the British Gas ASA South East Region Age Group Championships.

Twelve year old Zara Ryan took 5 golds, one silver and gained her fifth National Qualifying Time coming home with 0.71 seconds to spare in the 100m Breaststroke. Her first victory came by a metre in the 200m IM in 2.31.14 seconds after winning her qualifying heat, followed by a PB of 1.07.50 s to win the 100m Butterfly. Later sessions saw her take gold in the 400m freestyle in 4.39.60s and 800m freestyle in 9.36.88s, just 2 seconds outside the NQT. Successes continued on Day 2 with a victorious National Qualifying time in the 100m Breaststroke in 1.18.66secs and just being touched out to silver in the 200m Butterfly in a time of 2.28.90secs.

First time regional swimmer, Imogen Jones produced a PB in the 100m backstroke in a time of 1.19.14 seconds finishing in a commendable 8th place overall, after being seeded 11th.

Also competing at regional level for the first time, ten year old Millie Pope put in a string of exciting performances. She qualified for the 200m IM final, finishing in 6th place with a fantastic 6 second PB in 2.54.15 seconds. Despite being seeded 9th in the 100m Butterfly, she took 5th place in 1.25.01 seconds and came home in 8th place in both the longer distance 400m freestyle in a 2 second PB in 5.31.12 seconds and the gruelling 200m Butterfly in 3.08.45 seconds.

Also competing in the 100m Breaststroke for the twelve year olds was Amy McBride who finished in a time of 1.28.83 seconds after a strong first 50m, turning at 41.92 seconds.

Junior Club captain, James McFadzen, was the sole representative for the boys, with a PB of 1.06.50 seconds in the 100m freestyle, a fantastic 7th place in the 200m Breaststroke in 2.56.15 seconds, breaking the 3 minute barrier for the first time, just outside the NQT.

Day 2 saw James deliver a PB in the 200m Freestyle in a time of 2.24.12 s and a 2.36.16s for the 200m Backstroke.

The final weekend of the British Gas ASA South East Region Age Group Championships take place in two weeks time when Millie Pope, Amy McBride, James McFadzen & Zara Ryan will again be bidding for victory.

A brace of backstroke trophies for Imogen at Bracknell.

Eleven year old Imogen Jones continued her run of excellent form at last weekend's Bracknell Level 1 meet with two trophy-winning backstroke performances, coming in second in both the 100m and 200m events in her age group in times of 1.19.26s and 2.48.62s.
Meanwhile, twelve year old Lucy Wilkins secured a straight half dozen long course PBs in the 50m (33.04s), 100m (1.12.61s) & 200m (2.34.85s) Freestyle, 100m Breaststroke (1.37.76s), 200IM (2.52.64s) and 200m backstroke (2.49.88s).
The rest of the core team of Newbury swimmers put in a host of solid performances over the weekend.
Jack Tucker secured 2 third placings in the ten year old age group in the 100m Backstroke (1.26.04s) and 50m Freestyle (33.04s), whilst fellow ten year old Mille Pope also brought home two third placings for the girls in the 100m (1.23.11s) and 200m Butterfly (3.12.24s) events, with her older sister Paige, now competing as a 14 year old, also finishing third in the 200m Butterfly (2.56.29s).
National Qualifiers Zara Ryan, Louise McFadzen and James McFadzen also competed in their pick of the events, with Zara winning the 400m Freestyle and 200m Breaststroke, LouLou winning the 200m Backstroke and finishing third in the 100Butterfly and James taking second in the 100m Breaststroke and third in the 100m Backstroke and 200m IM.
Lauren Wall, Harry Willingale & Jake Jezzard also continued their great form with consistent performances in their age groups across all strokes.

James joins NDSC swimmers heading for Sheffield

Twelve year old James McFadzen has qualified for the 2011 national finals in July, joining older sister Louise McFadzen, Zara Ryan and Aman Shah as the Newbury contingent which will head north in July grows.

James competed in the recent 'No frills' qualifying event in the 50m Aldershot Garrison pool to qualify in the 100m backstroke in 1.10.57 secs, 0.7s inside the required time.

Zara Ryan also beat the national qualifying time by 0.6 secs in the 200m Individual Medley in a time of 2.30.33 seconds, increasing her number of events at this year's nationals to four.

A strong performance from the rest of the girls' squad at the event means that NDSC will now have a much stronger presence at the forthcoming South East Regional BAGCAT Championships.

Ten year old Millie Pope qualified for three events all at the 200m distance with excellent performances in Fly (3.19.21s), Backstroke (3.01.76s) and Freestyle (2.41.91s).

In the eleven year old age group, Imogen Jones continued her run of strong swims to qualify in the 200m backstroke in a time of 2.54.33s.

Twelve year old Amy McBride also qualified for the 200m IM in 2.50.88s and 200m Breaststroke in 3.06.84s.

James & Zara also added regional qualifying times to their day's work in the 100m Breaststroke & 200m Backstroke and 200m & 800m Freestyle respectively.

Thames Valley Junior League Final

A team of 30 swimmers from Newbury district swim club finished in second place out of 12 teams in the Thames valley junior league. The final took place on 5th march in Reading central pool where the top 6 teams in the battled for the final positions.
A second gala took place concurrently in Bracknell to decide places 6-12
Seeded second, Newbury were placed in lane 4 between Amersham and Windsor, the strongest of the rival clubs.
The first race saw Newbury come in second place but this was followed by a string of 4th, 5th and 6th places compared to Windsor’s 9 wins out of 14. After the first period Newbury lay in 3rd place on the night, enough to secure second overall if they could hold it.
Into the second period and a number of close finishes saw Newbury drop more points and slip in to 5th place. The club captains, Zara Ryan and James McFadzen, rallied around the team and stirred up an enthusiastic response for the last 11 races finishing in the top 3 for 7 of them.
The final relay involved 8 swimmers through all the age groups and Newbury came in 4th to end the night on 148 points, 3rd place on the night and 2nd in the league overall.
A spirited effort and a worthy overall position.
Final League positions
1. Amersham A 24 points
2. Newbury 22 points
3. Windsor 19 points
4. Chesham 18 Points
5. Maidenhead 17 points
6. Reading 15 points

TV Junior League R2

Another exciting round in the Thames valley Junior league. Newbury came out on top once more and are now level on points with Amersham'A' who we will meet in the final round.

A great all round team performance but particular credit goes to Iain Bruce who swam in 8 events, winning all his own age group events and was well up the field in the 12 year old events.

it is good to see some new faces in the team and very promising results from our 9 and 10 year olds

Thames Valley junior League R1

Round 1 of the TVJL was held at the Chiltern pool in Amersham. A team of 32 Swimmers, 5 helpers and a travelling support group to rival the barmy army, all made their way to the pool.

The races started well with 5 first places and lots of seconds in the first 16 races. Newbury were in second place overall but only by a point. in to the middle session and a few close finishes in the individual races saw Newbury drop behind the lead by 5 points.

with just 11 races to go Newbury turned up the heat and went out to close the gap. A string of firsts and seconds pulled us back into a leading position with the U9 girls relay team winning their event by a good 15M. It would still be down to the last race, the Squadron Relay. Newbury got off to a good start behind Maidenhead but ahead of the rest of the field. The team very nearly managed to beat them but finished the relay in a well earned second place which was enough to secure victory overall and give Newbury the advantage going into round 2.

The final results were.

Newbury DSC 180
Chesham SC 171
Maidenhead SC 166
Windsor SC 164
Bracknell & W 134
Amersham B 67

British Gas Nationals Ponds Forge Sheffield

28 JULY - 7 AUGUST 2010

Congratulations to Aman Shah who won a fantastic Bronze medal in the 15y/16y old 200m Backstroke Final at the National Youth Championships on August 6th 2010.
Aman was also 10th in the 100m Backstroke Final and competed in the 200IM and 400IM.

Attending her first National Age Group Championships Louise McFadzen significantly improved her PBs to finish 25th and 32nd in the 13y old 200m Backstroke and 100m Backstroke respectively

Attending her second National Age Group Championships Zara Ryan finished 9th in the 12y old 100m Butterfly Final, 12th in the 200m Butterfly, 13th in the 200IM, 16th in the 400IM, 20th in the 800m Free and 13th in the overall BAGCATs.

All three swimmers have been chosen to represent Berkshire and South Bucks at the National Inter County Team Championship in Sheffield on October 17th 2010

Many thanks to Derek Carley for coaching the swimmers during the two weeks in Sheffield and throughout the 2009/10 season.

Full results for Aman at:
Here

Full results for Louise and Zara at:
Here

BRITISH MODERN BIATHLON CHAMPIONSHIPS WAVERTREE LIVERPOOL 4 JULY 2010

Congratulations to both Melisa Mason who was 5th in the Junior Women's category and Amelia Wenlock who was 11th in the Youth D Girls category

Full results for Melisa at:
http://www.mpagbse.co.uk/Results/NatBi2010/JW.pdf

Full results for Amelia at:
http://www.mpagbse.co.uk/Results/NatBi2010/YDG.pdf

COUNTY CHAMPS DAY 4

The final day (27th March) of the 2010 County Champs was another successful one for Newbury swimmers but there were particularly rich pickings in store for Aman and Zara!

Aman secured Gold medals in 15/16yrs age group for 400m IM, 50m Back, 100m IM and 100m Back. In addition, he claimed the title of County Champion in 400m IM, 50m Back and 100m Back!

Zara secured Gold medals in 11yr age group for 400m Free, 50m breast, 100m Free, 200m Fly, 100 IM and a silver medal in 50m backstroke in addition to claiming 7th place overall in 200m Fly and claiming new 11yr Age Group records for 50m Breast, 100m Free and 100m IM. It therefore came as no surprise when she was later named BAGCAT champion for her age group and picked up The Parker Silver Cup as winner of the girls’ aggregate competition to boot! An amazing achievement!

Elsewhere, Silver medals were scooped by Georgia (17yrs+, 50m Breast), James (11yrs, 100 IM, 100m Back) and Bronze medals by Jake (14yrs, 400 IM, 50m Back (3rd in Junior Champs as well) & 100m Back), Lucy (17yrs, 50m Back), Iain (10yrs, 200m Free, 100m Back), James (11yrs, 200m Free).

Lucy qualified for the Championship Final in 50m Back finishing in 7th place and Georgia qualified for the Championship Final in 50m Breast finishing in 8th place. Newbury was also represented in the B Finals as follows:
Emily, 50m Breast, 5th place
Loulou, 50m Back, 5th place
Jake, 100m Backstroke, 6th place
Jacob, 50m Free, 4th place

Iain and James both secured 3rd place podium positions in the BAGCAT awards in their respective age groups whilst Amelia, Loulou, Charlotte, Jess, Iain, James, Luc, Lucy, Paige, Jake, Jacob, Rory, Amy, Emily and Georgia all achieved at least one position in the last 8 (i.e. worthy of a rosette!) of their Age Group events. Again, many swims were rewarded with new PBs or regional times.

Well done to everyone who took part – if you want to check where you finished overall please see www.bsbasa.org on the Championship pages - and thanks to coaches, Derek and Carolyn, and to all friends and family for their support!

Hats Off to relay team at County Champs 2010

There have been some fantastic swims at the counties including many new regional times and PBs from younger and older boys and girls.

However the NDSC 9-11 year old girl's relay team provided a few heart-stopping moments to rank alongside Maradonna's handball, Wilkinson's drop-kick, and the Jamaican Olympic bobsleigh team crash (aka Cool Running). The team came away with a silver medal in the freestyle relay and a gold and record breaking county time in the medley relay.

So hats off (not yet Lizzy!) to Abi, Amelia, Amy, Lizzy and Zara and all the coaches that make these special moments happen.

Success is relative, good luck to everybody swimming on Day 4.

COUNTY CHAMPS DAY 3

It might have been only a small contingent of Newbury swimmers (Aman, Jess, Charlotte, Loulou, Luc, Amelia, Zara, James) who took part in this long-course session of the Counties (20 March) but they returned with a big haul of prizes - 4 golds, 2 silvers, two new Age Group records and a New County Championship record!

In the first event, the Girls 800m Free Zara claimed gold and Charlotte 5th place in their respective age groups. Aman then went on to collect gold and become the new County Champion for his swim in the equivalent boy’s race where Luc also collected the silver medal in his age group.

In the Girls 1500m Free, Zara claimed gold and a new Age Group record with Amelia collecting the silver in the same age group. Racing in the same heat, Loulou had to settle for 4th in her age group whilst Jess and James, who also secured his Age Group record, both picked up the top spot in their respective races.

Well done to all who took part and thanks to Derek and Chris Ryan for their support.

COUNTY CHAMPS DAY 2

Day 2 (13 March) started with a fantastic Gold Medal swim for the 11yr Girls Medley Relay team (Zara, Amelia, Amy, Lizzy)! Setting a new Championships age group record along the way.

Zara continued her unbeaten Counties campaign by collecting a further 5 individual Gold medals, and achieving 2nd place in the “B” final of the 100m Fly. She also broke the County Records for her Age Group in both 200m IM and 100m Fly!

Aman was 3rd in the 400m freestyle County Championships overall. He also took part in the “B” final of 100m Free, also finishing in 3rd place with a very fine PB and Regional Qualifying time of 56.13 in the heats.

Lizzy Shore, Lucy Wilkins, Harry Willingale and Simon Harris all made their first appearance at the Counties and there were 41 top 8 Age Group placings in the day’s events. A summary of the medal winners is as follows:

Gold
Zara Ryan (11yrs, 200m IM, 100m Breast, 200m Back, 100m Fly, 200m Breast)
James McFadzen (11yrs, 50m Breast )

Silver
11yrs Freestyle Relay team (Zara, Amelia, Amy, Lizzy)
Lucy Singleton (17yrs, 200m Back)
Aman Shah (16yrs, 400m Free – 3rd overall in County Champs)

Bronze
Iain Bruce (10yrs, 100m Free, 50m Fly)
Louise McFadzen (13yrs, 200m Back)
Jake Jezzard (14yrs, 200m Fly, 50m Fly)
James McFadzen (11yrs, 400m Free)

Again there were many new PBs but some particularly impressive ones were achieved by Amy McBride (200 IM, 200 Breast), Zara Ryan (100 Breast, 200 Breast), Jake Jezzard (200 Fly) and James McFadzen (400 Free). Well done to Regional qualifiers Aman Shah, Zara Ryan, Amy McBride, Jake Jezzard, Louise McFadzen, James McFadzen and Luc Schreiber who all recorded more of their required times today!

Speedo League Round 2 Havant & Waterlooville Saturday 8th Nov 03

Newbury travelled to Havant and Waterlooville Leisure centre on Saturday to compete in round 2 of the Speedo league. Following on from a win at Bracknell in round 1 Newbury's swimmers were seeking a win or at least second place to secure a place in the final in December.
This was expected to be a close contest between us and a strong Fareham Nomads team only just relegated from the premier division last year with Eastleigh who we had previousely defeated in round 1 also in contention. From the outset this proved to be the case and by the end of the first block of 10 relays Fareham were leading with 55 points, Newbury with 49, Eastleigh 37 with Slough, Bognor Regis and Hart contesting the minor places. This situation never really changed for the rest of the gala and whilst Newbury did have a strong period in the middle with 6 first places we were never quite good enough to match the consistancy of Fareham.
On an individual level two new club records went to Louse Neal in the 11/u fly in 37.5s and Luke Wakefield in the 15/u f/s in 54.97s. Congratulations to those two swimmers. There were also a number of new PBs (See Results), notably there were no DQs, we achieved 20 2nd places and to our credit no 6th placed swimmers! This was an excellent team performance which takes us through to the final in December .
The final results was : Fareham Nomads 242, Newbury 229, Eastleigh 203.5, Hart 137, Slough 122.5, Bognor Regis 115

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