(News)

NER Open Water Results
Well done to Tom Walker, Alex Calkin and Katy Hole who all represented the Club at the NER Open Water Championships held in Stockton on 14th August. For all three swimmers this was their first taste of open water swimming and they performed extremely well.

All three competed in the 1km event, with Tom finishing in 6th place, Alex in 8th and Katy in 10th all in the 13-15yrs age group. The full results are available from the NER website.

Well done to all three for taking the plunge(!) and we hope to have more brave souls willing to take part in future open water events!

Provisional Gala timetable 2010-2011
A provisional timetable for the 2010-2011 season has been uploaded, details can be found here Squad Gala Timetable 2010-11.pdf

Newburn/Sunderland Results
A huge well done to everyone who has competed over the last two weekends. It has been an amazing end to an amazing season with medals and PBs galore at both meets as we brought the season to an end with a bang! The meet reports are now in the Members Area. A special mention must go to all the parents and swimmers who cheered so loud and brought us a mention as the best supported Club at the Sunderland meet. This is no mean feat given the size of the building!!! We also finished in 3rd place overall which is a fantastic achievement!
The Summer programme kicks in next weekend and brings a well deserved break from competition.
Well done to everyone involved with the Club for everything we have achieved this season.

Sunderland Non National Long Course Session 1.pdf

Sunderland Non National Long Course Session 2.pdf

Sunderland Non National Long Course Session 3.pdf

Sunderland Non National Long Course Session 4.pdf

Sunderland Long Course Non National Points Table.pdf

Newburn Results.pdf
Dave

Message from Head Coach re Summer Timetable
Dear All,

As we enter the final few weeks of the season I wanted to write to everyone to say well done once again for what has been an amazing year. We have big plans for next season and hope to build on the many successes achieved in 2009-10.

In order to make sure that we are prepared for the new season, it has been decided that the programme will be only slightly altered over the Summer holidays. Many Clubs shut down completely for a number of weeks over the Summer however this does leave those Clubs lagging behind when the new season starts! The training changes will apply between Saturday 24th July and Sunday 5th September (inclusive) and the sessions will therefore be as normal with the following exceptions:

1. There will be no Monday morning sessions.

2. The Thursday morning sessions will be open to NER, N&D, Potential and Talent Squads (we have kept this session on as a number of swimmers and parents have suggested that it would help to get used to the early mornings before returning to school in September as the attendance levels do need to increase for these sessions).

3. There will be no Saturday morning sessions.

4. The Sunday morning sessions will start at 9am instead of 8am (this will not impact on Bronze, Silver and Gold squads), i.e. the session time has been reduced to 1 hour.

If any of you are going away over the Summer, I hope you have a great time and a well deserved rest (swimmers AND parents!) and don't be a stranger to the swimming pool if you are away for a long period!

Well done once again, and please let me know if you have any questions about the Summer programme.

The summer timetable for swimming only can be found here Pool Sessions Summer 2010.xls

Kind regards

Dave

Chairpersons Message June 2010
Please click on the link to read a message from the Chairperson

Chairs Message June 2010.doc

Sponsored Swim
A very big thank you to all the swimmers and length counters who took part in the sponsored swim this morning. The total number of lengths swam was 8,451 which was is just over 211 km or about 132 miles! In the first session (0800-1000) Katy Hole swam the furthest with 284 lengths and in the second session (1000-1100) Melissa Carter swam 110 lengths.
When you have collected your sponsor money please hand it to Lynne (treasurer) or Pauline (membership secretary).

Club Gala Results
A massive WELL DONE to everyone who competed at the Club Summer Gala on Sunday 20th June.
It was great to see our top swimmers competing alongside our newest members of the Club, including swimmers from the Council LTS.
Thank you to all of the volunteers who helped to organise and run the gala, including all of the officials, and to all the parents and supporters for their loud cheering.
Make sure you get your tickets for the Social Evening on Friday which will include presentation of all the medals!

Derwentside June Graded Results
The Club enjoyed an excellent set of results from the Derwentside meet last weekend at Stanley. A total of 43 PBs were set and 26 medals won, including 4 Golds and a Bronze for Sophie Erdmann.
Well done to everyone - the results poster is now in the members section and at Freeman's Quay.

NER BAGCATs Weekend 2 Results
The Club continued with the excellent results from the age group NERs, picking up its' second bronze medal as Lauren Exley snatched third place in the 100m Freestyle. Lauren followed this up with 6th place in the 200m Backstroke and the 400m Freestyle. Kezia Dowsett gave the Club two swimmers in the top 10 by finishing 8th in the 400m Freestyle. Not to be outdone by the girls, Jay Manners took 10th place in the 200m Backstroke and Aaron Tilly took 7th in the 200m Breaststroke.

James Lister followed up his final last weekend with another in the 100m Butterfly, and Connor Robinson swam an amazing PB in the 200m Breaststroke!

Again, our older swimmers performed extremely well with Emma Bramley, Katya Chetina and Katy Hole all hitting excellent PBs in their events.

The full results are available on the NER website and a full meet report will be available in the Members Section shortly.

Well done to you all!

NER BAGCATs Weekend 1 Results
The first weekend of the 2010 BAGCAT Championships proved to be the most successful weekend for a number of years as the first 8 swimmers from Durham travelled to Sheffield. Leading the way was Aaron Tilly who swam a massive PB in the 100m Breast to take a Bronze medal - the first NER medal for the Club in probably 12 years (we are still checking this!) Despite only having 2 top 10 finishes in total in the last 3 years, we enjoyed no less than 6 top 10 finishes in total in just the first weekend! Lauren Exley took 5th place in the 100m Back and 200m Free, Kezia Dowsett took 9th place in the 100m Breast and Jay Manners matched that in the 100m Back. Not to be outdone by the 10 yr olds, James Lister reached the final of the 100m Breast after an incredible 8 1/2 second PB in the heats and finished in 10th place.

Our older swimmers also swam extremely well with PBs in every swim bar one. Well done to Katy, Katya and Sophie.

With another full weekend of swims coming up, we will be looking to build on what is already our most successful year for a considerable time!

Blyth Summer Sprint Results
We enjoyed another excellent meet at Blyth on Sunday 6th June. The full results poster is in the Members Area but we gained a total of 76 PBs, and 26 medals! A special mention to the swimmers who achieved 100% PBs: Helena, Ellen, Rachel, Alex, Andrew, Marie, Charlotte M, Scott, Rebecca S, Jake and Charlotte W.

Wear Valley Results
It was another fantastic weekend at Bishop Auckland, with 158 PBs, 22 Golds, 19 Silvers and 26 Bronzes. The full meet report can be found by logging on in the members area, selecting the 'Information' link and choosing the 'Members News' thread.
The Club added two further qualifiers for the NERs in Sheffield and so we will be taking a team of 10 to these major Championships. Well done to everyone and a special thank you to the many parents who officiated over the weekend!!

Middlesbrough Open Results
Well done to the team of 11 swimmers who competed at Middlesbrough this weekend. A further 6 NER times were gained, with 28 PBs in total. Lauren Exley took a Silver in the 100m Back and Aaron Tilly a Bronze in the 100m Breast, with Lauren, Aaron, Jay Manners and Kezia Dowsett also picking up 14 minor medals in a variety of events. The Results Poster is now in the Members section and will be posted on the Freeman's Quay Noticeboard.

British Gas ASANER Senior & Youth Champs
The Club was represented at the NER Senior & Youth Championships in Sunderland by Caitlin McDaid, James Rowe and Tom Walker. It was great to see the older members of the Club competing at a Regional level and they performed extremely well, with all six swims being long course PBs! Tom finished in 18th place in the 50m Back with a great swim of 30.88. He also swam in the 100m Back and PB'd with a 1.06.47 (despite his recurring injury hampering his second 50m). Caitlin took 27th place in the 50m Free with 29.44, and 28th place in the 50m Fly in 32.87, along with a 1.04.61 in the 100m Free. James completed the team with a 31.98 in the 50m Fly.

The Age Group swimmers will get their chance in Sheffield in June, but well done to the Youth swimmers for their swims.

Junior League 2010 - Thank you
Well done to everyone who represented the Club at Middlesbrough - it was a much improved performance against the top Clubs in the County. As it is the end of the 2010 Junior League for the Club, I have a pile of thank yous to make!

I would like to thank all the coaches who helped on poolside over the three heats, and to those who coach week in week out across all the squads. We could not compete at Junior League (or at all) without you and I would like to pass my personal thanks to you all, as well as the thanks of the whole Club.

I would also like to thank George and Michelle, who have been officiating at all of the heats as members of the Junior League Committee and have enabled the Club is well represented from the organisational front. I know officiating through three heats per day is challenging in itself! Thank you also to Debs for organising the buses for all three heats.

Thank you to all the parents and families and friends who have supported the team this year. Again, we wouldn't have a team without your constant support, bringing the swimmers to training and to the galas and your cheering is much appreciated.

Finally, and most importantly, I would like to thank each and every swimmer who represented the Club so well this year. Whether you swam one swim in one heat, or eight swims in each heat, you all came home with points for the Club and for that I am immensely grateful. In each heat the swimmers got stronger and stronger and gave it their all. I cannot ask any more than that. I may be biased but I also look around poolside at every gala and am so proud of the behaviour and team spirit shown by our swimmers. Thank you all.

I must also particularly thank the 12 year old swimmers, who now retire from Junior League and for many it is the end of four years of Durham City representation in the League. We will miss you. We will be welcoming our new 9 year olds (most of whom will be 8!) for 2011 and they are already training hard in preparation.

Whilst we are disappointed at being relegated from the top Division, the future is bright as we now have 10 months to train hard before we embark on the challenge of gaining promotion again. This was the Club’s first ever experience in the elite Division One and certainly it was a steep learning curve. However we have learnt and I am extremely hopeful that we will be picking up trophies at the top of Division Two next season.

So thank you to you all, and keep training hard through 2010!

Many thanks
Dave

Swimmers return from extended swim camp in Spain
Members of the club who had been stranded in Spain since Saturday, returned to Durham on Wednesday afternoon on a rescue flight provided by Jet2.com. Everyone was preparing themselves for the ordeal of a 48 hour coach journey back to the North East, and were delighted when the news came in at around midnight on Tuesday that they would be on a flight home the next morning.

The swim camp participants were able to remain in their rooms at the hotel in Torremolinos thanks to the tour operator. The hotel was full of other stranded people including many Brits and a plane-load of Fins who had been holidaying in Madiera.

The extended stay was filled with a multitude of activities including extra training sessions, quizzes, treasure hunts, trips to the beach, rounders and aqua-aerobics. Congratulations to Emma Gray for the best mini-golf score and Rachel, Jay and Lauren who won the sand castle competition. Thanks to Dave S, Jess and Nadine for the three quizzes that improved our knowledge of Spanish and Spain.

One of the most pleased to be home on Wednesday was Abbie, who was able to celebrate her thirteenth birthday on Thursday with her family.


Swimmers and coaches at 50m Piscina Olimpica Virgen del Carmen


Piscina Olimpica Virgen del Carmen

Torremolinos PhotoStory

North Tyneside Sprints Results
A team of 34 Durham City swimmers converged at Tynemouth Pool to compete in the main sprint event of the season. For many of the older swimmers this was a chance to compete over the shorter 50m distances, not available for the 11+ age groups in the majority of other meets. It was also a chance for less experienced swimmers from the Development Squads to cut their teeth against strong teams from around the County, including Newburn and Tynemouth.

Tynemouth Pool has a reputation of being one of the fastest in the Region, and certainly did not disappoint as PBs were smashed throughout the day. The announcer also took pride in announcing the name of Durham City no less than 35 times when reading out the medallists in each event.

Leading the way was Jacob Prosser-Brown (11) who sprinted to Gold in the 50m Back and 50m Breast, and picked up Silvers in the 50m Fly, 50m Free and 100m I.M. Other double Gold medallists were Azaria Corrigan (9) who picked up the top prize in the 50m Breast and 50m Fly along with a Bronze in the 50m Back, and Caitlin McDaid (15) who took first place in the 50m Fly and 50m Free following a Bronze in the 50m Breast. Azaria was swimming fresh from her Bronze medal swim at the recent County Championships in the 50m Breast and it is worthy of note that she took a further 0.55s off her PB and won the event by a massive 5 seconds.

The Club enjoyed more Gold medal success with Anna Maclaurin (11) in the 50m Breast, and Jay Manners (10) in the 50m Back, with Jay also picking up Silvers in the 50m Breast, 50m Free and 100m I.M.

Other medallists on the day were Sam Stewart (12) (Silver – 50m Back and 50m Free), Katy Hole (13) (Silver – 50m Back & Bronze – 50m Breast and 100m I.M.), Lauren Exley (10) (Silver – 100m I.M. & Bronze – 50m Fly), Charlotte Wanless (11) (Silver – 100m I.M.), Gregory Halliday (11) (Bronze – 50m Free, 50m Breast, 50m Fly and 100m I.M.), Abbie Allenson (12) (Bronze – 50m Fly), Emma Bramley (12) (Bronze – 100m I.M.), Alex Calkin (12) (Bronze – 50m Free), Paul Le Fevre (11) (Bronze – 50m Back), and Matthew Rowe (12) (Bronze – 50m Breast).

A special mention must also go to all swimmers who competed in the relay events, and in particular the Silver medallists in the 11/under 4x50m Freestyle team (Charlotte Wanless, Lauren Exley, Jacob Prosser-Brown and Helena Baillie) and the 12/under 8x50m Freestyle Cannon team (Sam Stewart, Lauren Exley, Matthew Rowe, Abbie Allenson, Jacob Prosser-Brown, Helena Baillie, Rachel Burr and Emma Bramley).

The day was not solely about winning medals and many of our novice swimmers smashed PBs left, right and centre with some gaining PBs in every single event. It was fitting that the biggest PB went to Nicholas McGoay (11) who took over 14 seconds off his 50m Fly time and in total took over 46 seconds off his 5 events!

The other swimmers competing were: Cressida Appleton, Helena Baillie, Natasha Baillie, Rachel Burr, Peter Dowsett, Jessica Dumighan, Emma Gray, William Gray, Emma Hall, Georgia Halliday, Andrew Higgin, Katherine Hill, Sally Hughes, Millie Maclaurin, Ruth Stewart, Barney Warren, Chantal Wilkinson and Alison Wong.

In total, the Club competed in 147 individual swims with 85 PBs, 35 medals and a further 44 top 6 finishes. This eclipsed the result from the 2009 meet and is testament to the hard work of the swimmers and coaches at the Club.

Well done to all!!

The Coaches

N&D BAGCAT Results
The Northumberland & Durham County BAGCAT Championships took place over the weekends of the 6th-7th and 13th-14th March at the Neptune Pool in Middlesbrough. The top swimmers from across the County gathered to battle over the four day event.

The Durham City team was already buoyed by the fact that the Club had 25 qualifiers, the biggest team sent to the County Championships for a number of years. Unfortunately, illness and injury prevented three swimmers from competing but the remaining swimmers had their own personal targets at this high quality meet.

Leading the way was Kezia Dowsett in the 9 years age group. Kezia began with the 100m Individual Medley, qualifying in second place for the Final before smashing her own PB and the Championship Record to win in a time of 1:25.39. This set the tone for the remainder of the competition, with Kezia also taking Gold in the 50m Backstroke (40.68), 50m Breaststroke (45.81), 50m Freestyle (35.19) and 200m Backstroke (3:00.36). Kezia also picked up Silvers in the 200m Butterfly (3:38.81) and 200m Freestyle (2:46.89), and Bronze in the 200m Individual Medley (3:09.09). A fifth place in the 50m Butterfly (41.77) and an unfortunate disqualification in the 200m Breaststroke (where she swam the fastest time) completed Kezia�s events. She also swam to lifetime bests in all but one of her swims, which underlined the quality of the performances.

As a result of her fantastic swimming, Kezia scored a total of 1275 points and was crowned the BAGCAT Champion for 2010, affirming her position as the top 9 year old girl in the County. This is a fantastic achievement both for Kezia and the Club.

The remainder of the 9 year old qualifiers however were not to be outshone and a particular highlight came in the 50m Breaststroke, where Azaria Corrigan and Jessica Leslie both qualified for the Final along with Kezia. For the Club to have 3 swimmers in a single Final was an amazing achievement and the situation only got better as Azaria snatched Bronze (48.72) to ensure two Durham City swimmers were on the podium. Azaria and Jessica also enjoyed success in the 200m Breaststroke to take 7th and 8th place respectively.

In addition, Robert Walton ensured that the 9 year old boys were also represented in the Finals, with a superb 50m Freestyle resulting in a 7th place finish (38.19).

A special mention must go to Lauren Exley in the 10 years age group as she took 27 seconds off her 200m Butterfly time, 19 seconds off her 400m Individual Medley and a gutsy 20 seconds off her 400m Freestyle to take Bronze in an extremely tight finish (5:21.88). Lauren also picked up 6th place in the 200m Freestyle (2:36.64) and 8th place in the 200m Backstroke (2:56.41).

The older swimmers also performed extremely well, with Emma Bramley reaching the Final of the 12 years 100m Backstroke and finishing in 6th place (1:16.16) and James Lister reaching the Final of the 11 years 100m Butterfly and finishing in 8th place (1:22. 67). Tom Walker performed an extraordinary swim in the 100m Backstroke (1:05.47), overcoming injury to smash his PB by over 2 seconds to qualify in 5th place for the Final in the 14 years age group. Unfortunately Tom�s injury preventing him from competing in what proved to be a very tense and close Final.

The remaining swimmers represented the Club to a very high standard, with Katy Hole, Jay Manners and Connor Robinson all achieving top 10 finishes in their top events. The remainder of the team competing were: Sophie Erdmann, Anna Maclaurin, Jacob Prosser-Brown, Abbie Allenson, Cressida Appleton, Hope Cessford, Katya Chetina, Kari Dougall, Sam Stewart, Sasha Thompson and Aaron Tilly.

The swimmers enjoyed a total of 60 lifetime bests across the Championships, along with 20 top 8 finishes. This was particularly pleasing given that for many swimmers this was their first ever County Championships. A number of swimmers also achieved qualifying times for the North East Regional Championships held at Pond�s Forge, Sheffield in June. These results mean that the Club continues to enjoy its most successful season for a significant period of time!

Well done to everyone who swam and a massive thank you to the parents and coaches for their tireless support of the Club!

The Coaches

Easy Fundraising for the club
You Can Raise Funds for Durham City Amateur Swimming & Water Polo Club When You Shop and Search Online
Have you heard about easyfundraising? It’s the easiest way to help raise money for the club. If you already shop online with retailers such as Amazon, Boden, Next, Argos, John Lewis, Comet, iTunes, eBay or HMV, then we need you to sign up to http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/durhamcityasc to raise money while you shop!
So how does it work? You shop directly with the retailer as you would normally, but if you sign up to http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/durhamcityasc and use the links on the easyfundraising site to take you to the retailer, then a percentage of whatever you spend comes directly to us at no extra cost to yourself. If you spend £100 with M&S online, we get £5 from your purchase, £100 spent with Amazon raises £2.50 for us, £100 with WH Smith puts £2.00 in our pocket, and so on. Easyfundraising features over 2,000 retailers, and some of the donations can be as much as 15% of the cost of your purchase.
This service is FREE to use, and joining easyfundraising will give you access to hundreds of exclusive discounts and voucher codes, so not only will you be helping us, you’ll be saving money yourself.
And that’s not the only way to raise money. If you are one of the 6.4m people that uses a search engine every day, then why not raise money for the club while you search?
http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/durhamcityasc combines the results of several search engines such as Yahoo!, Bing and Ask to ensure that you can always find what you’re looking for. But the great thing is that EVERY TIME you search, half a penny is raised for Durham City Amateur Swimming & Water Polo Club and you don't even have to buy anything!
So what are you waiting for? Sign up to http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/durhamcityasc today and start raising money for the club simply by shopping and searching online.

The Fundraising Team

Newburn/Aberdeen Results
Well done to the weary travellers who went to Aberdeen at the weekend, and to the equally impressive team who competed at Stanley! The results poster is now in the Members Area. Overall we had 61 PBs between the two meets and a number of new N&D qualifying times!! A special mention to the medallists at Newburn and the six swimmers who qualified for finals at Aberdeen.
We now have one more chance to obtain the N&D times and so keep training hard for the next fortnight!