National County Team Championships - Congratulations
to our County Team who competed at Ponds Forge in Sheffield for the
National County Team Championships (aka "Intercounties"). They were
placed 1st in the Division 2 (469.5 points), which means the County is promoted to
Division One for 2025. Well swum all of you, and a big Thank You to
the Coaches and Team Managers - a full writeup will follow...
County Development Meet - The Information
for Competitors and accepted swim list has been published on the
Development Meet
pages. Please note session 1 starts 30 minutes later than previously advertised.
County Development Meet - The
closing date for entries to the County Development meet has been
pushed back by 24 hours to midnight, Monday 23rd September.
Entries for the meet are submitted through club contacts.
Development Meet and County Championships - The
Conditions, including schedule and qualifying times for both meets, are on
their respective Development
Meet and County Championships pages.
Team Manager courses - Courses for Team Manager training dates are as follows:
Congratulations - to our latest newly
qualified swimming referee: Debbie Richards (Bracknell & Wokingham SC).
This year we had over 2800 individual swims, and 241 team swims, which is something of a record. Talking of records, there were 3 new County records - Lucy Fox (Women's 100m Fly County Record), Hazel-Anne Carter (Girls' 200m Breaststroke County Junior Record) and Wycombe's 16yrs&under Girls Medley Relay County Junior Record.
To the Organisers, who worked on the meet for over a year, Thank You.
To the Officials, who ensure fair competition, Thank You.
To the Swimmers, who had trained for and swum their best swims, Thank You.
To the Parents, who had fed/supported/transported their swimmers, Thank You.
To the Coaches and Team Managers, who encouraged, coached, trained their swimmers, Thank You.
We look forward to see you at next year's Championships - held
11th/12th, and 25th/26th January 2025.
Click on an image to enlarge it.
County Championships - The Information for Competitors document for the County Championships - including the revised session times - has now been published in the County Meets Championships pages.
We wish you all well.
National County Team Championships - We send our County Team of 25 swimmers up to Ponds Forge this weekend with our best wishes for some great swimming.
Thank you to Joe Evans (County Coach) and helpers who have helped to select and organise the team and they travel up to Sheffield on Sunday for what is a very exciting (and noisy)gala.
We wish you all well.
The team's makeup is detailed on the
Intercounties page.
County Development Meet - This year, for the first time in its history, we received three times the amount of entries, resulting in a rather over-subscribed gala.
Please visit the Development
Meet pages for the details of accepted
swims, rejected swims and Information for competitors and parents
on the day.
Annual Report - The
Report for 2022-2023 Berks & South Bucks ASA Annual Report
is available to view.
Congratulations to - Maidenhead Marlins
for becoming joint winners at the National Arena Junior Swimming
League. In the final held at the Alan Higgs Centre in Coventry,
Maidenhead drew with Guildford City.
County Masters - The results of the county
Masters meet has been posted to the masters pages.
Annual Council Meeting 2023 - The agenda and minutes for the Annual Council meeting are available.
The Association’s Annual Council Meeting (ACM) will be held, virtually on Zoom, on 13 July 2023.
County Development Meet - Information on the County
Development Meet on Sunday 15th October 2023 has been posted in the
County Meet areas. Entries open August 1, and close 27th September.
Entry is via your club, not individually.
Annual Council Meeting 2023 - All clubs have been sent a letter about the upcoming Annual Council meeting. The Association’s Annual Council Meeting (ACM) will be held, virtually on Zoom, on 13 July 2023. At the ACM there will be elections for Vice-President, Hon Secretary, Hon Treasurer and 12 Management Board members. Any member of a club assigned to the County may be nominated for the above roles. Nominations may be made by any member of an assigned club.
Nomination forms are attached (in both word and pdf format).
Completed nominations should be sent to the secretary, via any medium, by 30 June 2023.
The secretary is happy to accept multi-part forms.
County Masters Meet - Information on the County
Masters Meet on Sunday 10th September 2023 has been posted in the
County Meet areas..
Congratulations - to the artistic swimmers in Reading Royals who finished a successful day at the Swim England Artistic Swimming National Junior and Senior Championships with a gold medal in the Technical Team event.
The team was made up of Cara Zeidler, Elena Smith-Fernandez,
Florence Blinkhorn, Holly Hughes, Lily Halasi, Rebecca Saunders,
Sofija Dakovic and Tara Dakovic, with Beatrice Askar in reserve.
Congratulations - to our three newly
qualified swimming referees: Sam Mullender (Newbury SC),
Kevin Steele (Wycombe District SC) and Devon Wilks
(Windsor SC).
County Championships - Good luck to all the competitors at the County Championships that starts this weekend.
Please make sure that you have read the Information for Competitors document.
We are also running a live Scoreboard during the sessions to, viewable over the Internet.
For information on these (and more) please visit the
County Championships pages.
County Championships - Please make sure you are aware of the final session times which sometimes differ from the provisional ones. Visit the championships pages.
All swims have been accepted, and it looks like being an exciting championships!
Technical Officials - please
indicate your
availability to support the championships.
Save Our Pools campaign - Swim England has
launched a campaign to stop an estimated 40% of the nation's pools
being closed. Read about the campaign
here,
and sign the petition!
Congratulations - to Sam Dyson
(Wycombe District SC) on her becoming the County's
most recently qualified licensed referee.
County Championships 2023 - The
Championships pages have been updated with the full conditions and
details of changes for the coming championships.
Congratulations - to Fiona Hughes
(Wycombe District SC) on becoming the County's
most recently qualified licensed referee.
National County Team Championships - Berks and S Bucks finished 12th overall in the premier division of the National County Team Championships that was held at Sheffield's Ponds Forge today. Well done to all the swimmers and County Coaching team!
Jack Allman Henry Benton Lily Brabbin Hazel-Anne Carter Annabelle Compton |
William Dean Lucy Fox Lilia Gilbert Charlotte Heyden Jessica Humm |
Johnny Ireland Lucas Iweanya Adam Maaref Alexander Moore Oliver Mowbray |
Nathan Potter Luke Poulton Sienna Ramery Monty Smith Neve Tyson |
Alex Vine - County Coach | |||
David Cummins - Asst County Coach | |||
Joe Evans - Asst County Coach | |||
Julia Craigie - County Team Manager |
County Masters Meet - Results for the County
Development Meet on Sunday 9th October 2022 have been posted in the
County Meet areas.
County Development Meet - Information on the County
Development Meet on Sunday 9th October 2022 has been posted in the
County Meet areas. Entries open August 1, and close 25th September.
County Masters - Information on the County
Masters Meet on Sunday 11th September 2022 has been posted in the
masters areas. Entries open July 1, and close 25th August.
County Championships - Accepted Swim lists and Information for Competitors document for the County Championships scheduled to be held in January 2022 is now available via the "County Meets" menu.
Please review these documents, which contain the updated session
times, and details for the live video streaming of the championships.
Inter-County Masters - Congratulations to all the members of the Masters swimmers in the Berks & South Bucks team on achieving a national 4th placing after the South East Region Gala held at Wycombe Leisure Centre on 14/11/21.
The team were placed fourth after Warwickshire, North Yorkshire and Hampshire.
Adrian Barker Adrian Ting Alfie Evans Andrew Moore Anne Cork Carolynn Curtis Charlotte West Claire Foy Daniel John Dave Milburn Deborah Aresu |
Duncan McCreadie Elizabeth Hetherington Greg Adams Greg Whyte Harry Middleton Holly Omand James Mackenzie Jeanne Petit Jevgenijs Putans Julia Hodgson Julian Swain |
Karen Leftley Kevin Wills Laura Cooke Lauren Richards Luke Spain Megan Daley Miroslav Coicici Philippa Williams Rebecca O'Brien Terry Wright |
County Championships - Information on the County
Championships to be held in January 2022 is now available via the "County Meets" menu.
Club representation at the County Management Board - The County Management Board, which is elected annually at the County Annual Council Meeting is July) represents the interests of the affiliated clubs (from Artistic Swimming, Diving, Water Polo and Swimming) in matters such as development, training camps, meets, county championships etc. It "meets" (virtually) 5 times a year.
There currently number of vacancies on the
current County Management Board.
Contact
the Secretary, if you are interested in serving on the Board. We are
particulary hopeful that some of the unrepresented clubs will join us.
Make that a double! - Team GB and Maidenhead's Tom Dean led off the Men's 4x200 Freestyle in a fantastic race which was just 3/100th of a second outside the world record and came in over 3 seconds in front of the second placed team from the Russian Olympic Committee.
It's Tom's second Olympic Gold medal, but also the first Olympic Gold medals for the other team members - James Guy, Matt Richards and Duncan Scott.
The swim was also a new European record.
Congratulations Tom Dean - Olympic Gold - Great news from the Olympic pool with Tom Dean winning Gold Medal in the 200m Freestyle.
Tom (currently training at University of Bath) is from a large swimming family, trained at (and is still a member of) Maidenhead Marlins ASC, and won Gold in the event with his GB team mate, Duncan Scott, taking the Silver medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
It's the first time since 1908 that two male Team GB swimmers have shared a Olympic podium.
Congratulations to Tom and his support and coaching teams.
We also believe that this is the first time a Berks and South Bucks performance swimmer has won Olympic Gold.
Annual Report - The
Report for 2020-2021 Berks & South Bucks ASA Annual Report
is available to view.
Annual Council Meeting 2021 - All clubs have been
sent
a letter about the upcoming Annual Council meeting (to be held "virtually" on 15 July 2021 at 20:00) which selects the
County's management board for the next year. The nomination forms
and (soon, other papers) are published in the minutes section.
Terry Norris - The funeral service will be on Friday 30 April at 1.00pm and will be available on webcast; 'log in' details below:-
https://www.wesleymedia.co.uk/webcast-view Login / Order ID: 91855 Password: xseanhws
The County Vice-President, Peter Button, will attend the funeral as a family friend, and represent the Association. The President of Swim England South East Region, Brian DeVal, has also been invited to attend.
A 'memory giving'
page (https://www.memorygiving.com/terrynorris)
has also been created in Terry's memory should
anyone wish to leave a message and donate to his chosen charity,
Thames Valley Air Ambulance.
Terry Norris - It is with great sadness I write to report that Terry Norris, who had only fairly recently served as Berks & South Bucks ASA's president for the longest period since wartime, passed away suddenly on Sunday 11 April.
More recently, Terry had been President of Swim England South East Region since 2019, and was due to stand down at the Region ACM this Wednesday.
Terry had been involved with swimming since 2009 when his daughter joined Chalfont Otters SC and immediately got involved in helping run things - Fixtures Secretary, Treasurer and ultimately Chairman in 2012.
Before swimming he'd been involved with cricket - and as a Professional Tour Manager (in his spare time) escorted groups on cricket tours of Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the West Indies. Oh, and there were some rugby tours in there too.
You can see a pattern emerging: he ran Chalfont's first 4 overseas camps, and then got involved in South East Region Camps and swimming competitions in Europe when he became Team Manager to the South East Region, then Swim England and British Swimming.
He was eager to pass on his support and enthusiasm, and had been involved in training many team managers in Berks and South Bucks, where he held the post of President for 3 years and 3 months - relinquishing the role just before taking up the presidency of SER.
Our condolences to his wife and daughter. He will be remembered by many throughout the
swimming community as a kind, supportive man.
County Championships 2021 - The County Management Board met earlier this month, when it reviewed the situation in the light of the national lockdown, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, introduced just after Christmas 2020. The meeting was held before the announcement, earlier this week, by the Prime Minister, of the roadmap for the lifting of restrictions.
At the meeting, the Board considered responses received from clubs. The majority had not been supportive of seeking to promote County Championships in July 2021: this had been a date favoured in the autumn last year.
Accordingly, as things stand presently, the Board expects the next County Championships to be held in January/February 2022. That said, the Board would support promotion of "County" events in any window approved by the Swim England Swimming Leadership Group. It is understood that an announcement by that Group is imminent.
Therefore, no further details about proposed events are available at this
time.
The details will be settled by the County's Performance
Swimming Events' Committee in due course.
County championships 2021 - The County Management Board met earlier this week, when it confirmed that it would not hold the County [Swimming] Championships in January 2021. It was, however, agreed, in principle, to hold some County events, similar to the championships, during any window approved by the Swim England Swimming Leadership Team: presently, that window is in June and July.
It must be stressed that no further details about proposed events are
available at this time: these will be settled by the County's Performance Swimming
Events Committee in due course.
Upcoming county and national meets - It is unlikely to come a a surprise to anyone, but confirmation that the County Masters, Regional Intercounty Masters, National County Team Championships ("Intercounties") and all 3 rounds of the National Arena Swimming League for 2020 have been cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
The expectation that the County development meet will also be cancelled. It is not
clear what the expectation for County Championships is at this point in time.
Annual Report - The
Report for 2019-2020 Berks & South Bucks ASA Annual Report
is available to view. (If you don't want to print the photographs,
use this version instead)
Annual Council Meeting - Papers for the
Annual Council meeting being held "virtually" on July 16 are published in
the minutes section under "County Structure".
Annual Council Meeting - All clubs have been
sent
a letter about the upcoming Annual Council meeting which selects the
County's management board for the next year. The nomination forms
and other papers are/will be published in the minutes section.
Sport England support - Sport England have announced a £20 million new Community Emergency Fund to help community sport and physical activity organisations who are experiencing short term financial hardship or the ceasing of operations due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
Full details on this can be found at https://www.sportengland.org/how-we-can-help/our-funds/community-emergency-fund.
Coronavirus Pandemic - The County Association is a grouping of clubs within Berkshire and South Buckinghamshire. Its Management Board, elected at last year’s Annual Council Meeting, and the Board’s Finance Sub-Committee is already engaged in how best to assist clubs as a result of this crisis. The situation has been, and remains, dynamic, particularly in respect of government advice and announcements. Similarly, these is no clarity about how long any restrictions will remain in place: some suggest a (hopefully pessimistic) view that the crisis will continue to the end of this year.
Clearly, the Board would be rash to dispose of all its balances, and must retain sufficient to meet its liabilities. Furthermore, the Association needs to be in a position to help clubs restart their operations when the present crisis is over, and pools are available again.
In addition, It may be anticipated that the Board will expect each club to take full advantage of the various support schemes announced by the Government, as well as exhausting their own reserves.
It is expected that the Board will want to know what support is forthcoming from the national governing body and the South East Region. Any scheme by the Association needs to complement national or regional mechanisms, not duplicate them.
Therefore, it would help the Board to know what individual clubs NEED to survive the current period of inactivity, however long that might be, and why. In this connection, the Regional Management Board is about to launch a survey, albeit for anonymous responses, to get a feel for the regional requirement.
One final comment. The present circumstances quite clearly demonstrate the need for clubs to incorporate, in order to avoid the spectre of personal liability falling on members.
The board can be reached via e-mail to the secretary, secretary@bsbasa.org.
A full list of clubs affiliated to the Berks & S Bucks ASA is:
Congratulations - to Sarah Endersby
(Reading SC) amd Peter Roycroft (Amersham SC) as the County's
most recently licensed and qualified referees.
County Championships Parking at Wycombe
- The leisure centre multi-storey car
park is currently closed for maintenance so visitors to the
leisure centre can use the Park & Ride car park, free of
charge, which is opposite Waitrose. The John Hampden Grammar
School car park (on the opposite side of the main road), can
be used as an overflow if needed. It is only a 5 minute
walk with a safe pedestrian crossing.
(map)
County Championships - All the
eligible meets (eligible date range is 1 jan 2019 - 17 Dec 2019)
are now available on Rankings so don't delay - Entries close
midday on Tuesday 24th December (Christmas Eve). No exceptions!
2020 Championships web site
National Arena League - Congratulations
to Wycombe for winning the final of the National Arena Swimming
League Premier Division on Saturday night, edging out the
established champions, Guildford. The first time Wycombe has
won this title, they go on to compete in the National final in
March 2020.
County Championships - Please do
make sure that entries to the County Championships 2020 have been
completed and paid for by NOON (MID DAY, 12:00) on Tuesday 24th
December (Christmas Eve). No exceptions! Better still, don't
leave it to the last minute.
2020 Championships web site
Intercounties - Great result with our
team finishing 13th - one place higher than last year. An
excellent result that keeps us in Division 1. Congratulations
to all the swimmers, and coaching teams. A big thank you to Joan
Scarrott for organising everything - hotels, transport, training,
meals ... and to the parents who travelled up to support and
officiate at the National County Team Championships. If you
want to know more about the results go
to https://swimmingresults.org
Intercounties - Good luck to our
team competing on Sunday in the
National County Team Swimming Championships at
Ponds Forge, Sheffield. You can watch their progress
(both scores and viseo) from noon
at https://swimmingresults.org.
We are competing in Division 1.
Inter Counties -The team has been selected to represent Berkshire & South Buckinghamshire ASA at the National County Team Swimming Championships held at Ponds Forge, Sheffield on Sunday 6th October 2019. See "Intercounties" under the County Meets tab.
Congratulations to you all, and good luck!
County President - Attendees of the recent ACM of the County Association will know that there were, at that time, no nominations for the offices of President and Vice-President, so the Management Board was authorised to fill the vacancies.
We are delighted to report that Bev Skelton (Reading Royals SC) has consented to be elected as President for 2019/20, and Andy Mackay (Chesham SC) has likewise put his name forward to be Vice-President for 2019/20, and, therefore, President for 2020/21.
The Board will be asked to make the appointments at its next meeting. Our thanks to Bev
and Andy for volunteering for these important offices.
County Coach - the position of County Coach to Berks & South Bucks is has been filled by the appointment of Alex Vine. Alex will coach the County team for the National County Team Championships held at Sheffield this Autumn, and lead the County Development Camps.
Our thanks to Josh Atkins, who has stepped down this year after overseeing the return
of the County team to Division 1.
County Coach - the position of County
Coach to Berks & South Bucks is vacant, and the County
is seeking a successor for the role from amongst the coaches in the
County sub-region. A Job Description will follow, but chiefly responsibilities
include Coach of the County Team at the National County Team Championships, and
leading the two County Development Camps. Expressions of interest, please,
to the County's secretary.
Reading Royals win Redwood award at Synchro Nationals - Congratulations to Reading Royals who won the Redwood Trophy after dominating at the 2019 Swim England National Synchronised Swimming Junior and Senior Championships. This is the first time Reading Royals have won the trophy in almost 20 years.
The coveted Redwood Trophy being awarded to the team with the highest combined score from the Tech Team and the Free Team events. To secure it Reading Royals also won gold in the Free Duet, Tech Duet, Free Combo and Tech Team competitions.
This is especially impressive as Reading Royals have been without a home competition pool since Reading's swimming pool closed over a year ago, meaning the athletes are left with having to travel further to their training venues.
The Nationals were held at the Harvey Hadden Sports Village in Nottingham, and attracted television coverage by the BBC. For a period of time (about the end of May 2019) you can watch the recording.
The Redwood Trophy winning team members were Abigail Taylor, Alyssa Basinger,
Cerys Larsen, Daisy Gunn, Eleanor Blinkhorn, Harriette Smith, Isabel Turrell,
Isobel Blinkhorn, Tara Dakovic, Victoria Usher. Not forgetting the contributions
from the team manager Jane Turrell and coaches Kelly-Anne Russell and Katie Clark.
Swim England awards Swim England are wanting to recognise the achievements of individuals who have made a significant impact on aquatics.
As part of the organisation's 150th anniversary celebrations, athletes, coaches and volunteers across England will all be considered for submission into the Hall of Fame after being suggested by the public. The initial induction will also recognise pioneers from aquatics’ illustrious history as part of Swim England’s landmark anniversary.
Visit the Swim England site for full details.
Congratulations - to Charles Bagot
(Amersham SC) as the County's
most recently licensed and qualified referee.
County Masters Details of the
Berks & South Bucks County Masters Competition, being held in
September 2019, are available via the Masters Disciplines section.
Judge Level 2S (Starter) Course date The
County is looking to hold a course for JL2S in the near future and
is collecting names of interested candidates. If you are JL2
qualified, and are interested
please email
Sue Green (officials@bsbasa.org).
County Championships This year's County Championships is over. Well done to all the swimmers that swam, achieved PBs, set PBs (in the 50m pool). Thank you to the Officials, Volunteers that ran the galas (both on poolside and doing the various roles behind the scenes), and especially to the "Pink Shirts" who managed the electronics, results and paperwork. For the Spectators that cheered on the races - Thank you.
We'll probably do it all again, this time next year. Come and help us!
Judge Level 2 Course date The County is offering a J2 course on 19 February 2019 (evening) in Windsor. For more information and to secure a place please email Sue Green (officials@bsbasa.org).
You
need to be a licensed Judge Level 1 to attend this course (if you have
not finished your JL1 post-qualification sessions you can still attend:
you may not commence mentored sessions until they are completed).
County Championships Record tumbles The 40
year old 400m freestyle record held by Reading swimmer Philip Hubble was
smashed on Sunday by Wycombe's Jamie O'Connor when he took 2½ seconds
off the 1978 record of 4:06.28 by swimming an impressive 4:03.80.
County Championships Day 1 and 2
results are available on the Championships web site.
County Championships - Road Closures! If you're intending to come to the first weekend of the County Championships up the A404 from the South (from the M4 or the A4) - you're not going to! We've discovered the A404 dual carriageway WILL BE CLOSED at Marlow from Friday night to Monday morning.
This will mainly affect people from Bracknell, Maidenhead, Newbury, Reading, Tilehurst and Windsor.
Please plan accordingly! Highways England are suggesting via
Henley and the A4155 or M4 / M25 / M40, but I can't make their
Roadworks Finder website work. Looking at
a map suggests
that Taplow/Cookham/Little Marlow might work, or Slough/Farnham Common/M40.
County Championships See the Information for Competitors document for the confirmed County Championship session warm-up and swimming times.
Also available on the Championships
web site is the confirmed list of accepted swims.