2012 Inter-County Masters Championships

We came fifth in the country, and
we won the Tony Warn trophy!

The Berks and South Bucks Masters team were victorious in the South East Region Inter-County Masters Championships,
and won the Southern Counties Inter-County cup (The Tony Warn trophy) on its 20th anniversary.

The Berks and South Bucks Masters Swim Team with Keith Richards, South East Region ASA President.
Hover/click the mouse over a face to see the name.  Not pictured: Karl Buchholtz, Dave Butler, Anne Cork, Karen Croxford, Carolynn Curtis, Andrew Hagues, Katie Henderson, Gemma Jones, Shawn Morgan, Victoria Rickwood, Maureen Tomlinson, Scott Unal.

 

SER (South East Region) Inter-County report, 2012

This year's Inter-County Championship was held (almost) simultaneously in 6 national regions, ours being the South-East. All results are then aggregated together to produce the national champions and two runner-up counties.

The South East Region gala took place in Maidenhead on the evening of November 17 between 6 competing counties, namely Surrey, Hampshire, Berkshire & South Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire & North Buckinghamshire, Sussex, and Kent. Middlesex being a notable absentee.

A fast and furious meet, comprising 50m individual sprints and 4x50m relays, lasted around 2.5 hours and was very closely contested until the last few races. It was then that Berks. & South Bucks pulled ahead of Hampshire to win by 30 points.

The final SER points tally was as follows:

Pos.

County

Points

1

Berks & S Bucks

318

2

Hampshire

288

3

Kent

232

4

Sussex

197

5

Oxford & N Bucks

185

6

Surrey

176

There was some great swimming with highly entertaining racing from our team of stars. Not one person let us down.  There was a great team spirit with a lot of cheering, high-fiving and back slapping going on, all very stirring stuff that made us proud of each other.

All in all, out of 68 races we recorded 26 first places, 14 seconds, and 20 third places. The women's team won every one of their 8 relay races, and added another 6 individual firsts to that tally.

That is a very high ranking, especially when considering  we drew our swimmers from only half of the clubs in the county.

There were a plethora of world masters champions, and British, European and World record holders from a number of the counties at the meet, including Berks and South Bucks.

From other counties they included Sergey Mandradzhiyski, who swims 50m before you can type his name into the computer, Owen Morgan, a recent TV star at the Olympic Trials, and Marco Loughran, Olympic 200m backstroker.

The crowd, to a man or woman, stood and applauded as Marco knocked off a superlative 24.75 for the 50 back. A master-class of underwater dolphin kick that united the usually partisan crowd.

Owen, a Commonwealth Games veteran, also set the pool alight with a sub-23 second 50m free.

All of our glorious Berks and South Bucks team swam magnificently, and made the SER trophy a prize worth winning.

The detailed results are available in printable form

The results are aggregated on a race-by-race basis to for the National results for 2012.  On that basis we are placed fifth in the country, up from 14th from the 2011 results last year.

Duncan McCreadie
County Masters Team Manager

The team members

The Ladies

 

The Men

Bridget Bewick Maidenhead   Ben Bradley Maidenhead
Allie Boddington Bracknell   Karl Buchholtz Reading
Anne Cork Maidenhead   Dave Butler Bracknell
Kay Crosse Newbury   Chris Ehinger Maidenhead
Karen Croxford Maidenhead   Gareth Fowler Amersham
Carolynn Curtis Maidenhead   Andrew Hagues Bracknell
Holly Davis Maidenhead   Jim Mackenzie Maidenhead
Amanda Heath Maidenhead   Duncan McCreadie Maidenhead
Katie Henderson Reading   Simon Mellor Bracknell
Kirsty Johnson Bracknell   Dave Milburn Newbury
Gemma Jones Amersham   Shawn Morgan Reading
Rachel Langton Maidenhead   John Munday Windsor
Karen Leftley Bracknell   Roberto Pozzi Maidenhead
Becky O'Brien Windsor   Steve Richards Maidenhead
Victoria Rickwood Reading   Nigel Salsbury Reading
Maureen Tomlinson Amersham   Scott Unal Maidenhead

Some photographs

Click on a picture to enlarge it (and again to shrink it). If you'd like a hi-res copy, please e-mail us.