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.