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Speedo League 3 - Hemel Hempstead, 8 December 2007

We had another cracking performance on 8 December from our Speedo team, resulting in a quarter (12) of all races achieving first place. These broke down as follows:
And last but by no means least - as it was the most dramatic finale ever - our lads and men team won the Men's Open Freestyle Relay in the very last race. In the roll of honour: Danny, Alex, Stephen, with Lenny and Ricky showing that age had categorically not caught up with them with two barnstorming performances in their heats.

Maciek - the human tornado

I actually felt sorry for the opposing teams when Maciek entered in the water. One of the teams would be paddling merrily along with a few dozen lengths lead on us, convinced they had won, when along came the Polish tornado to dash their dreams to the ground. The stunned faces of various non-Brent supporters around me said it all. Sadly, and disgracefully, we could not resist rubbing it in with high fives, victory punches and noisy whoops. On the ladies' front, Alanise, Geraldina and Nathalie secured very creditable second places in the U13 breast, back and butterfly.

Congratulations to all who swam and thanks to all the coaches who came with us: Ricky, Sean, Nerissa, Robert, Peter; to Sean and Ricky for driving most of us there (but no thanks to Ricky for playing Slade on the trip), and to Dick for time-keeping.

Close encounters of the most thrilling kind - Brent Dolphins at the 2007 Speedo League Round 2

Thrilling was the only word to describe the Speedo on 10 November in Hemel Hempstead. It was the moment the tide started to turn in our favour and you felt a real sense that the club is starting to rebuild itself after the difficult nomadic years following the closure of Willesden Pool.

We didn't win. We achieved third place out of four teams, but you got a glimpse of what we could be capable of in times to come both from existing and emergent talent. There were mighty deeds by the club 'gladiators' (Danny Lynch, Alex Tilfourd) in individual events and sturdy performance by the troupers in the relays. The youngest boys were unstoppable: 10-year old Robin Brommage kicked off a string of firsts with a superb performance in the 50m backstroke and looks set to be as talented as his older brother Tom. Patrick Casey, also 10, won the 50m freestyle and the 50m fly. Ziggy Webster-Franchi rounded off the hat-trick by winning the 50m breast. Danny Lynch, in some races which were nail-bitingly dramatic and in others where he merely seemed to stroll to first place, came top in no less than three 100m individual races: back, U15 free and Men's Open free.

The two firsts by the girls were at the expense of my eardrums, now apparently ruptured. Nathalie Kavanagh, 12, was trailing second in the U13 100 fly, but in response to a hurricane of roaring by her, Alanise's and Patrick's parents, with me in the middle, put on an extraordinary sprint in the final 12m to win.

Terry, our head coach, almost died of excitement on poolside as he urged our swimmers to greater and greater heights. We've simply never had so many first places before! Bodie Marx-Blackwell won the U15 100 breast, showing tremendous stamina and speed in the final sprint to the finish. Jessica Dear popped up everywhere, in both the U15 and Open groups, tying with Danny for doing the most races, and putting her heart and soul into every race. Both of them seem indefatigable. Lily Kuenzler, just nine, and having only recently joined the club, rose to the challenge of facing older girls in the free and breast (as we were thin on the ground in her age group) and performed courageously, as did Anmol Kerai. Jack (10) and Luke (8) Galvin were astonishingly good in the two youngest boys' relays, battling with huge stamina and courage alongside Patrick Casey and Robin Brommage to win second place in the free and first place in the medley.

And now in praise of older men - a round of applause to Lenny Franchi, Ziggy's father, and Rick, beloved coach for competing in a number of races with good humour, skill and ability (especially the dinky little flip Ricky puts in his dive on entering the water!). We also had a great turnout - almost every teaching coach, and the atmosphere and support were fantastic. We were certainly the noisiest spectators. We still lack strength and depth in several of the age groups and there is a lot of work to do to build them all up equally. But the talent and the spirit are there and we can look forward to the future with increasing confidence and optimism.

Lenny, Peter & Ricky
Coaches Lenny, Peter and Ricky

Stevenage Speedo - 13 October

There were brave deeds on Saturday night at the Speedo event in Stevenage. Whilst the English rugby team was aiming for immortality against the French, our swimmers fought hard but with a thin team owing to other commitments and last minute dropouts, we only managed a fifth place out of five teams in total. According to Head Coach, Terry, however, this event was a really tough one and we were facing some exceptionally strong teams. The next Speedo round should be more rewarding for us in his view. The swimmers in the youngest age groups worked like Trojans, several having to do more than usual or swim up as we didn't even have enough girls to supply a full relay team in the 9 - 11 group. We were very thin on the ground, too, in the U15 age group, so Geraldina, Natalie had both to swim up as well as compete in their own age group. Geraldina seemed to just have the edge on numbers of races swum - I lost count in the end! Both Natalie and Maciek had to swim two 100m fly races in close succession and were visibly tired but they dealt with the challenge valiantly. Maciek achieved the best result of the night with first place in the Men's Open 100m fly, at the grand age of just 15. Welcome and congratulations to Lily, only 9 years old, and in her first ever event for BDSC and with us just 3 weeks. Ziggy and Patrick in the youngest age group were like tiny bombs in the water and put huge amounts of energy into all their races. Well done Rob for stepping into the breach when Ricky went ill at the last moment, and for helping out on poolside.

If you want to find out your own individual results or your child's (if a parent), click on the word 'Results' in the section Competition results here

Then click on 'Meet results' and choose the race you want to find out about. You can search this site in several other ways to get a swimmer's results, so do explore it and if you get stuck you can ring me, Wanda, on 020 8969 8809 to explain how to get round the site.

See us at Queen's Park Day

Brent Dolphins will once again have a stall at Queen's Park Day on Sunday September 9th. Find us at Stall D28.

Time trial on September 14th

There is a time trial at Willesden at 8pm on Friday 14th September and we will be trialling the electronic timing equipment.

ASA seeks young ambassadors

The ASA is in the process of recruiting eight young leaders aged 18-25 to join a national forum and represent the voice of young people active within the organisation.

The ASA Youth Forum has been set up to enable young people involved in the sport to work with the national governing body and develop opportunities for young people. The ASA is looking for applicants from swimming, open water swimming, water polo, diving and synchronised swimming.
The group will meet throughout the year and will be consulted on issues that impact on young people as well as helping to manage projects with specific relation to the organisation's younger members.
The ASA Youth Forum provides a fantastic opportunity for athletes and young volunteers to get involved with the running of one of the country's largest national governing bodies. Forum members will receive training on a variety of topics, including finance, communication and governance in order to give them the skills to be able to fulfil their roles within the group.

Anyone interested in joining the group should complete the expression of interest form here before Friday 31 August.

Valiant deeds at 9th June Verulam gala

A small team of less than twenty boys and girls battled for points at the Verulam Gala on June 9th. We were desperately short of swimmers in several categories and overall it was a struggle. Congratulations however to Nathalie, Maciek, Ana Ciara and Danny who all got first places, Maciek in three races, and to our Boys' Dream Team which took first in the open free and open medley relays!

Prescription goggles

For discounted prescription swimming goggles go to Spex4Less.

Aquathlon 13 May 2007

Details of the event are on the Press Release.

Swimathon 25 March 2007

Well done to Luke and Jack Galvin, Ashwen and Anil Banarsee, Nathalie Kavanagh, Geraldine Haxhia, Reece Cane, Robin and Thomas Brommage. Luke is 7 years old and Ashwen is 8 and both swam 60 lengths. We all attended Canons Sports Centre in Edgware on 25 March to swim various distances. This was to fundraise for the Swimathon Foundation and Marie Curie Cancer Care charities. All the children should now have had their medals and certificates. It is not too late to make donations to any of the children. Swimathon results are now available to see on the swimathon website.

ASA Timekeepers exam

Middlesex ASA are trying to set up a Timekeepers exam sometime in the next few months, in conjunction with one of the county meets. The plan is that candidates would have a seminar, followed by the written exam on the Saturday, with the practical exam on the Sunday. At the moment, it is just an idea, but in any case, if this is impossible to arrange, there will be a course and written exam in the spring. Anybody interested should contact Tony Burton for more details.

Club Captains

The Committee has discussed the possibility of having Club Captains once more. There would be two captains, one boy and one girl. The club rules state that their election must be by way of a ballot of members and their term of office should last for a period of one year. We decided that the most appropriate time for this would be around the AGM. The AGM has been scheduled to take place in April. We will be publishing the criteria for these positions, this being what the club would expect the duties of the club captain to be. If this is to work, it will be up to you swimmers. More details to be available soon.

Update

The committee looked long and hard at how this could best be done and have for this year elected Alex Tilfourd as the Boys Captain and Claire Ballantyne as the Girls Captain. These appointments will last for one year. It may be that next year the swimming members themselves can put forward candidates. It will depend on the interest shown by the time the committee reviews the position prior to next year's AGM.

Speedo League results

Saturday 9th December 2006 Brent Dolphins competed in Round Three of the Speedo league at Hemel Hempstead, coming fourth out of the five teams with 186 points. This was added to the totals of the previous Speedos to make our position 15th out of the 21 clubs in Division Two. This is an improvement of three places from last year! Special congratulations go to the swimmers of the gala, Ana-Ciara Ulamoleka and Maciek Pogodzik for their contribution to the competition. In addition, there were excellent swims by Tom Brommage, Reece Cane and Angela Phelan. We couldn’t have done this well without everybody so well done to all who went along!

Urgent call for parent chauffeurs

We used to hire coaches but the cost has become too much for the Club to bear.

Please - if your children swim at events - offer places to other swimmers. If you can help. let Robert, Terry or Sean know.

STANDING ORDERS are Go!

We will give you a 5% discount if you pay monthly fees by Standing Order.

Help!

As you probably know, the Club is run by a committee of volunteers, who give up their time so that your children can learn to swim. As ever, we need more help.

We need people to cover administrative jobs like completing registers and collecting swim fees. This work is vital to the running of the club. If you just cover a single session each week, that would be fine. Maybe two or three of you could get together to cover a session. Speak to us, all offers of help will be greatly appreciated. The work is straightforward and easy.

Bear in mind that if we cannot get the help we need and the supply of volunteers dries up, those that are left will not be able to cope. The club might then have to close after 87 years of teaching children to swim.

All we ask is that those parents who stay give us an hour or an hour and a half of your time to help keep the club going. You are there anyway, why not offer your services? Those who do will get a reduction in swim fees for their children, which is our way of saying thank you.

The Committee