Reports

Saturday 21st January proved to be an extremely successful night for Halesowen Swimming Club as they entered 2 teams for the Worcester Winter League 2012.  Team A travelled to Droitwich to take part in one gala whilst Team B stayed at home to host the gala at Halesowen Leisure Centre.  All swimmers were keen to make a good start to the New Year which they certainly accomplished by leading the other teams from start to finish.  The club showed once again their firm team spirit by working together to win 14 of the 16 relay races and completing both galas in clear first place.

Winning both their individual events were India Hanke in the Freestyle and Breaststroke, Chloe Finch in the Butterfly and Freestyle, Chloe Robbins in the Backstroke and Freestyle as well as Jacob Darby and Jakob Baker in the Butterfly and Breaststroke.  First place also went to Ryan Davies, Jack Simpson and Eliza Bradley in the Freestyle, Lauren Hill, Hannah Cuthbert, Luke Morris, Daniel Hill and Katy Morrice in the Butterfly, Max Clapham, Jack Slattery, Emma Bird, Euan Vaughan-Hawkins and Natasha Bird in the Backstroke plus George Davies and Piers Boyack in the Breaststroke.  Swimmers that helped the relay teams to victories were Indu Appanna, James Cuthbert, Ben Meakin, Kitty Luscombe, George Westwood and Jamie Greenwood for the 11 year olds, Emma Elwell, Mark Laing, James Benson, Sam Bradley-Wood, Emma Parsons, Molly Kelly, Talia Mitchell and Rhys Richards for the 13 year olds, Imogen Davies, Ruby Fell, Shannon O’Brien, Max Rollason, Isobel Hughes, Elizabeth Smyllie, Ryan Spoor and Joe Coxon for the 15 year olds and finally Sian Carey, Rebecca Spoor, Josh Bradley, Richard Phillips, Brian Steatham , Alison Peakman, Bethany Jackson, Sophie Page, Connor Oates and Nigel Gaskin for the Open aged group.

Point scores from Gala 1 (at Halesowen) Halesowen B 209, Orion 169, Bromsgrove 150, Perry Beeches & SSS 148, Ludlow 112.

Point scores from Gala 3 (at Droitwich) Halesowen A 212, Redditch 205, Droitwich 139, Worcester B 118, Haden Hill 105) .

Presentation Evening, Benjamins Halesowen - Saturday 14th January

Following hot on the heels of a highly successful Club Championships, more than 200 Club members, family and friends of Halesowen Swimming Club attended their Presentation Evening at Benjamins in Halesowen on Saturday 14th January to celebrate all their swimmers' successes in 2011. Halesowen swimmers continued to be a real force in the pool and the list of their achievements is remarkable.  In February and March swimmers took a senior, junior and two age group titles in the County Championships.  In April senior swimmers retained the Worcester Winter League title for the fourth year running, in June swimmers won the County Relay Championships while the junior team went on to compete in the first division final for the third year running and in July swimmers rounded the season off nicely by winning the Mercian Summer League for the first time.  At the same time swimmers achieved three national and over 100 regional qualifying times.

During the Club Championships in November 163 swimmers took part and smashed 55 Championship records.  At Presentation Evening 50 swimmers were awarded trophies and certificates for their achievements with particular mention to Ben Meakin who broke 13 records and collected the best performance trophy along the way.  During the evening Chief Coach Pete Carey, who is celebrating 10 years at the club, awarded trophies to Best Newcomer India Hanke and Swimmers of the Year Jacob Darby.  Club Captains were also appointed with junior captains for 2012 being Lauren Hill and Mark Laing and senior captains Chloe Robbins and Josh Bradley.

Thanks go to Benjamins for hosting the event which opened with candy floss, popcorn and balloons and closed with a special display from the disco dancing staff!

Redditch Junior Friendly Gala, Droitwich - Saturday 7th January

Junior members of Halesowen Swimming Club made parents and coaches proud at the Redditch Friendly Gala on Saturday 7th January.  The team, with some taking part in their first team gala, had excellent swims finishing mainly in first or second places.  From the start they proved to be strong and with some of the swimmers finishing well in front of the rest, Halesowen lead the other teams right the way from the beginning to the end and it was a fantastic end to the first gala of the year.

Swimmers who won both their individual events were Katy Morrice, Ben Meakin and Mark Laing in the Freestyle and Butterfly, Kitty Luscombe in the Breaststroke and Backstroke and Imogen Vaughan-Hawkins in the Freestyle and Backstroke.  Other individual event winners were Jack Simpson, Euan Vaughan-Hawkins and Daniel Smyllie in the Backstroke, James Cuthbert in the Butterfly and India Hanke in the Freestyle.  The Relay teams were exceptional, winning nearly all of the relay events including Amber Robbins, Nicol Green, Amber Harrison, George Edwards and Owen Crump for the 10 year olds,  Indu Appanna, Emma Bird, Kate Martin, Jakob Baker and George Westwood for the 11 year olds and Jamie Greenwood for the 12 year old Boys Relay team. Sophie Parsons, Ruby Hanke, Melissa Parsons, James Gaskin, Aaron Spoor and Jacob Reeves won the 9 year old Freestyle relay, while Molly Kelly and Lauren Hill helped Halesowen win all three of the Cannon Relays.

Special mention goes to Ruby Hanke, Amber Harrsion, Kate Martin, Melissa and Sophie Parsons, Holly Simpson, Imogen Vaughan-Hawkins, Owen Crump, George Edwards, James and Louis Gaskin, Jacob Reeves, Daniel Smyllie and Aaron Spoor who were representing Halesowen Swimming Club for the first time.

Final point scores were Halesowen 268, Redditch 215, Stourbridge 195, Worcester 190 and Evesham 112.

National Arena League West Midlands Round 3, Leamington Spa - Saturday 10th December

Swimmers from Halesowen Swimming Club travelled to Leamington Spa to take part in the final round of the West Midlands 2011 National League.  As ever in the final round of the National League, teams with little to swim for did not swim their strongest team and, as the gala progressed, positions changed hands regularly.  Halesowen began strongly and after the opening relays lay in second place but fell to fourth place by the half-way mark.  The team's customary strong showing the in the final relays saw the team finish the evening in third pace overall.

Individual wins went to Ben Meakin in the Butterfly, Chloe Robbins and Jack Slattery in the Freestyle, Jacob Darby and Josh Bradley in the Breaststroke. The 15 year old boys relay team were unbeatable, winning both the Freestyle and Medley races. The team included Joe Coxon, Piers Boyack and Max Rollason.

Final point scores were Leamington Spa 206, Gloucester City A 181, Halesowen 176, Leek 174, Wolverhampton 157 and Nuneaton & Bedworth A 154

National Arena League West Midlands Round 2, Worcester - Saturday 12th November

Senior swimmers from Halesowen Swimming Club repeated the journey from the first round and travelled to Worcester for the second round of the National League on Saturday 12th November.  With international swimmers from other clubs making the outing, this was always going to be a very hard round and some of the times achieved by those swimmers were of the highest calibre.  Halesowen swimmers put in a stirling performance but the team found themselves in fifth place at the half-way mark and were still 4 points away from fourth spot with 8 events to go.  A strong finish was required which the swimmers duly delivered to finish the night in fourth place.

Individual wins were hard to come by on the night with Chloe Robbins in the Backstroke and Jacob Darby in the Breaststoke being the stars of the show.

Final point scores were City of Derby A 258, Long Eaton A 171, Wyre Forest 168, Halesowen 158, Leek 147, Gloucester City A 145

National Arena League West Midlands Round 1, Worcester - Saturday 8th October

Swimmers from Halesowen Swimming Club travelled to Worcester for the first round of the National Swimming League on Saturday 8th October.  As ever in the first division, tough competition was expected and after the first ten events Halesowen found themselves struggling in fifth spot.  At the half-way mark matters had not improved and with the ten events to go the team were six points adrift in last but one place.  In the final round of relay events the swimmers put in some fine performances and slowly clawed their way back in to contention but it was not until the final two events did Halesowen finally secure third place overall.

Individual event winners were Chloe Robbins in the Backstroke, Chloe Finch and Brian Steatham in the Freestyle, Jack Simpson in the Backstroke and Ben Meakin in the Butterfly.

Final point scores were City of Coventry A 261, Stourbridge A 210, Halesowen 167, Wolverhampton 164, City of Hereford 164 and Stratford Sharks 83 .

Braunstone Sports Trophy Gala - Saturday 24th September

Senior swimmers from Halesowen Swimming Club were back in action after the summer at the Braunstone Sports Trophy Gala in Leicester on Saturday.  Despite it being the first gala after many weeks the team were as strong as ever and finished in first place for the majority of races.  The evening of excellent performances saw the club in the top position by 31 points.

Double event winners were Josh Bradley in the Individual Medley and Freestyle, James Benson in the Backstroke and Freestyle, Jacob Darby in the Butterfly and Breaststroke, Chloe Robbins in the Backstroke and Freestyle and Chloe Finch in the Butterfly and Freestyle.  Other individual first places went to Jack Simpson and Zach Collins in the Backstroke, Ruby Fell, India Hanke, and Connor Oates in the Breaststroke, Hannah Cuthbert, Luke Morris and Lauren Hill in the Butterfly and Jack Slattery in the Freestyle.  The relay teams were superb winning both the Medley and Freestyle relays.  Relay teams included Katherine Morris, Indu Appannna, Emma Bird, Jakob Baker, Ben Meakin and James Cuthbert for the 9-11 year olds, Sam Bradley-Wood, George Davies and Mark Laing for the 13 year olds, Lilian Parsons, Sian Carey, Shannon O’Brien, Ryan Davies and Joe Coxon for the 15 year olds and Rebecca Spoor, Sophie Paige, Bethany Jackson, Richard Phillips and Harry Cowley for the Open age group.

Final scores were Halesowen 313, Braunstone A 282, Coalville 208, Braunstone B 186, Market Harborough 185, Leicester Neptune 154 and Braunstone C 55.

Nuneaton Junior league Final - Saturday 10th September

Junior swimmers from Halesowen Swimming Club travelled to Wolverhampton on Saturday 10th September for the Division 1 Nuneaton Junior League Final for the third successive year.  The team were going in to the final in sixth place in the League and, faced with all the top teams from across the midlands, very tough competition was expected.  From the outset Boldmere and Leicester Penguins set the pace and Halesowen faced a tough battle for the fourth and fifth spot.  By the half-way point it looked like Halesowen would have to settle for fifth place but the team gradually made gound and were only four points adrift by event 30 and drew level by event 38.  However, Northampton stayed strong and left Halesowen to settle to fifth place on the night.

There were very stong individual performances with double event winner Ben Meakin in the Freestyle and Butterfly and first places coming from Kitty Luscombe in the Breaststroke, Katy Morrice and Jack Simpson in the Freestyle, Mark Laing in the Butterfly and Euan Vaughan-Hawkins in the Backstroke.  The relay teams performed well with wins from the 9 year-old boys including Thomas Benson and Jack Vale and the 10 year-old boys including Jakob Baker, James Cuthbert and George Westwood.  Special mention also goes to Ben Meakin for breaking the competition best time in the 25m Freestyle.

Final point scores were Boldmere A 212, Leicester Penguins 205, Nuneaton & Bedworth A 182, Northampton A 183, Halesowen 168, Lutterworth 125

Mercian Summer League Round 3 - Saturday 9th July

Halesowen swimmers travelled to Nuneaton for the Mercian Summer League final on Saturday 9th July with the prospect of a tough evening in prospect.  However, it quickly became evident that Halesowen were the strongest team on show and took the lead from the very first event and extended their advantage through all 50 events of the competition.  All members of the team were outstanding and grabbed an impressive 23 wins with almost three-quarters of these in personal best times.  The result ends an impressive first half of 2011 for Halesowen swimmers and the Mercian League title adds to their Worcester Winter League and Worcester County Relay victories, with the junior team now confirmed as Division 1 finalists for the third year running.

Double event winners were Beth Jackson in the Individual Medley and Freestyle and Mark Laing in the Butterfly and Freestyle.  Other event winners were Jack Simpson in the Backstroke, Sian Carey, Imogen Davies, Ruby Fell, India Hanke and James Cuthbert in the Breaststroke, Lauren Hill and Abi Hughes in the Butterfly and Jakob Baker, Harry Cowley and George Westwood in the Freestyle.  The relay teams won half of all the events with Medley and Freestyle winning teams from the age 10 and unders including Ben Meakin, the boys 12 and unders including Max Clapham and Rhys Richards and the Open men including Matt Chery, Sam Johnson and Andy Papworth.  The girls age 12 and unders including Emma Elwell and Molly Kelly won the Medley relay and the Open ladies team including Roxanne Taylor won the Freestyle relay.

Points scores were: Halesowen 228, Nuneaton & Bedworth 185, Solihull 182, Leamington Spa 168, Worcester 159, Perry Beeches & SSS 127

Junior swimmers from Halesowen Swimming Club travelled to Wyndley, Sutton Coldfield on Saturday 25th June for the final round of the Nuneaton Junior League first division.  The team had already ensured a good finishing position in the League following strong performances in the earlier rounds and this proved to be the case again with Halesowen finishing in a comfortable second place.  The top two places were settled early in the gala with a very strong Boldmere surging ahead and Halesowen as clear runners-up.  Chief Coach Pete Carey commented "this has been another excellent year for our junior swimmers and, with a number of very good youngsters at the club, the future looks very promising indeed".

Halesowen 9 year-old swimmers were stars of the show and were unbeaten in the gala.  Double event winners were Kitty Luscombe and Euan Vaughan-Hawkins in the Breaststroke and Backstroke, Katy Morrice and Ben Meakin in the Freestyle and Butterfly and were joined by their teammates Nicol Green, Kathryn Kelly, Lila Shaaban, Thomas Benson, James Perry and Jack Vale to win the boys and girls Freestyle and Medley relays.  The 10 year-olds were also impressive and finished no lower than second place with double event winner Jack Simpson in the Freestyle and Backstroke.  Indu Appanna won the Backstroke and Jakob Baker the Butterfly and the boys Medley relay team including James Cuthbert and George Westwood came home in first place.  Other individual event winners on the night were team captain James Benson in the Butterfly and Mark Laing in the Freestyle.  The combined boys and girls relay also finished the gala with a win including team members Emma Baker and Molly Kelly.

Points scores were Boldmere A 261, Halesowen 225, Braunstone 168, Wolverhampton 164, Boldmere B 136, Droitwich Dolphins 94

Swimmers from Halesowen Swimming Club travelled to Wolverhampton for the annual County Relay Championships on Sunday 19th June.  For the fourth year running the team were defending a trophy, this time the top girls title and tough competition was expected.  The teams excelled in the heats and all made it safely through to the finals.  In the morning session Halesowen swimmers faced a tough battle and found themselves 6 points adrift of the overall lead.  Despite a first place disqualification the boys were in the lead by 3 points but the girls faced an uphill struggle to close an 8 point gap.  In the afternoon session all of the teams put in tremendous performances with five first places, two seconds and a hat-trick of third places.  The final three events proved to be crucial and wins were required to draw level with the leaders.  Not only did the final 3 teams come up with maximum points but they also set championship best performances in the process.  With the Top Boys Trophy secured a swim off was needed to separate the teams for the Top Club trophy and the mixed team of Lilian Parsons, Chloe Robbins, Marc Collett and Josh Bradley came home handsomely in first place.

All teams were outstanding and were only once outside the top three places all day. The girls teams had stiff competition and secured two first places - both in record times.  The age 13/14 girls Freestyle team included Chloe Bate, Isobel Breslin, Lilian Parsons and Megan Willetts and the Open Freestyle team included Hannah Cuthbert, Beth Jackson and Chloe Robbins.  The boys were comfortable winners of the top boys trophy winning 5 of the 10 events.  Winning teams were the age 11/12 Freestyle team including James Benson, Max Clapham, George Davies and Mark Laing, the 13/14 Freestyle and championship best Medley team including Piers Boyack, Jacob Darby, Ryan Davies and Max Rollason, the 15/16 Freestyle and Medley teams including Harry Cowley, Sam Johnson, Luke Morris and Jack Slattery and the championship best mens Open Freestyle team including Zach Collins and Jack Watts.

Final point scores were (top 3 teams):
Top Club: Halesowen 130, Stourbridge 130 Worcester 96 (Top Club Halesowen decided by swim-off)
Top Girls Teams: Stourbridge 76, Halesowen 63, Worcester 54
Top Boys Teams: Halesowen 67, Stourbridge 54, Worcester 42

Saturday 11th July saw another win for Halesowen Swimming Club as they took part in Round 2 of the Mercian Summer League at Nuneaton.  It was a win that was hard earned as the competition between Halesowen and Nuneaton and Bedworth was fierce.  For most of the gala, Halesowen clung on to first place by just one point but by event 40, Nuneaton and Bedworth had crept past Halesowen.  It meant that Halesowen had just ten races to reclaim the winning position.  The last ten events were all relays and with Halesowen teams hitting the wall first in seven of the ten races, Halesowen were clearly the winners by seven points.

Double event winners were Harry Cowley in the Individual Medley and Freestyle and Mark Laing in the Butterfly and Freestyle.  First place also went to Bethany Jackson in the Individual Medley, Euan-Vaughan-Hawkins, Natasha Bird, Emma Elwell and Sian Carey in the Backstroke, Abi Hughes, Matt Cherry and Ben Meakin in the Butterfly, Jack Simpson in the Freestyle and Ruby Fell, India Hanke and Andy Papworth in the Breaststroke.  Ten year olds James Cuthbert, George Westwood, twelve year olds Lauren Hill, Molly Kelly, Talia Mitchell, Rhys Richards, James Westwood and Sam Johnson in the Open team won both the Medley and Freestyle relays. Whilst Sam Bradley-Wood, Jamie House and Daniel Hill won the fourteen year olds Medley Relay and Roxanne Taylor joined the Open aged team to win the Freestyle Relay.

Points scores were Halesowen 262, Nuneaton & Bedworth 255, Tamworth 183, Northgate 176

Junior swimmers from Halesowen Swimming Club were at home in the second round of the Nuneaton Junior League first division on Saturday 14th May.  With Leicester Penguins and Redditch visiting it was not going to be an easy night for the swimmers and by event 10 Halesowen were trailing in third place by 12 points.  By event 20 the gap had been closed to 5 points and some strong swimming saw the team claw their way back in to contention and by event 30 Halesowen were in second spot by just two points.  By event 40 Halesowen and Redditch were level and with just 7 events to go the teams could not be separated.  However, a strong showing by Halesowen in the remaining events saw them claim the runners-up spot by 6 clear points.

Stars of the show were double event winners Ben Meakin the Butterfly and Freestyle and Euan Vaughan-Hawkins in the Breaststroke and Backstroke.  Individual event winners were Emma Baker in the Breaststroke, James Benson the Butterfly and Jack Simpson in the Backstroke.  Winning relay teams were the age 9 boys Medley and Freestyle team including Sam Bailey, James Perry and Jack Vale, the girls 9 years Freestyle team of Emily Bate, Nicol Green, Kitty Luscombe and Lila Shaaban, the boys age 10 Freestyle team including Jakob Baker, James Cuthbert and George Westwood, the boys Freestyle team including Thomas Benson, Daniel Corcoran, Mark Laing and Zac Rollason and winning the final combined Feestyle event were the team including Indu Appanna and Talia Mitchell.

Points scores were Leicester Penguins 268, Halesowen 206, Redditch 200, Braunstone 138, Stratford Sharks 128, Chase 126.

Mercian Summer League Round 1 - Saturday 30th April

It was a flying start to 2011 for Halesowen Swimming Club when both the A and B teams competed in the first round of the Worcester Winter League and took first place in their respective galas.  The two teams were swimming at different locations; the A Team were at Bromsgrove whilst the B team were at Droitwich.  Both teams started the evening well and by event 10 were in first place.  At one point it did look like there was a possibility that the B team would slip to second place but with some superb swims this possibility never happened.  The A team dominated throughout the rest of the evening with an incredible 27 out of 40 first place finishes.  It was an extremely pleasing start to the year for the club.

Swimmers winning two events were Megan Willetts and Zach Collins in the Backstroke and Butterfly, Emma Baker in the Freestyle and Breaststroke, Chloe Robbins in the Backstroke and Freestyle and Hannah Cuthbert in the Butterfly and Breaststroke.  Other individual wins went to Lilian Parsons, Mark Laing, Jack Watts, Isobel Breslin and Chloe Finch in the Freestyle, Louise Williams, Richard Phillips, Luke Morris, Beth Luckman and Lauren Hill in the Butterfly, Scott Allin, Jacob Darby and Georgia Bird in the Backstroke and Chloe Bate, Sian Carey, Jack Slattery, George Davies and Talia Mitchell in the Breaststroke.  Rachel Weller, Molly Kelly, George Westwood, Leanne Taylor, Marc Collett, Max Rollason, Daniel Hill, James Benson then joined their teammates to win every Relay for the A team.  Bethany Jackson, Hayley Davies-Moore, Andy Papworth and Nigel Gaskin won both the Open Medley and Freestyle Relay whilst  Shannon O’Brien, Ryan Davies, Piers Boyack and George Turton won the 15 year olds Freestyle Relay for the B team.

Final scores at Bromsgrove were Halesowen A 228, Stourbridge A 210, Stourbridge B 155 and Ludlow 121.

Final scores at Redditch were Halesowen B 184, Haden Hill 175, Droitwich 159, Bromsgrove 106, Perry Beeches & SSS 101 and Orion 100