Warrender 5’s 2012

On the May 19th several members of Carlisle Aquatic men’s water polo squad travelled to Edinburgh to take part in the annual 5-a-side tournament, hosted be Warrender Water Polo Club. Whilst it’s only a friendly tournament (you know that’s the case when the hosts stress that the night out is just as important as the water polo!), it’s a good measure of fitness and as runners up in 2011, Carlisle were hoping to go one better this year and come home with the crown.

Having arrived a good couple of hours before the first game, Carlisle were looking to shake off any cobwebs in their first match against Burnley B. This proved to be a comfortable 9-1 victory, and Carlisle would almost certainly have had a clean sheet if they had a goalkeeper in their squad! (The outfield players took turns in goals as not one of the three keepers available to Carlisle could make it).

Next up were an ageing Inverness team, who again were beaten 10-1 by Carlisle, with the victors rarely getting out of first gear. A special mention must go to Coach/Super-sub Dave Barker, whose superb positional play and missile-like shooting meant he walked away from the game with two goals.

After breezing through the first two games, Carlisle knew they would have to step it up if they were to win the second two. Edinburgh University (last year’s victors) were Carlisle’s third opponents of the weekend, and were beaten 4-2 in a game that wasn’t as close as the score line would suggest, with Carlisle playing some good polo on their way to a straight forward win.

The final opponents of the group stage were Leeds. This game was especially interesting, not only because the winner would progress to the final, but because Leeds are now in Carlisle’s division in the British Water Polo League, after Carlisle were promoted to Division 3 last year. After a close match and some poor refereeing, the game finished tied at 2-2. Unfortunately however, Leeds progressed over Carlisle on the Goals Scored Rule (They’d scored 5 more goals than us). A mention in this game must go to Matt Little, who performed superbly in goal and made some crucial stops.

Carlisle’s top scorers for the tournament were Dan Barker and Scott Sharpe, both tied on 7 goals.

Despite a disappointing end to the tournament, the Carlisle squad enjoyed both the tournament and the get together/night out afterwards, and hope to be invited back up next year!

Carlisle Squad: Daniel Barker, Dave Barker (Coach/Beast), Matthew Little, Myles Little, Brett Sharpe, Scott Sharpe and Jamie Warwick.

Carlisle Aquatics - Masters Report

Masters competitions started in January with Judy Hattle and Graham Pearson, who aged up into a new age category, travelling to Blackpool for the Lancashire Meet. In the 60-64 years age group Graham broke the British record for the 200 breaststroke in 2.50.83 narrowly missing the European record – by 0.01 of a second. He then went on to break the 100 breaststroke record in 1.19.26. He followed this later in the month by travelling to Crawley where he broke the 50 and 200 long course records.

In February 4 swimmers Myles Little, Paul Gibson, Graham Pearson and Judy Hattle made the journey to the Silver City Blues Swim Meet in Aberdeen. Myles came first in 4 events and added a second and third. Paul won his 100 back crawl and was second in 3 other events.  In the 50 breaststroke Graham, despite a false start and a lane rope breaking, managed to finish in a time of 35.25 which was a new British record. He also lowered his 100 to 1.17.74. The journey home was interesting due to a rather large fall of snow during the afternoon!

Also in February at the North West Region long distance meet Judy Hattle broke the European record for the 400 Individual Medley and then followed that up with a trip to Swansea in March where she broke the long course European records for 200 butterfly and 400 Individual medley.

A group of 12 Carlisle Aquatics swimmers made the trip to Darlington on the 25th March 2012 to swim in their annual meet. It was good to see a mixture of ages and some competitive swimming amongst the Carlisle swimmers as much as against their opposition!

Making a come back after some time out, following a hip replacement, Pat Johnson competed in eight events winning and making Cumbrian records in all of them! A further 4 Cumbrian records were set by Alan Young (25-29) and Paul Gibson (45-49) in the 200 freestyle and Myles Little (40-44) in the 50 butterfly and 200 freestyle.
The event of the day from a spectator’s point of view was the Men’s 100 free where Carlisle Aquatics had two swimmers in different age groups in the same heat. – Alan Young and Myles Little. Myles came out the winner of the three narrowly missing breaking the minute.
Steve Foster had a very successful meet with 4 gold’s which could have been five if his goggles had not fallen off at the start of the 100 free! It happens to us all! Also competing were Vanessa Foster(3rd 50 F/s), Dave Carruthers (3rd 100 Br/s) and Johnathon Hewitt (3rd 50 and 100 Br/s).

The Scottish Masters Championships were held at Scotstoun this year and as usual the Saturday was finished off by a Ceildh at Glasgow University Student Union. Three swimmers attended -  Amanda Atkinson ( 1st 200 back and 2nd in 400 Individual Medley), Judy Hattle and Graham Pearson.

At the British Masters Long Course Championships in Sheffield 4-6th May 2012 Graham Pearson broke the British record for the 100 Breaststroke in a time of 1.20.43. He competed in 5 events winning 4 of his 5 events. Judy Hattle had a good meet, competing in 6 events she won them all and broke her existing European records for the 100 and 200 butterfly, equalled her British record in the 50 butterfly and broke the British record for the 200 Individual Medley.

Judy Hattle

North West Regional Championships - Manchester 5/6th May 2012

Carlisle Aquatics was represented by Matt Nicholson and Jack Barker and both made finals.

Matt came second in the 50m and 100m breaststroke with times of 30.35 and 1.05.97 and Jack came third with 30.46 and 1.07.25 both personal best times.

Jack also made the final of the 200m breaststroke coming second in a time of 2.30.89 and sixth in the final of the 50m freestyle.

Well done to both.

Carlisle Aquatic swimmer Ella Cooper-Holmes success at the CP Sport National Swimming Championships

Carlisle Aquatic swimmer Ella travelled to Nottingham to take part in CP Sport National Swimming Championships where she joined up with team mates from the North West Swim Disability Squad who also have cerebral palsy. Coral, Megan, Samm (NW Team) and Samantha and Jeannie who are also from Cumbria. There were 41 competitors at this 10 years and over event from all over the UK and it is the first time that Ella had been to this event and an event solely for participants with cerebral palsy.

Ella competed in five events and came home with medals for four and new personal best times too. S7 50m freestyle, SB6 100m breaststroke a new PB (3.10.03) and a Gold medal, SB6 50m breaststroke a new PB (1.26.07) and a Gold medal, S7 100m backstroke (3.04.96) and a Silver medal, S7 100m freestyle (2.26.86) and a Bronze medal.

Ella, Samantha and Jeannie also took part in the Swimathon weekend at Morton Pool, Carlisle on Saturday and invited other children and young people with disabilities and additional needs to join them. All the swimmers did amazingly well, Jeannie completed 5k, Samantha and Ella completed 2k each and Olivia swam a mile, whilst the youngest swimmer Connor amazed his Mum by swimming 120metres (his Mum thought he would swim 20m!).

Well done to all swimmers!

Click here to see photograph from the Cumberland News.

Tindall family fundraising

At the recent Cumbrian Age Groups, held in Carlisle, Theo Tindall raised an astounding £90 for the club funds with his "Pick A Number" card. His parents, Alison and Geoff Tindall, then went on to raise a further £40 from the sale of books at this event.

The committee, on behalf of the club, would like to thank the Tindalls for all their hard work in raising funds, which in essence will help drive our club forward.