Swimming Times November 2012

Three members of Carlisle Aquatics get a mention in this month’s “Swimming Times”.

Katherine Routledge (p15) competed in the European U19 Water Polo Championships in Chelyabinsk, Russia; scoring one goal for the GB team that came seventh.

Judy Hattle (p39) and Graham Pearson (p40) both managed to win medals at the Master’s World Championships in Riccione, Italy; earning a mention in that write up.

Fortunately for the readers, the editor had the good sense to only include pictures of Katherine and Judy.

Lancaster training

On Sunday 21st October a squad of 14 Water Polo players went down to Lancaster to take part in a training session with our friends from the Lancaster Club. The session took the form of match play which involved playing under match conditions and rules with the occasional stop to reposition players when the coaches deemed it necessary.

The players from the two clubs were split into four groups decided by the coaches. One match consisted of Carlisle v Lancaster while the other match consisted of mixed teams from both players.

As these were training matches the scores were not important but all our players gave a good account of themselves and the session was very important to our players as we do not play much in match conditions. The result of living in “the back of beyond” and whilst having some good players we do not have enough in similar age groups to create a full team.

A combined Lancaster / Carlisle team has been entered into a competition for 98/99 players in Sedgefield on 27th October so this was a good way of the players to get to know each other.  

Thanks to the parents and coaches for providing transport down to Lancaster.  

Our players consisted of:   

Team 1

Sarah Lightowler, Lucy Wright, Rebecca Harby, Nathan Smith, Megan Abba, Claire Foster, Francis Nutley, Adam Bellingham  

Team 2

Becky Lightowler, Sarah Campbell, Alex Armstrong, Natasha Hall, Bryony Whitehead, Sam Abba  

National Inter-Counties Championships 2012

Carlisle Aquatics was represented by five members in the Cumbria team at this year’s National Inter-Counties Championships. The annual event takes place at Sheffield’s Ponds Forge which is the host to 39 County Teams from all of Britain. The teams are spilt into two divisions; Cumbria being in division 2, reflecting the fact that there are only six swimming clubs in the county. 

The team set off from Carlisle at lunchtime on Saturday and arrived at the hotel in Sheffield at four after pick-ups down the M6. After dinner and an early night the swimmers were ready to compete on the Sunday morning. For some of the younger swimmers this was their first National event and it must of being overawing to enter the pool with 1200 competitors all getting ready to swim. The pool at Sheffield was configured as two 10 lane 25m tanks. At first glance it did not look as long as our home pool until I pointed out that it was twice as wide as the Pools and during warm-up the swimmers realised its true length. After warm up we arrived at our allocated seats ready for the Captain’s parade and the competition. Carlisle’s Jack Barker was the Cumbria male captain. 

Carlisle’s Leigh Thompson got Cumbria off to a good start in the 16/17 girl’s freestyle in a PB of 1-00.08. In the second and third events Cumbria was again represented by Carlisle swimmers both achieving PBs: Jack Barker in the 16/17 100m freestyle in 53.19s and Lucy Wilson in the 12/13 100m Breaststroke in 1-20.90. 

Other Carlisle swimmers were Jack in the 100m Breaststroke who won the event in a time of 1- 04.34,  Laura Davison in the 12/13 100m Butterfly in a time of 1-09.54, Leigh in the 100m Butterfly in a time of 1-07.24 and Zara McKnight in the 12/13 Backstroke in a time of 1-14.90. 

This represented an excellent performance by the Carlisle swimmers as out of seven individual swims they achieved six PBs. Well done to all. 

The Carlisle girls showing their allegiances! 

Diddy League Grand Final

At last the day of the Grand Final had arrived.  Young swimmers from Carlisle Aquatics Amateur Swimming Club had worked hard throughout the year competing against seven other clubs around the county to reach the final and compete for the coveted “Hoad Memorial” trophy.

The Carlisle Aquatics team had already won the League Trophy by coming first in all three of the preliminary rounds, which took place at venues throughout the county.

Now the great day had arrived.  The top six teams were ready the poolside at Carlisle.  The atmosphere was electric, the noise deafening. Our 9, 10 and 11 year olds looked smart in their blue and pink caps and polo shirts.  The team got off to a thrilling start by winning the 9 year mixed boys/girls freestyle race; the swimmers were Cameron Woolerton, Sophie Huggon, Matthew John Whitehead and Elle Pearson. The second race was 50m Girls freestyle which was easily won by Samantha Clark in a personal best of 33.05s.  From there the team continued in winning form and were in the top three for 34 out of the 44 events. The hard work in their training sessions had paid off and they easily won the gala beating second place Ulverston by 35 points.  Copeland came third followed by Cockermouth, Working and Barrow in that order.  The climax of the day came when the whole team, led by captains Lizzy Airey, Theo Tindall and Conner Bulman, marched around the pool holding their well-earned trophies.

Individual Winners

10yr girls Freestyle Samantha Clark

10yr Girls Butterfly Holly Howson

10yr Boys Butterfly Matthew James Whitehead

11yr Girls Butterfly & Backstroke Lizzy Airey

12yr Girls Butterfly & Freestyle Laura Davison

Winning Team Races

9yr Mixed Medley:	Sophie Huggon, Louis Graham, Alex Airey, Cameroon Woolerton
9yr Mixed Freestyle:	Cameroon Woolerton, Sophie Huggon, Matthew John Whitehead, Elle Pearson
9yr Girls Medley and Freestyle:	Sophie Huggon, Alex Airey, Sarah Hale, Elle Pearson
9yr Boys Medley and Freestyle:	Matthew John Whitehead, Louis Graham, Cameron Woolerton, Josh Brown
10yr Girls Medley:	Sophie Huggon, Samantha Clark, Holly Howson, Alice Heaton
10yr Girls Freestyle:	Holly Howson, Alice Heaton, Lauren Russell, Samantha Clark

Swimmers in 2^nd and 3^rd Places

Sophie Dodd, Zara McKnight, Louisa Sinclair, Lilli Noble, Gemma Dobie, Tom Robinson, Nathan Harmon, Johj Fraser, Theo Tindall, Conner Bulman, Nathan Salkald, Kyle Stuart, Morgan Kasiera and Joel Sinclair