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All newsletters are produced in PDF format. If you do not have Adobe Reader, click on the link to download the version of Adobe Reader best suited to your operating system. |
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All newsletters are produced in PDF format. If you do not have Adobe Reader, click on the link to download the version of Adobe Reader best suited to your operating system. |
Doping Control (08.09.10)
This has been adapted by Malcolm Oates from an article in The Times on Monday 6th September by Matthew Syed >>>
Swimming at a National event for the first time (15.08.10)
Written by Connor Oates' father reflecting on the family's experience at Ponds Forge >>>
Good Luck, Connor (01.08.10)
Haden Hill Swimming Club would like to wish Connor Oates good luck when he swims at the National Youth Championships at Ponds Forge on Tuesday 3 August. Follow his progress >>>
Good Luck, Alison! (19.07.10)
Haden Hill Swimming Club would like to wish Alison Peakman good luck when she swims in the XIII FINA World Masters Championships 2010 in Sweden next week. Follow her progress >>> Live results >>>
Sainsburys Active Kids Vouchers (19.07.10)
Thank you to all club members, friends and family who helped to collect
and donated
their vouchers to Haden Hill Swimming Club. We have now
ordered two sets of play balls for use within our Learn to Swim Programme. Thank you for your support!
Day 1 at Midland Age Group Championships 2010 (05.06.10)
A great day for Haden Hill swimmers Ashley Markall, Grace Sadler and Connor Oates. Some great times were achieved with Ashley walking away with several gold medals and Connor achieving his first National Qualifying time in the 200m Breaststroke. More information as soon as it comes in. Well done to you all and good luck for tomorrow!
May Newsletter (14.05.10) < download >
Ross League Final
The club has already reached the final of the Ross League with one gala still remaining. The final is on Saturday 12th June at Gloucester. The Ross League Final swimming hats that you may see some of our swimmers wearing have already been ordered. With the hats, t-bags and new hoodies that some of our swimmers have ordered we should look like quite a team in the final.
Relegation Fight
Both teams were in action last Saturday in The Diddy’s. Though the A team came 6th the swimmers all swam really well and we had some first places and some individual PB’s. After coming 5th in the first gala we now have only three points and so with the final gala on June 26th we are involved in a relegation fight to stay in Division 1. The B team also swam and they performed brilliantly with limited swimmers and came 5th only 4 points behind the team above them – See Sue Hazel’s report on notice board and on www.hadenhillasc.org.uk. Results will be posted on the notice board soon but we also had the Haden Hill Open meet this weekend so our results team are a bit snowed under at the moment.
Why have a B team?
Many parents are asking why we have a B team when we have so few swimmers. There is a waiting list to join the Diddy league and we were lucky enough to gain our place after Brierley Hill folded last year. We are a relatively small club at the moment but we are hoping to expand, we know we are struggling to field two teams on the same night at the moment but hopefully next year things will improve. Having come from a club without a B team I know how frustrating it is for both parent’s and swimmers to train all week and never get picked for a gala if you’re not in the top 4 or 5 in your age group. Sue’s report showed that the B team had a great time and really enjoyed themselves, so if you are picked for the B team don’t be shy, tick your name as soon as possible. Remember swimming tends to change quickly, it was only as recently as 2006 that our A team were in the Division 1 Diddy league final.
Club Website
Please check our website regularly as it has loads on information on which we often can not fit on the notice board - www.hadenhillasc.org.uk
Chosen for a gala
Please could we ask all swimmers and their parents to check the notice board each time they train as things are changing all the time. Can swimmers chosen for a gala make their availability known as soon as possible as late notification of non-availability makes it really difficult for the team captains who have to start making last minute phone calls to other swimmers. If you know in advance you will not be available for a gala then please tell Neil or a member of the committee so that we can pick a team of available swimmers.
Haden Hill News
You may have seen that The Halesowen News printed an article about our excellent performance in Ross League last week. Though the article is written by the club and we try and include as many names as possible please be aware that our article is rewritten by the newspaper and their article is often different to the one we sent. It is hoped that we can now have regular articles in the Halesowen News.
Learn to swim Programme
We have an excellent learning to swim programme at the club led by Carole Sidaway which is proving to be very successful. We have a programme running at the moment and the next one begins in July. If you know anyone who is interested in learning to swim, Carole’s contact number is 01384 287229 or check out the website and look for the teaching link at the bottom of the page.
Volunteers
The club has changed much over the last few years and many of our older swimmers and their parents have now left. This has meant that we are often short of helpers to do time keeping, poolside, splits, drinks at galas, recording and announcing. We have seen some new parent getting involved with Karl and Rachael helping Neil and Graham poolside, Helen Rea doing the recording at gala’s, and Mark and Sab helping Graeme do time trials on a Friday night. Therefore if you think you would like to help please ask any of the committee as we can always find something for you to do. But please don’t wait to be asked as all the committee are volunteers giving up their own time and they didn’t wait to be asked they actively asked how they could help.
Who’s on the Committee?
Just in case you don’t know who they are;
Rob Bowden – (Chair), Sue Hazel (Secretary), Patricia Taylor (Membership Secretary), Lynne Willetts (Social Committee), Susan Sekula (ICT co-ordinator), Malcolm Oates (Work force Development), Christine Oates (Fixture secretary), David Harris (Newsletter / publicity), Paula Overfield (Treasurer), Craig Belmore (Learning to swim), Carole Robbins and Sue Stryde (Marketing and Publicity). Most of the committee are around on a Thursday night so if you have anything you want to discuss please grab one of them – We are hoping to put pictures to faces and put them on the notice board in the near future.
Parents Meeting
We are hoping to hold another meeting very soon but the swimming calendar is very full over the next month with the Midland age group championships covering several weekends so and we are struggling to find time when committee members are available, details will hopefully follow shortly. It is hoped that in the future the newsletter can be used to answer some of the questions that parent’s put forward at the last meeting.
Alton Towers
The social committee are presently arranging a date in July for our annual trip to Alton Towers. It has been decided that all children of 12 years and under will need to be accompanied by an adult, and children of 13 years and above can come unaccompanied once parental consent and a medical questionnaire has been completed. Details will be posted on the notice board soon.
Macmillan Swim the Channel
Many of our swimmers took part in ‘Swim the Channel’ arranged by Lyn Willets in aid of Macmillan and they raised a total of £1432. It was decided before the swim that the money would be split equally between the club’s social committee and Macmillan and therefore a total of £716 was given to Macmillan with Graham Short our JAGS coach making a personal donation of £284 to bring the grand total to £1,000. Well done to all those swimmers and sponsors who helped to raise so much money – if you look at the club website www.hadenhillasc.org.uk you can see the pictures and detailed report of the event.
District Swimmers
Three of our swimmers, Mike New, Bethany Willets and Alison Peakmean gained such good times that they had the opportunity to take part in the Districts at the beginning of May and some of our younger stars will get their opportunity in the coming months, Connor Oates, Grace Sadler, Ashley Markall, Shane Hazell and Lydia New. Well done and good luck to all of you.
What is a speeding ticket?
This is probably one of the most asked questions at a gala so we thought we’d try and answer it. A speeding ticket is given to a swimmer who swims too fast for a particular event? How can you swim too fast you ask, well the idea is that the Ross League where speeding tickets are used is more of a development meet for swimmers and so it allows improving swimmers to swim in an event that they might not otherwise swim. You will therefore often not see swimmers in their best events in The Ross League as if a swimmer is too fast and breaks the time set they score no points for the team. You may have seen that at the recent Ross League gala we were last after 10 events even though we had won a majority of events because our swimmers were too fast.
Midland Youth Championships (5/5/10)
Congratulations to Beth Willetts, Mike New and Alison Peakman who all qualified for the Midland Youth Championships last weekend. On Saturday both Mike and Beth swam. Beth ranked 12th in the 50m Back, moving into 5th position in the heats and finally finishing in a creditable 4th position in the final, narrowly missing out on a top 3 position. Mike swam the 100m Free finishing 34th in the 17yr/Over category. Unfortunately Alison, although having turned up prepared to swim, decided not to take part due to a painful shoulder injury. On Sunday, due to Alison's injury Beth was our only swimmer in the 100m Free. Starting in 44th position, she finished in 27th close to her PB. Well done!
Ross League Rd 3 at Smethwick Swim Centre (24/4/10)
This proved to be an exciting and entertaining gala with a great atmosphere and great competition. Everyone got involved and we had some good successes but sweetest of all was to win the last event the cannon and so let's take note and satisfaction by stating first HADEN HILL, second Stourbridge and third Wyre Forest. Well done.
Equally well done was the work of our volunteer support teams. A cracking job. The people who saw least and helped most were Dave Harris, Carol Rea, Alison Fletcher and Mark Coxon who worked really hard to be an effective recording team.
All round it was a good night and it just shows what can be achieved when we all get involved and help each other. Keep it up and let's do well in the rest of this year’s competition.
Malcolm D OatesWinter League Final at Droitwich (18/4/10)
We did very well this year to make the final of the Winter League and it was great to be there with the top clubs in the County. It was just a pity they were all so strong and we had various gaps with swimmers trapped in all parts of Europe due to the chaos of air travel, some in other competitions and others ill. Congratulations to all you swimmers who did take part and gave of your best on this occasion supported by the volunteers on poolside. However rather like the report I gave you of the NJL League last night every team there was too hot to handle and we finished a disappointing sixth and it's a long time since we participated in a gala without recording a single winner.
The final scores were: Halesowen "A" 198, Worcester "A" 176, Stourbridge "A" 175, Redditch 118, Halesowen "B" 91 and Haden Hill 80
This is the time to take a deep breath, consider what happened and then resolve what contribution you can make to improve the situation. Congratulations on the way you stuck to the task and supported each other.
Malcolm Oates
Nuneaton Junior League Round 1 - 'A' Team (17/4/10)
Well done to all of our swimmers who were involved in the gala at Halesowen. We chose the wrong night to get involved with Halesowen when they were too hot to handle but there were only 55 points separating the other 5 teams. The gala illustrated the need to be aware of what competition is about and the importance of swimming the length of the pool competitively. It was pleasing to note the endeavour that was being put in especially in the relays and in the second length.
It will be interesting to see who we get in the second round when it will be essential to try and finish in the top three if we are not to be involved in a relegation dogfight in Round 3. Lots of work and even more concentration and support of each other is essential.
The final result was Halesowen 231, Solihull 190, Wolverhampton 186, Stratford Sharks 171, Haden Hill 140, Northgate 135
Malcolm Oates
www.hadenhillasc.co.uk
www.hadenhillasc.com
www.hadenhillasc.org.uk
Congratulations to Lydia New who came 1st in the 12Yr Age Group 1500m Freestyle at last weekends Worcester County Championships at Hereford Leisure Pool. Lydia (12) not only came first in her age group, but was also fastest in the overall 11Yr/Over Age Group. Well done, Lydia!
Congratulations to Luke Morris (14) who took 4th place in the 200m Butterfly heats and 7th in the age group final.Well done to Lydia New who achieved two more National Qualifying times in the 200m & 800m Freestyle.
Congratulations to the following swimmers who have been selected to represent the Worcester County at the 3 Counties Gala at Worcester on 5 July:Grace Sadler, Lydia New, Michael Sekula, Luke Morris and Beth Willetts.
Another good day for swimmers Grace Sadler (11), Michael Sekula (12) and Connor Oates (13). All swimmers achieved PBs with Grace taking 15th place in the 100m Freestyle and 26th in the 200m IM. Michael took 6th place in the 100m Breaststroke. Connor also took 6th place in the 100m Breaststroke in his age group and 27th place in the 200m Freestyle.
Session 1 - Well done to Grace Sadler (11), our only swimmer in this session. 22nd in the 200m Freestyle. Session 2 - Well done also to Connor Oates (13), 27th in the 400m Freestyle. Again our only swimmer. Session 3 - Connor Oates was joined by Michael Sekula (12) in the 200m Breaststroke. Connor coming in 3rd in his age group and Michael 7th, both making it in to the 200m finals later in the day.Session 4 - More success for Connor and Michael in the 200m Breaststroke finals. Connor walking away with 1st place in the 13 year age group and Michael with 6th in the 12 year age group. Poor Connor had to wait until the following day to collect his gold medal as the officials had cleared away the medals by the time he had done his swim down.Congratulations to Lydia New who achieved a National Qualifying time in the 400m Freestyle!A long day for Coach, Lucy Walters! Thanks Lucy for being there to support the swimmers.
We are delighted to inform everyone at
Haden Hill, and to make public, that the Club has been successfully revalidated
by the asa for Swim21 at Teaching and Skill Development levels for the
forthcoming year 2009 – 2010.The Regional Director, Lesley Hill, sent
her congratulations, thanked the membership for their hard work and wishes the
Club every success in the coming year.At a club level particular thanks must go
to Steve Hickman, Lucy Walters, Julie Rushton and Reg New who fronted our
successful submission. Obviously help was received from others at different
times so that this was a joint venture and fits into our new planning year very
well with our AGM falling due on Sunday 28th JuneMalcolm D Oates
Swim21 Liaison Officer
Nuneaton Junior League Team |
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The 2008 Junior League Team swam their way into Division 1 at Wolverhampton Central Baths on 13 September 2008 |
Last updated: 15.08.10
