Ferndown Otter's very own Chris Campbell swam for England against Wales, Ireland and Scotland over the weekend in the W.I.S.E. School's International. Chris took home 3 Golds, 1 Bronze and 2 Dorset county records from the Meet at Crawley. Follow the link to the Echo article by Roger Guttridge.

Judith Cooling has been selected to represent Great Britain at the 4th DSISO (Down Syndrome Int. Swimming Organisation) Championships in Portugal alter this year.  Well done Judith! We're proud of your achievements and the hard work you put into your training.

Glorious sun bathed the mid-February weekend. Crisp mornings gave way to warm afternoons and golden evenings. All annoyingly academic for Dorset's swimmers and their loyal parents who spent a second weekend at Littledown for the County Championships. Otters started the weekend leading the points and medal tables. With many of our swimmers away or having succumbed to one of the many viruses doing the rounds, there was some concern for our ability to maintain our position. Once again the sight of so many Ferndown parents parading to their official positions in perfect whites provided the needed boost in morale and the Otters set about doing what they do best - swimming fast and finishing first!

With Reuben in full song, and Tony, Emma and MarkT in encouraging form, the Otters performed superbly across the board. With outstanding swims from many other clubs, Ferndown swimmers were still able to stamp their supremacy on the proceedings (in this writer's view).

With 182 individual swims that were some combination of Age Group CBT (champ. best time), Jnr CBT, Snr CBT, Jnr Record, Senior Record, WCQT (westerns qual. time) or NQT (national qual. time), it's not possible to fairly list the best swims. The list of impressive pb's is even more extensive. This writer, however, was singularly impressed to see Elliot Wilks achieve a pb in the 400 Free even after stopping at 350 metres for a chat with the timekeeper!

The club is grateful to DCASA for their hard work in running the event and to all the parents who volunteered to help.

Dorset County Champs: 1st weekend

With so many Ferndown parents resplendent in their white uniforms and and steady drinks trays, it may have been a little easier to ignore the swimmers for once. This illusion did not last much past the first starting signal. With almost 100% participation rates from our eligible Otters and a good training program under way, the results and acronyms flowed. PB's CBT's CtyRecs, WQT's as well as NQT's abounded (and confused the uninitiated).

Click here for Echo article

Hants & South Coast Invitational Meet, Jan 26 th 2008:

A few parents thought they would prefer a quiet weekend in preference to a trip to Aylesbury for the Maxwell Meet. Not to be, for the families of 14 Otters selected for the H&SC Invitational Meet at Haslemere on Saturday evening.

Hopes were high for good results and indeed the Otters had won the Junior Cup last year in our first outing to this meet. With strong competition the overall Cup remained beyond our reach this time. However, with 35 of our 41 swims being personal bests and only one DQ in a very young and inexperienced team, no-one left disappointed.

Top 3 places went to:-

Christy Cole – 1 st 10 y/o Breaststroke.
Steph Hughes – 2 nd 10 y/o Backstroke, 1 st 10/yo Fly, 1 st 10 y/o Free
Clodagh Dear – 1 st 11 y/o Backstroke, 1 st 11 y/o Fly, 3 rd 11 y/o Free
Ben Hyde – 1 st 11 y/o Backstroke, 2 nd 11 y/o 50 Free
Mikey Kingsley – 3 rd 11 y/o Backstroke, 2 nd 11 y/o Fly

The Girls relay swam outstandingly to win by almost 4 seconds. The boys relay team won too after a ferocious battle in the final leg by Ben Hyde. Harvey Trehane also made a great contribution to the relay for one so young!

Steph Hughes won Top Girl award in the 10 y/o category and Clodagh Dear and Ben Hyde won 2 nd Girl and Boy awards respectively in the 11 y/o category.

Final points overall were :-

Woking 397
Rushmoor Royals 365
Hart 347
Ferndown 314
Epsom District 286
Alton and District 214
Fareham Nomads 211
Godalming 202
Andover 165
Haslemere Blue 164
Havant and Waterlooville 162
Basingstoke Bluefins 126
Gosport Dolphins 85
Haslemere White 66

So well done to all the young Otters and thanks to Lizz, Becky, Reuben and Debbie for managing the team.

Kevin Brooks is the head coach of Maxwell Swimming Club. He previously coached with Emma at Ferndown and so the Aylesbury meet has always been a relaxed and enjoyable weekend for the Otters contingent. With just over 40 Otters entered, local hotels did well out of our club.

Harriet (Higgety) Higgins was DQ’ed for moving on the blocks in her 200 Breast which was especially unfortunate as she put in a terrific swim to take a massive 15 seconds off her pb! She made amends by taking 15 seconds off her 200 IM pb to win the 9-10 y/o age group. Jeff Holtom made large inroads into all his freestyle pb’s and was even spotted racing in a swim cap! Emily Fellows swam a gutsy 200 IM to take 5 seconds off her best time and put a large smile on Lizz’s face. Zoe Watson and Kimberly Rowles together took charge of the 100, 200 and 400 Free to take two of the top 3 places in each. Daniel Speers needed a trailer for all his gold medals. Chris Campbell was on top form as was Alastair Hardie.

Most of the swimmers unwound, before the drive home, in the fun pool. This was not necessary for the parents, many of whom had done some serious unwinding on Saturday night at the Holiday Inn.

This was a great start to the year’s competitive calendar. Hopefully all swimmers will stay healthy and work hard in the run up to Dorsets.

Full results can be found on the Maxwell website, but medal places went to:-

Victoria Joy (10) competed in her first open meet as a Ferndown Otter  at the weekend at Brighton Swimming Club.

Victoria finished 4 th in the 50m F/c (32.78s), 5 th in the 100m F/c (1m 13.76s), 9 th in the 200m F/c (2m 45.29s), 7 th in the 100m Br/s (1m 43.56s), 9 th in the 100m B/c (1m 30.15s) and 12 th in the 200m B/c (3m 05.43s).

Victoria missed out on a top 3 finish in both the 50m F/c and 100m F/c by less than 0.5sec.

A very strong team from Portsmouth Northsea Swimming Club were also competing and in Victoria’s age group Nicola Dollery (PNSC) dominated, winning all events except the 100m Br/s, setting National qualifying times in a number of events – a star of the future.

Dancers on the floor ranged from toddlers to the frankly-middle-aged.  It was thought by some that even though the children are accomplished swimmers, they still have much to learn about disco from their parents!  It's not certain whether the swimmers shared this view and the debate continues.

The food and festivities were clearly enjoyed by the 150 plus people who attended and this was a true reward to all those who worked so hard to make the evening such a success.

The weather did little to facilitate the journey up to Millfield for the long-course final. Torrential rain and water-logged roads hinted at the hurdles ahead for the team. Indeed, Plymouth was there in force and war paint! Millfield even had its own band!

An accident near Yeoville meant Bournemouth’s coach was delayed. The Hortons too were delayed but managed to find a way through well in time, to the great relief of the 11 & Under Boys and Emma. The start was put back as far as possible which contributed further to the pre-Gala tension.

With Plymouth and Millfield firm favourites for the first two spots, Otters’ challenge was to protect our 5 th place seeding or to improve on it if possible. City of Cardiff and Bournemouth Dolphins were ahead of us in the seedings. Taunton Dean was a clear threat too. The gala started about 20 minutes late and the battle commenced.

Race after race, relay leg after leg, Otters stepped onto the blocks and gave their all; many were still not fully recovered from the flu’s and colds of the last few weeks but no-one delivered anything less than a full 100%.

Final Points :

Plymouth 333
Millfield 316
Ferndown 232
Cardiff 220
BDSC 205
Taunton 202
Bridgend 162
Tigersharks 125

Tony and his team were ecstatic with this result. It was higher scoring 3 rd place than the previous two years and Ferndown’s most impressive result ever. The team effort and spirit was a thing of beauty! We wait on tenterhooks to see if this result is good enough to make National Finals.

First places went to:-

Nicole Scott Open 100 Fly
Fran Hughes Open 100 Breast.

Second places went to:-

Luke, Noah, Mikey, Todd 11 & Under Free Relay
Georgi, Naomi, Fiona, Emma 13 & Under Medley Relay
Todd Price 11 & Under 50 Back
Naomi Vides 13 & Under 100 Breast
Craig Freeman 15 & Under Back
Todd Price 11 & Under 50 Fly
Fiona Hardie 13 & Under 100 Fly
Mikey Kingsley 11 & Under 100 Free
Fran Hughes 15 & Under 100 Breast
Luke, Noah, Todd, Mikey 11 & Under Medley Relay

Third places went to:-

Anne-Marie, Marika, Katie, Zoe 15 & Under Free Relay
Cat, Fran, Nicole, Emily Open Medley Relay
Chris Campbell Open 100 Fly
Anne-Marie, Fran, Katie, Zoe 15 & Under Free Relay
Emily, Nicole, Zoe, Hannah, Katie, Marika Open 6x50 Free Relay

Thanks to all our enthusiastic supporters and WE LL DO NE to the swimmers and coaches!

Sunday 25th November 2007 was the 1st race in the New Zealand series of Open Water swimming and  Sami's 1st ever competition in the sea!!!!  Race start was a very early 7.30am.  2.8km swim from Devonport to Auckland Viaduct which had to be completed within 1hr 45mins.  The morning was beautiful although apparently quite 'choppy waters' in the middle of the Harbour.  1107 swimmers competed and the first swimmer (17yr old Kane Radford) arriving in at a competition best time of 29.37mins!  Helen Norfolk (NZ Olympic swimmer) came in at 33.48min and Sami an impressive 127th place with a time of 40.53 mins (wearing seaweed!).  9th position in her age group (15-19yrs) and 34th female out of 404.

Hi Ferndown,
Really proud of you all with the results of the final round of Speedo you all swam gr8. Hope we make it to the National Final.

I had another gr8 week, swimming 56K in the IM lane.  Moved out of the freestyle lane to concentrate more on my other strokes.  My best session was 40x50 10 on each stroke Max but doing v.well on 15m and 25m sprints.

I'm now in Australia, it's much better than Singapore.  Met up with the boys and we are all training together, they are all really funny. The boys are in the hotel opposite, I can't understand why. heehee!! Saw David Davies yesterday and I met some Olympic swimmers as well, They are awesome in the water!!!

If any of you are thinking that you wish you were me, well don't cos i've had to do all my own washing this week!  All my white tops have gone pink!! Its quite a nice shade tho. I'm not going to do any ironing. LOL!!

I won't see most of you now til 2008 so have a Merry Crimbo and a Happy New Year.
Love Kim

Perched on the leafy outskirts of Haslemere, just off the A3, lies the Herons Leisure Centre. Any sense of complacency caused by the approach through the autumnal woods soon dissipated at the sight of the Millfield and Plymouth teams. Clearly this would be a high level Meet. Notwithstanding a raft of pb’s from the smallish Otters contingent, medal placings were few and far between. Most final heats had 6 of the 8 lanes filled by Plymouth swimmers. Owen Morgan, a Welsh swimmer, gave the whole crowd a treat with a 22.75 50m Free sprint. The Meet was well organised and very well run. A full program ran to time and without major incident. We would like to think this was in large part due to the goodly number of officials provided by Ferndown but in truth was more likely due to the efficiency of the hosting club, Haslemere. The full set of results can be found here Saturday Sunday, perusal of which will show some of the outstanding pb’s, but here are the medal winners:-

The Ferndown AGM was held on Wed 21 st November in the meeting room at Ferndown Leisure Centre. The reports by the officers and Head Coach all pointed to a broadly successful year. The chairman highlighted both the expansion of the club over the last year as well as the impressive results across the club at all levels. The coaching staff is excited about the year ahead and will focus on extending these improvements. The new committee is determined to support these aims. The new committee is largely unchanged and details will be communicated as soon as all responsibilities have been finalised. Anyone wanting a copy of the Chairman’s Report or Treasurers Report should email markvides@yahoo.com

Hopes were high that this year’s championships would be more successful than last year’s which were curtailed early due to cloudy water at Weston Super-Mare. The 50m pool at Millfield on Sat 24 th looked promisingly clear by comparison.

Tony and Mark Taylor were in attendance looking after a team of 15 Otters. With one final per event and only Junior and Open categories, it’s much harder for small clubs to make their mark at events such as this. Furthermore with so little training under the belt since the summer break and with Speedo Gala peppered around this event few pb’s were expected or obtained. The results however defied our low expectations and Ferndown cars travelled home laden with more silverware than ever before. Tony and Mark T were very pleased with their swimmers efforts and results!

Full results will can be found at http://www.swimwest.org/html/results/region07ch/index.htm but in summary, the following swimmers made the finals and/or medalled. (In order of first appearance)

Chris Campbell finaled in the 200 IM. He was second overall in the heats but had nothing left in the tank for the finals. Chris also won silver in Open category in the 50 Fly. He also won Silver in the 200 Fly in the Open category. He came 3rd overall in the 100 Fly heats but wasn't able to reproduce the same result in the finals.

Dom Macdonald surprised both his Dad and himself to final in the 200IM.

Emily Freeman got Bronze in the 200 Back, Open category. She also finaled in the 100 Free and 100 Back.

Naomi Vides got Gold in the 100 Breast Junior and Open categories. She got Silver in the 50 Breast in the Junior and Open categories. She also won Gold in the 200 Breast in the Junior and Open categories.  (Gold in the 50 went to Achieng Ajulu-Bushell who did really well in fly, free and IM too - and is annoyingly a really nice young girl!!!)

Fran Hughes got Bronze in the 100 Breast and 50 Breast in the Junior category. Fran got Silver in the 200 Breast in the Junior and Open categories.

Anne-Marie Taylor got Bronze for the 50 Fly in the Junior category.

Craig Freeman got Gold in for the 200 Free in the Junior category which was also good enough for Bronze in the Open category.

Nicole Scott won Gold in the Open Category in the 100 Fly. Nicole swam Fly in the 50 Free in a time of 29.80. This would have put her third in the 50 Fly heats overall and

Zoe Watson won Gold in Junior and Open categories in the 200 Free. Her 400 Free swim won Gold in the Junior and Silver in the Open categories. She also finaled in the 50 Free.

Hannah Jenkins finaled. in the 200 Free

Cat Close finaled in the 100 Back.

Proof positive that seatbelts are good for swimming – all the Otters wore their seatbelts on the long coach trip up to Plymouth and overall Round 2 of Speedo was one of Ferndown’s fastest ever! With Dave McManus doing the announcing, now that Lydia is at Plymouth College, it all felt quite familiar. Then the Plymouth machine began its warmup routine and the harsh reality of the impending gala resurfaced. Many of the other clubs seemed intimidated by Jon Rudd’s mighty team but Dom led the Otters in a “Team Grunt” in a plucky David vs. Goliath response.

Plymouth ’s strength was obvious and they inexorably and impressively distanced themselves from the 5 other teams. Otters battled on fearlessly and managed to pick up 6 firsts and 21 second places. Swindon Dolphins with a very strong open section were our nearest competitors both in lane position and in the final points tally. By the 10 th event we were 9 points ahead and we stretched that to 30 at the close.

Tony was pleased with the team’s performance and feels the spirit and effort on show at Plymouth augurs well for Round 3.

One of our swimmers was double DQ’ed for both a faulty start and a one handed touch in the same race. Another swimmer saw his younger brother DQ’ed for a faulty start and in a show of fraternal solidarity got himself DQ’ed for a faulty start in the same event! The remaining DQ’s were fairly mundane in comparison.

Thanks to Mandy Hardie for managing the team on Emma’s behalf and to her helpers. Well done to all the swimmers on all the medals and pb’s but please work on the starts and turns!