Durrington Otters

Avalon Autumn Open Meet 2008

Three Otters William, Jenny & Eloise travelled to Millfield School in
Somerset to take part in the Avalon Autumn Open Meet held over the weekend of the 18/19th October.
Over 30 Teams attended the meet from the South West of England and Wales.
This was a Level 2 Long course Meet, set in a 50m pool and Medals were awarded for stroke in the top six of each age group.
Day one saw Eloise medal in the 100m BR, 200m BK, 50m BR & 50m FS.
William medal in the 50m BK & 50m Fly and Jenny PB many strokes, but missing out on a medal.
Day two saw Eloise medal in the 100m FS, 100m BK, 50m BK & 50m Fly.
William medal in the 200m IM, 50m BR and 50m FS and Jenny medal in the 50m BK.
In the Top Boy & Top Girl of the Meet Awards Eloise & William both took 4^th place in their respective Age Groups.
Out of the 31 Clubs who took part Durrington was placed 18^th tied with Millfield in the Top Teams Awards.

SUMMER LEAGUE ROUND 4

The Otters travelled to Milton Road on Saturday 27^th September to compete in the final round of the Moonraker Summer League. As in the previous rounds, the competitors were from Swindon ASC, Melksham, and Westbury. Going into the competition the Otters were trailing Melksham by 21 points, and Swindon trailing the Otters by 13. Right from the start it was obvious that both Swindon and Durrington were there to win, and hopefully take the Division winners trophy home with them, and Melksham only had to defend their substantial lead.
Swindon had been drawn in the lane next to Durrington making for some very tense and exciting finishes. By Event 10 Durrington had 5 individual wins 2 for Eloise swimming in the Open Adult section, and James, Alex and Peter in their age groups.
The next 10 Events were as equally exciting with another 5 wins including individual wins for George & Jenny, not forgetting Boys U12 relay of William, James C, George & Zac who are proving to be a formidable quartet, Boys and Girls U16 relay teams including David, Matthew, Roy, Adam D, Laura, Jenny, Alex and Eloise.
This then gave Durrington and Swindon joint leaders and the pace was on.
By event 30 with more individual wins from Roy, Eloise and the U14 Medley team of William, Peter, Rory & James, Girls Open Medley of Jenny, Eloise, Alex and Katy, plus many second places including new otter Millie in the U12 Girls Freestyle, Durrington finally managed to get 5 points in front of Swindon.
Swindon didn’t give up though but couldn’t quite match the immense effort the Otters were displaying.
Durrington just kept on winning events with fantastic swimming and more individual wins from, Eloise, Alex, Jenny, Peter, William & Matthew and U14 boys freestyle relay, Girls U14 Freestyle relay of Freya, Jenny, Laura & Catherine plus Boys & Girls U16’s relays to secure a 10 point advantage. Going into the last 2 events, and although Swindon won both of these, it wasn’t quite enough to stop Durrington winning the gala and acquiring the necessary 22 points to put Melksham back into 2^nd place.
There were some spectacular races, enjoyed by both the spectators and the teams with Durrington proudly winning over half of the events of the night and every member of the team contributing to that total. Special mentions go to James B, Hannah, Mia & Georgia as it really was a great team effort.
As there was a problem with results from R1 no presentation was made on the night.
Durrington awaits the Leagues decision for placing.

Sue

Moonraker Summer League Round 3

Durrington Otters were ecstatic about the results from the third round of the Moonraker Summer League, held at Durrington Swimming Pool on Saturday 6^th September.
Competing against teams from Swindon, Westbury and Melksham the gala got of to a slow start when Swindon couldn’t actually find the venue!!! However, they were making up for lost time in the pool with three teams having 13 points after the first 5 events but the locals pushed marginally ahead and never lost their hold on first place from then on.
The early competition came from Melksham who were first equal with Durrington after 9 events, but then Swindon made a push for the lead and after 20 events, Swindon and Melksham were neck and neck, but still behind Durrington.
The Durrington swimmers held their composure and put in some fantastic swims. The boys under 12 team of James Chapman, Will Turner, Zac Hall and George Fenwick won all their events for the second gala running, and the girls under 14s – Freya Williams, Eloise Toomer, Jenny Wiltshire and Laura Fry - won all their events this time too.
There were further first place victories for the boys under 14s – a team made up mainly of the under 12 boys, the boys under 16, the girls under 16, another team which was made up from the younger age group, and the girls open.
In total, the Otters won 22 events including individual wins for Eloise Toomer, Alice Sims, Peter Chapman, Alex Ba-Tin, Will Turner, George Fenwick, James Chapman and Jenny Wiltshire, a fantastic effort by all.

The final scores were – Durrington       - 143
                                      Swindon      - 131
                                      Melksham     - 123
                                      Westbury     - 103

ASA South West Region School of Swimming Development 2008 Course

Sunday 10 August - Saturday 16 August 2008
Durrington Otters, had 3 swimmers attending the course, Eloise, Rory and William.
This was a residential course lasting a week held at Bryanston School, Blandford, Dorset.
With a 132 swimmers (maximum numbers) and 22 staff - without doubt, the highest standard of swimmers attending since the course commenced in 1982.
Invited specialists included international swimmers, Matt Clay and Matt Bowe [pictured] who took sessions over the first two days on behalf of Total Swimming, Anita Bean talked to each group on nutrition, Mark Holland sports physiologist took each group for two lectures over his two days at the course on Sports Psychology and Regional Talent and Development Coach, Andrei Vorontsov gave a lecture to staff and local club coaches.

The course is thankful for the Development Grant which made this possible.
Each swimmer took home a special course produced handbook and a detailed portfolio covering all water sessions and lectures carried out.

Everyone had a great time and are already looking forward to next year’s course.

Big Hi

For those who remember Michelle, the previous Otters coach, she has asked Sue to pass on her best wishes and well done to all the swimmers (old & new) on the continuing success of the Club.

Otters at Tigersharks SIM Meet

Durrington Otters travelled to Swindon to take part in the Tigersharks Separated Individual Medley Meet.
Swimmers were required to swim 50m of each stroke, with medals awarded to 1st,2nd & 3rd heat declared winners.
Then the six fastest of each age group went through to either a 100m IM or 200m IM Final depending on age.
Durrington entered 5 swimmers, James Chapman, George Fenwick and Zac Hall in the 11yr age group and Eloise Toomer and Peter Chapman in the 13yr age group.
The 11yr boys were the first to swim and although all made personal best times none individually medalled. James Chapman was unfortunately beaten into 7th place for the final when the points were accumulated.
In the 13yrs Peter Chapman made great times all PB's but did not medal, however he did secure himself a place in the final finishing 5th and awarded a trophy.
Eloise Toomer also did well gaining 2 silver medals for 50m Freestyle and Breaststroke and 2 Gold medals for 50m Backstroke and Butterfly securing herself a place in the finals, which she then went onto win and was presented with 1st place trophy.

Swindon Dolphin's End of Season Meet

Otter's William Turner, Laura Fry and Eloise Toomer attended Swindon Dolphin's End of Season Meet at the Link Centre Swindon on Saturday 2nd August.

With 22 teams attending from Didcot to Totnes and including the top two Swindon teams, opposition was always going to be tough.

William Turner in the 10yr age group placed himself 3rd in the 50m Backstroke winning a bronze medal, plus a PB and was pipped by one hundredth of a second! Into 4th place in the 100m Backstroke.

Laura Fry 12yrs swam in fine form gaining a PB in her 50m Breaststroke.

Eloise Toomer 13yrs successfully gained a Gold Medal for 50m Breaststroke and Silver Medals for 200m Backstroke, 100m Breaststroke and 100m Individual Medley.

Entering 3 swimmers and returning home with 5 medals marked again, what a successful season the Otters have had.

Team Bath National Non Qualifiers Meet.

Eloise was the only Otter who attended the Team Bath National Non Qualifiers Meet on the 19^th July.

This was a long course meet taking place over 2 days swimming in Bath University’s 50m pool.

Eloise entered no less than eight events and secured herself a place in six finals.

This unfortunately delayed her making the teams Jurassic League.

Her final positions in the 13yr age group were:

2nd place Silver medals in 50m & 100m Breaststroke and 50m Backstroke.

3rd place Bronze medals 100m & 200m Backstroke and 50m Fly.

2nd Wilts Summer League (Div5) Gala

The 2^nd Gala of the Wilts County Summer League (Division 5) was attended by Durrington Otters, who achieved a very creditable 2^nd place finish, on Saturday evening. The event was held at Trowbridge Leisure Centre, and was also contested by Swindon, Westbury, Melksham.
Having been promoted into Division 5 at the end of last summer, this was the Otters 2^nd gala in the division and although not expecting to win the division, the Otters gave it their best shot as usual.
Arriving with a severely depleted team due to losing most of the Open swimmers due to a car breakdown, they were not going to let the situation get on top of them. With a complete re-arrangement of the team, which saw 11yr olds swimming against adults in the Open section, they were ready to do battle.
Eloise Toomer (13) got the team off to a tremendous start by winning the Open (over 16) Individual Medley event against some terrific opposition. The boys’ under 12 team, James Chapman, Will Turner, Zac Hall and George Fenwick, won all the individual events and the relay events gaining between them 24 points. Event 6 and 7 were won by Alex Ba-Tin and Peter Chapman respectively. Eloise Toomer won another 3 individual events and helped the team win in a further 3 relays. The girls’ under 14 free style was won by Jenny Wiltshire with Alex Ba-Tin taking a 2^nd win, this time for 100m Open Butterfly. Roy Goodenough got the final Individual win for his performance in the Under 16 Butterfly.
Katy Chapman, Jenny Wiltshire, Alex Ba-Tin, Matthew Chapman, Adam Davis, Adam Wookey, Laura Fry, Freya Williams, Catherine Davis and Adele Reed were all part of winning relay teams amassing a massive 20 first place finishes – more than any other team competing.
However, this was not quite enough to take first place overall having taken 2^nd place early on in the competition the Otters held fast to that position for the entire gala although the points difference between first and second was reduced to only five at one stage.
The winners on the night were Melksham ASC.

Team Manager's message

Well done to everybody who swam last night (Saturday 5^th July). It was a fantastic result, much more than I had hoped for. A particular well done to Zac, George, Will and James for winning everything they did; to Eloise, who won loads; to Jenny for beating all those open swimmers in the last event; to Alex – you did us proud with your effort, your wins and your help with the organisation; to Peter, Roy and Jenny for their wins, to everyone who was cheering us on – and there was a lot of cheering. I think we have a fantastic team and it’s great to be a part of it. I enjoyed the evening and hope everyone else did too.

Keep it up.

Joan

PS. I was impressed by everyone's efforts too; it was a hard won result that was thoroughly deserved. Cheers... Al.