Mayor's Sports Team Award(29 Mar'12)

Hillingdon Diddy Team win Mayor’s Sports Team of the Year Award !!

Club Champs 200m Breast & Back (28th March)

This is proving to be a popular event with 99 swimmers turning up at Merchant Taylors plus parents, making for a very busy poolside for most of the evening. Add to that the hot weather during the day raising the temperature inside, I think a few people were glad to be able to stand outside to cool off.

As for the swimming, there were loads of PBs with some sizeable chunks knocked off from previous times, mostly last year's times. Out of 181 swims over the two events, at least 136 were PBs including first time swims.  Again this shows what hard training and great coaching can achieve so well done to all.

The entry times for the girls Breast and Back indicated that Club Records could fall on the night and we were not disappointed. In the 200m Breast, Adelle Hall knocked over 2 seconds off the current 6 year record to win her second Trophy of the year. Not to be outdone and under slight pressure, Megan Moloney swimming in the last heat of a very long night, managed to shave just over half a second off last year's record in the 200m Back to win her Trophy.

For the boys, no records tonight, but fastest in the Breast was Antony Manfredi and Aaron Morgan in the Back, both with PBs. Well done to all four.

I would like to thank all the parents who helped out in some way on the night, be it judging, timekeeping, whipping or inputting the results, especially the new faces who are always welcomed.

Finally a big thanks to our Referee Wayne Hirst for ploughing his way through a busy programme and finishing ahead of time despite a slightly later start than anticipated

Trevor Hammond

Team Manager

British Champs Selection Trials (12 Mar'12)

Hillingdon Swimming Club had four swimmers at the Olympic Selection trials last week. Luke Spain, Francesca Marr and Sophie Wilson were all swimming under new Club names, having moved to University teams. Karley Mann, wearing the Hillingdon Swimming Club kit progressed to the final of the 200m backstroke as the fastest qualifier. The final, which was won by Lizzie Simmonds who was fighting to achieve a place on the British Olympic team saw Karley in the action all the way. She finished in third place, receiving her bronze medal on live TV!

Many Congratulations!!

Invitational Mini Meet (3 Mar'12)

Hillingdon held its first ever Mini Meet on Saturday March 3rd. With competing swimmers from Hillingdon SC, Hillingdon Teaching
Section, Bushey, Forward Hillingdon, Herstmere Flyers, London Borough of Hounslow, Maidenhead Marlins, Sea-Byrds, Staines
and Wycombe the Hillingdon Sports and Leisure Complex was packed to the rafters.

There were well over 200 swimmers and what seemed like twice as many spectators it literally was standing room only. The swimmers, aged from 8 to 12 years old were competing in 25m, 50m races all four strokes and 100m Individual Medleys. For many of the swimmers, it was their first taste of competition and for others the chance to win B and C grade medals. Despite a delayed start due to a panic alarm being set off and several delays due to technical problems there were some exciting swims and some weary swimmers (and parents) making their way home at just before 10 pm.

See also Open Meet Results.

Club Champs - 200 Free & Fly(29 Feb'12)

NLGL Round 2 (18 Feb'12)

Round 2 of this year's NLGL took place at Northolt Pool on Sat 18th Feb. A few changes were made from the last round due to holidays and fast swim times. However, no matter how hard you try and match the swimmer to the event, you can't allow for them swimming their socks off and achieving better PB's on the day. There were a few races that were just over the NFT times and 7 swims that beat the graded times plus a couple of Dq's, so plenty of penalty points. This made the gala very exciting as Northolt, Haringey and RNSS were battling it out towards the end with only 2 points separating the three clubs with only the last six relay events to go. All you can do is hope the relay teams perform as per your calculations especially as you are unsure of the finish times or any DQ's. In the end, we won 4 of those six, came 2nd and upgraded, so a comfortable win by 18 points and delight from our swimmers, as we weren't expecting it.

A great performance with 19 of the 21 swimmers achieving 56 PB's out of the 96 swims between them. This will mean more changes for the next round (again!)

It was remarked that I was a bit unfair to the girls and their points total last time, so it is good to note this time they beat the boys 72 - 79 points, so well done the girls, although both won 5 races each. So, 1-1. 4 rounds to go. The next round is not until May 26th at Clissold Leisure Centre London N16. The results are:-

	Team	Points
1	RNSS	151
2	Northolt	169
3	Haringey	171
4	Anaconda	179
5	Brent Dolphins	234
6	Astra	235

Young Aquatics Organisers 2012 (15 Feb'12)

The 3rd group of Hillingdon members to complete their Young Aquatic Organisers course ran a successful Splash Night gala for younger swimmers on 25th January. Aaron Nolan, Lauren Matthews, Sam Fidge, Lalitha Try, Reena Shah, Emma Hick, Alice Walker, Kyesha Wharton-Adey, Heidi Walsh, Charlie McCorriston, Louis South, all aged 14-15 years, planned and managed every aspect of the gala.  From agreeing the programme of events and sending out invitations to ordering medals, timekeeping, whipping and running the gala software, the 11 YAO members did a terrific job. YAO presenters Lisa Nolan, Julie Stokes and Jo Lawrence thank the RNSS coaching team for their support, Wayne Hirst for running the timekeepers course and all the officials whose commitment and understanding helped to make the event a success.

YAO Alice Walker’s account of Splash Night:-
"Splash night was a great gala for the young aquatics team, it was a fantastic experience for everyone and we learnt a lot more about how a gala is organised and run. At times our jobs got a little stressful, but with some help and patience we solved the problems and kept cool. The biggest thing we learnt was that good communication is key for everything to run smoothly, and our planning and organisation before hand was very important too. Overall the night was successful, everyone swam their races and got their times. Thanks to everyone who helped us out at the gala, I hope you enjoyed it, and well done to all the swimmers who took part."

Highgrove refurbishment and closure (15 Feb'12)

The date for Highgrove refurbishment has finally been announced and the pool will close from 3 April – 31 December 2012. Alternative venues are being finalised and will be confirmed shortly. We look forward to enjoying a modernised Highgrove in 2013.

NLGL Round 1 (4 Feb'12)

Despite having to compete with Presentation Night, I somehow managed to get a team together for the first round of this year's North London Graded League at Park Road Hornsey. It included quite a few 'newbies' to the event and was by far the smallest team in stature and number I've picked to date. Out of the 10 boys selected, 7 were first timers for this and they did extremely well, considering it's the girls who normally perform. The boys were placed 1st in 9 events compared to the girls' 2. Only one swimmer was upgraded for being too fast and we had zero DQ's.

Overall, the swimmers managed 39 PB's between them.  An excellent performance by all. RNSS finished comfortably in first position amassing only 136 points with the boys contributing just 58 points. See results for times. No split times for last 3 relays I'm afraid. With the weather closing in, some of us made a dash to the big event of the year at Brunel as some of the boys had a few trophies to collect as well. A very satisfactory day for them and the club.The next round is at Northolt on the 18th Feb. The team will be notified by end of this week.

Club Champs - 100 & 200 IM (1Feb'12)

SENIOR COUNTY SQUAD GO TO BIGGLESWADE (21/22 Jan'12)

A small group of swimmers from the RNSS Senior County Squad competed at Biggleswade on the weekend of 21/22 Jan, a gala which Hillingdon Swimming Club has not participated in before.

The Senior County Coach, Jenny Demont, stoically supported her swimmers all weekend, even though the group was small. She was rewarded though with four PB's from Naomia Ayrton, a best 400IM time from Emma Hick, five PB's from Hollie Fisher (breaking 30secs for her 50 Free), two PB's each from Anthony & Michael Manfedi and one from Michael Procter (breaking 26 secs for 50 Free).

The final event of the day was the 50 Free Skins event, which is an elimination event starting with the fastest eight swimmers. After each 50m swim, the slowest swimmer is knocked out until only two remain to go head to head for the prize money. In the boy's Skins event, both Anthony Manfredi and Michael Procter qualified for the final eight. Anthony made a poor turn and was unfortunately eliminated first, but Michael was challenging for the top spot until, in the final three, he pulled a calf muscle off the block and had to be content with third!

HSC LEVEL 1 OPEN MEET REPORT (17/18 Dec'11)

DIDDY LEAGUE FINAL (27 Nov'11)

The Hillingdon Swimming Club team took third place in the National final of the Diddy League at Corby on 27th November. Well done to all! See the results on the Members' Results page.

NLGL FINAL RESULTS (26 Nov'11)

As reported below, RNSS won this year's Lowest Points Cup in the North London Graded League. The Cup was presented to the winning squad before Club Champs began. A few of them have either since left the club or were not present on the day, but receiving the Cup from Coach Lesley Westendorp were, from left to right, Michael Manfredi, Dillon Roglic,Charlie McCorriston, Lucy Kilmartin, Zayna Hussein,Skye Strang, Riana Hussein, Heidi Walsh, Emily Kilmartin, Lily Burton & Sydony Greenwood. Well done to them.

NLGL FINAL RESULTS (2 Nov'11)

RNSS finished a fantastic overall second to Leyton in this year's North London Graded League. There has been a slight delay as the final round was cancelled due to Walthamstow pulling out leaving a few teams having swam only five rounds and the rest, six. An average score has been applied to allow for this. As you can see from the table, it was very close for first place. A few less Too Fasts and less Dqs and who knows?

Also, RNSS  won the lowest points total for a single gala, 135, which was done at Leyton's gala. (See Results page for the points table). Apparently there is a cup for this achievement so we hope to get it by Club Champs and organise a photo of the actual team that day. It would also be good to take a group photo of all swimmers involved in this year's 6 rounds.

Again, well done to everyone involved over the series. The target next year?? There's only one answer

NLGL ROUND 6 REPORT (15 Oct'11)

Report by Trevor Hammond, Team Manager

We finally came to the last round of this year's North London Graded League at Clissold Pool N16 and what an exciting finale it turned out to be. It ended up being a contest between RNSS, Northolt Phoenix and current holders Leyton. There were some excellent swims, particularly from Charlotte Lomax and Charlie McCorriston who knocked sizeable chunks off previous times in 100m Free and 50m Breast, Luke Gates and Ben Scott.

In all 22 of the 23 team  managed 48 PBs between them on the night in relays and individual events, winning 13 events in total with only 2 speeding upgrades. However, a few slower than anticipated relays meant that going into the last two squadron races, there were just 2 points between the three of us. All we could do was sit back and watch the races unfold.

Unfortunately Northolt and Leyton beat us in both of them ending with them tying for first place with RNSS 2 points behind in 3rd. A great effort by all. Many thanks to Helen Stokes and Nicole Brownlee and parents who helped out poolside and everyone else for driving to the pool. It's not the best of places to get to and park, but is significantly cheaper than a coach.

We'll have to wait a few days to find out our final position for the year as that will be close as well, although Leyton appear to have won again. Overall, I think the swimmers have benefited hugely from this league giving them a regular taste of competition and not necessarily in their best stroke(s). This is shown by their continuing improving race times and is a credit for their hard training and obviously to their coaches. It also makes my job harder as I can't pick the same team each time due to them getting faster. Oh the joy! Anyway, well done swimmers. Club Champs up next so I want some good times to prepare for next year!!

Trevor Hammond

Team Manager HSC

HSC WINS DIDDY LEAGUE SOUTHERN FINAL! (2 Oct'11)

The Southern Area final was once again won by a team from Hillingdon Swimming Club. This now qualifies them to go the National Final. Congratulations to the team, pictured below.

NLGL ROUND 5 RNSS WINS! (17 Sep'11)

Report by Trevor Hammond, Team Manager

This was Round 5 of this year's North London Graded League and another great performance by our swimmers. It was our turn to host the round which was at Northolt Leisure Centre, (LB Hillingdon being unable to let us have a pool) and  RNSS won for the 3rd time in another exciting gala. Again, trying to match swimmers with times, especially relays, is proving to be very difficult. In all, the squad  managed  45 PBs!! A lot were in relays so split times not entirely accurate but a good indication and 10 of them resulted in being upgraded (ie too fast for the race) and maximum penalty points. It just makes it harder to pick a team for next month. The good thing about this series is it introduces new and younger swimmers to team galas in a competitive arena and 5 more joined the fray this time so well done to them all. I think they all seemed overjoyed at the final result when they all jumped into the pool. A good team spirit.

It was also good to see many parents helping out with various tasks, with some including me, being mentored for their Judge 1 course. Thanks.

You will see on the results sheet certain races are not placed. These are the upgraded ones. Race 12 for some reason has the girls result from race 11 duplicated, so ignore. Also to show splits on the last 2 squadron races, I have had to add 2 events, 47 & 48 to get around the computer program that only allows 4 swimmers per relay. I hope you understand. Apologies for missing Skye and Florence's splits. Stopwatch malfunction. Thanks to Martin South for doing split times despite having a nasty allergic reaction to a wasp sting. I'm surprised he managed to see properly through those swollen eyes.

The next and final round is scheduled for Sat 15th Oct in Nth London, venue TBC. Most of the boys I expect will be picked again and with a few exceptions, I imagine the girls squad will look familiar but there will be changes to account for all those PBs. I expect to email potential swimmers within the week. Anyway, well done to everyone.

Trevor Hammond

Team Manager HSC

HSC WINS WITNEY TEAM GALA (Sep'11)

Report by Trevor Hammond, Team Manager

I decided to pick the strongest possible team available this year to try and beat Maxwell SC after several close second places over the last few years. The squad was mainly made up with HB swimmers with RNSS supplying most of the U11's and a couple of seniors. This is normally the only gala that HB swim together in a team gala and one they look forward to each year at the beginning of the new season.

The girls U15 and Open squads both won each of their 5 events laying the foundation for a convincing win over Maxwell. The boys finished mainly second to Maxwell except for the Open boys who had 5 very tough races against Witney and Maxwell. The most exciting race was probably the Boys Open 200m Breast relay in which Luke Spain came storming through and almost snatched first. Another metre, who knows? Anyway, a winning start to the season with a trophy in the cabinet.

Well done to everyone and to Witney SC for organising the event.

NB The cannon event at the end with 16 swimmers is not shown on the results although we did win it!

Trevor Hammond

Team Manager HSC

HSC WINS LONDON SWIMMING AWARDS (Sep'11)

Hillingdon Swimming Club has won three London Swimming Coaching Awards.

FUNdamentals Coach of the Year:  Hillingdon SC Disability Swimming Teaching Team

Health & lifelong participation Coach of the Year: Jenny Demont, SC Coach, RNSS House

Young Coach of the Year: Ellie South, PreMinstars coach, RNSS House

Congratulations to all award winners!

KARLEY MANN SWIMS AT THE FINA WORLD JUNIOR SWIMMING CHAMPS & WINS A MEDAL!

After returning from the National Youth Champs, Karley Mann continued to train hard in preparation for the FINA World Junior Swimming Champs in Lima, Peru in August.

Karley competed in the 200 backstroke and the 200IM, making it through to the finals of the backstroke and narrowly missing the final of the 200IM by finishing 9th in the heats.

In the 200 backstroke final, Karley swam 2:11.40 and secured the bronze medal in a time which was faster than the Championship record set in the heats.

Event 19  Girls 200 LC Meter Backstroke
==================================================================
WR: W 2:04.81  8/1/2009  Kirsty Coventry, ZIM
Championship: C 2:11.45  8/18/2011 Miyu Otsuka, Japan
Name                 Year Team              Prelims     Finals       
==================================================================
=== Finals ===                         

1 Zevina, Daryna       94 Ukraine              2:11.84    2:10.43C r:+0.67  31.07      1:04.08 (33.01) 1:37.92 (33.84)     2:10.43 (32.51)
2 Otsuka, Miyu           94 Japan                2:11.45    2:11.02C r:+0.52  31.22      1:04.47 (33.25) 1:38.25 (33.78)     2:11.02 (32.77)
3 Mann, Karley           94 Great Britain    2:11.50    2:11.40C r:+0.54  31.33      1:04.20 (32.87) 1:37.86 (33.66)     2:11.40 (33.54)

==================================================================

NATIONAL YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIPS 2011- (27-31 July)

The following swimmers competed in the National Youth Champs at Ponds Forge, Sheffield):- Adam Prunty, Adam Wood, Lucas Navarro, Francesca Marr, Sophie Wilson, Karley Mann, Sarah Procter, Fiona McAndrew, Sarah Harrington.

Click here for the results for all our Youth swimmers.

Congratulations to all, but especially to Karley who won gold in the 200m backstroke and to the 4 x 100 Medley relay team (shown below on the podium) who won the bronze medal despite stiff competition from the big City clubs.

The final tense weekend was magnificantly supported not only by the swimmers' families but also by other members and friends of Hillingdon SC who made a special journey to Sheffield to support the team effort. Thanks to Christine & Luke Spain, Lesley and Rachel Westendorp, Alex Carr, Sarah Quinn, Matthew Tuff and Liz McGowan.

NATIONAL AGE GROUP CHAMPIONSHIPS 2011- (25.7.11)

Congratulations to the Hillingdon boys who swam fantastically at the National Age Group Champs in Sheffield this week. Special congratulations go to George Taplin who secured two silver and two bronze medals and three 4th places. Leon Berchie also achieved a place in the fnal of the 200 Fly, finishing in 9th place. Click here for the results for all our Age Group swimmers.

NAOMI AYRTON AND HOLLIE FISHER SWIM AT AN INTERNATIONAL EVENT IN VIENNA, AUSTRIA

On the evening of 6 July 2011, approximately 2,000 athletes, 3,000 spectators, 200 VIPs and 100 artists gathered on the Viennese City Hall Square to celebrate the opening of the 13th European Maccabi Games. Read more...

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING - MAR'11

The AGM of Hillingdon SC was held on Tuesday 29th March 2011.

Chairman and coaches’ reports summarised a successful year with strong achievements both in and out of the water.  There were a number of firsts: first overseas training camp, first Level 1 meet, RNSS first residential meet to name just a few. Swimming successes included our largest ever team at Nationals, our 3rd year in a row at the National Junior Arena League final, this time achieving a tremendous 2nd place,  and many individual and team successes at meets through the year.  Karley Mann represented Britain at the Euro Youths, returning home with Gold, Silver and Bronze medals. Hillingdon SC members also won 3 awards at the London Region Volunteer Awards. 

Wayne Hirst stood down as Chairman and was replaced in the role by Joanne Lawrence who thanked him for his contribution throughout the year.  Club President Maurice Short paid tribute to the contribution of chairman, committee, coaches and all other members in the continuing success of Hillingdon SC. Minutes of the meeting and the Chairman's and Head Coaches reports are available on the Documents page.

CLUB CHAMPS RECORDS FALL - MAR'11

Luke Spain broke two club records at this year's 200m Back & Breast Club Champs on Weds 30th. He knocked over 3 secs off his last year's record for 200m Breast and just under 3secs off his 2009 record for 200m Back. The girls did their bit as well with Holly Esson smashing a 14 year record knocking 7.72 secs off 200m back. Congratulations to both swimmers.

KARLEY TAKES BRONZE MEDAL AT 2011 BRITISH CHAMPS!!

Congratulations to Karley Mann who has taken the bronze medal in the 200 backstroke at the British Gas Swimming Championships in Manchester in March, coming just behind Lizzie Simmonds but beating Gemma Spofforth and other senior swimmers.

RNSS TEAM WINS ROUND 2 & 3 OF THE NORTH LONDON GRADED LEAGUE