East Region Heat of the Masters Inter-counties Competition
At the East Region Heat of the Masters Inter-County Competition held at Bury St Edmonds on 10 November 2019, Beds came second. The final positions and points were
1 Essex 199.5
2 Bedfordshire 193
3 Norfolk 153
4 Suffolk 139.5

With three swimmers withdrawing at the last minute, I was in a panic rearranging the team a few minutes before the start. Many Beds swimmers had to do extra swims, typically swimming six or seven races in the one session, which was a mammoth effort as many had to swim strokes other than their best. In this way we managed to compete in all 70 events.

Everyone swam brilliantly, from youngest to oldest and it was great to see so many touching in first position. The points score seesawed between Beds and Essex as it was read out after 40, 50 60 and 70 events. There was only one point in it after 50 events, but Event 51 was our week spot. I had to replace two 35-yrs swimmers by a 68 yr-old and a 77yr-old as all the men swimmers over 35 were already swimming six or seven events.. This way we got just one point for that event, but got good points for the other events in which we had to substitute swimmers. In the end those I spoke to expressed the view that it was a shame we came second. Perhaps we will do better next year, when the team is about 35 years older.

It was disappointing that the team did not have any swimmers from Modernian SC and Putteridge SC and only one from Biggleswade when it is known that they have some very good swimmers that would have swung the result our way.

We have yet to get the National results for this event, which should be available in about a week’s time.