Contents
Introduction
Dates of Local and Regional Masters Meets 2013
Beds Masters Decathlon Challenge 2012 - Awards
Beds Masters Decathlon Challenge 2013
County Masters Records
A new National "Masters Corner" E-Newsletter
Report from Team Luton Masters and Seniors
Review of the Team Luton 2013 Masters Long Course Open Meet

Introduction
Many thanks to those who have sent comments and reports included in this issue of the newsletter. As always, the reports are the sole views of the authors and Beds ASA bears no responsibility for their accuracy. I must make a correction to the Mens' Decathlon Results included in the last newsletter, I omitted Christopher Marshall who amassed 2680 decathlon points in 2012. He should have been entered in a creditable sixth place and all those with lesser points should be one place lower. I apologise to Christopher.
If you or your club has done something of note, please let us know and we will include it in the next issue.

Dates of Local and Regional Masters Meets 2013
The ASA Masters Short Course Championships 2013 will be held at Ponds Forge, Sheffield on 25th-27th October 2013. Entry can be made online at www.britishswimming.org.
The East Region Masters Championships will be held at Newmarket on the 5th October 2013. The entry fees will be £6 for individual events and £10 for relays. The schedule and entry conditions for the 2013 ER Masters Championships can be found at
http://www.eastswimming.org.uk/swim/index.php?option=com_docman&Itemid=160
The regional heat of the Masters Inter-County Championships will be held at Newmarket on Sunday the 17th November 2013. John Bellis will be contacting you about this later.

Beds Masters Decathlon Challenge 2012 - Awards
The Beds ASA President, David Metcalf, presented the trophies to last years winners, Christine Ayres and Marcel Scholten.

Christine was presented with her trophy at a South Beds Masters training session at Tiddenfoot.

David Metcalf with Christine Ayres.

Marcel received his trophy at the County Championships.

Marcel Scholten.

Beds Masters Decathlon Challenge 2013
I had been waiting for the first issue of the 2013 Decathlon points, which usually appears on the ASA website at the end of April. I recently found that it has been delayed because the basis for the calculation of age adjustment will be changed. It had always been calculated using the "Finnish" formula (as used by Pam Pitcher way back in 1998 at the Amersham Masters Meet). A new calculation, nicknamed the "Rowson" formula (after Alan Rowson, it's proponent) has been approved for use by the ASA Masters Technical Committee and it will be used from this year on. The main change is that the formula is a refinement such that it is calculated separately for the different types of strokes. This makes sense because we are probably all aware that our butterfly times will be the first to deteriorate at we age. Presumably, Individual Medley will be treated as a different type of stroke too. Details or a simplified summary of the new age-adjustment formula will appear in press or on the ASA website in due course. The Beds results (with national position in brackets) so far are:-

In the club team result, for the ladies, amazingly South Beds Masters are currently 4^th in the national rankings and Biggleswade ladies are in 46^th place. Well done to them.

For the men, South Beds are in 33^rd place and Team Luton are in 75^th place.

County Masters Records
County Masters records continue to be broken in large numbers, particularly by South Beds Masters. The number of records set at the recent Team Luton Meet was, South Beds 27, Team Luton 15 and Biggleswade 16.
New record claims can be sent by  email to keithspence1@btinternet.com  or  by  post  to: Mr  Keith  Spence, 19  Roxburgh  Way,  Bletchley, Milton  Keynes  MK3  7NZ.  Claim forms are provided on the Beds ASA website ( http://www.bedscountyasa.com/ ) under Swimming -> Records -> scroll to bottom of page.

A new National "Masters Corner" E-Newsletter
All Masters with known email addresses, have been emailed the first edition of "Masters Corner" newsletter by the ASA. It contained information about the British Masters Long Course Meet at Plymouth, the SwimBritain Challenge,.and it promised to … "keep you up to date with the latest competition results, entries, ticket competitions, news and much, much more from the world of senior Aquatics". They provide a link:-
http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001EKvTbeNAYzZe0W9nTkpsQf6hISiKXbiWalDNIzinEJvgkNLBofqTS36WPvOx0Rl5akvLJ_gMSt_vqjqrhjDy2WPE0gcyUUekK3nSWvuH3X4RLyntLVNDDehxZejbm12Pi-lKnDzdGvg=

to contact them, and ask …. "Let us know your feedback! If you have any suggestions for what you would like to see in the next newsletter or feedback your use of the website, just contact us and insert 'Masters Corner' as your subject heading". So it's over to you.

Report from Team Luton Masters and Seniors
I am just shaping up our squad and it is growing nicely. They are now on a specific programme and are eager to compete.

Among our results so far, Dave Wright gained a silver in the 100M fly at the East Region Championships recently. Our men came first in the Bedfordshire ASA Decathlon Challenge 2012 (with 10681 points), just ahead of South Beds Masters men (9788 points) and were placed 50th. Nationally, out of the 456 Masters clubs that took part.

In 2012, Team Luton Masters broke one British Masters record, twenty four East Region Masters records and forty Bedfordshire Masters records.

As a squad we entered the ASA T30 [Ed: it's an annual national competition run by the ASA to see how far you can swim in 30 minutes]. Lawrence Palmer won the 18-24 (Senior) age group in a new British Record with 2305 Metres, John O'Rourke came 9^th in the 40-44 age group and new member Graeme Crowston came 11^th in the30-34 age group. Alan Armstrong also entered and did well. We would have won 2^nd in the team event if Dave had remembered to put the entry in. Oops never mind, next year.
Lawrence Palmer, who trains with the Masters, also qualified for the new British International Open for 50M breaststroke and was swimming against the best in the country, and came 23rd out of 66 so great for him and us. He has also qualified for the British Gas Youth and Senior Championships at 50M and 100M breaststroke and The Crème de la Crème. He has qualified for the British Championships (World Trials) in June so all is looking good.
On the 18^th of May our club ran a Masters Open Long Course Meet where we had a strong team and won 9 gold, 9 silver, 5 bronze medals, 15 County records and 6 East Region records.
(Report from Leslie Batson, Masters Coach)

Review of the Team Luton SC 2013 Masters Long Course Open Meet
The Team Luton Long Course Master Meet was held at Inspire Luton Sports Village Competition Pool (50M) on Saturday 18th May 2013. There was a strong representation from Bedfordshire clubs and the attendance overall was good, although the meet was not over-subscribed. There were three sessions and the challenging programme was more of a "distance meet" than a "sprints meet" with 100M, 200M of all strokes and 400M freestyle and only a single 50M event, the freestyle.

This format attracted some of the "top" Masters swimmers such as Stephen Mavin (March), Dave Warren (Otter), 86yr old 1948 Olympian Susan Halter (Camden Swiss Cottage) and some UEA swimmers from Norwich. Swimmers came from as far away as Folkestone, Stroud, Gloucester, Portsmouth, Salisbury and Glenalbyn. Surprisingly there were no overseas swimmers, who could have made use of the cheap flights to/from Luton International Airport which is only about a mile from the pool.

Overall, the meet ran very smoothly. The only delay was caused by swimmers being in the wrong lanes during the 50M freestyle, which started from the opposite end of the pool. Swimmers I spoke to, commented favourably on the new pool. The results are now available at:- http://results.teamluton.com/

If you have any comments that might help to improve future meets, please send them to the Team Luton competitions secretary, Mary Pelling, email:- galas@teamluton.com .
(Report by Paul Clarke)

Paul Clarke (Beds ASA Masters Secretary)
swimsite@freeuk.com
01582 508616