Contents
Introduction
Masters Competition Programme for 2015
Masters Development Day
Beds County Masters Records 2015
Presentation to Marcel Scholten for his win in the Beds Masters Decathlon Challenge 2014
Beds Masters Decathlon Challenge 2015 - Interim Results 18^th May 2015
The Club Scene and Masters Training Sessions
-- South Beds Masters at the Midland Masters Champs
-- Team Luton Masters Report
ASA Masters Hub Website
ASA National Masters Census

Introduction
Many Beds Masters swimmers were in action at the Midland Masters Championships at Leamington and many Beds records were broken. Notably, the South Beds "Golden Girls" have been breaking Beds and East Region relay records in the 280yrs+ age group and contributed to South Beds ladies rising to fourth place in the national decathlon.
Team Luton men have set a cracking pace with some excellent record breaking swims. Collectively the team of four are in tenth place in the National Masters Decathlon.

Masters Competition Programme for 2015
The following are local competitions in the East Region:-

• The East Region Open Water Championships are to be held on 19^th July at Whitlingham Country Park near Norwich and the event is open to Masters swimmers with medals for all the masters age groups up to 60+ but due to time constraints race duration cut off times would be needed. Details on the ER website.

• ASA East Region Masters Championships 2015 - Saturday 3^rd October 2015 at Newmarket. Details are on the British Swimming calendar. The closing date will be 10^th September for the individual events and 17^th September for the relays.

• Regional heat of the National Masters Inter-County Competition 2015 - 15^th November at Newmarket

Also note

• Masters Development Day - 20^th September 2015 at Culford School, Bury St. Edmunds

Masters Development Day
The ASA East Region is organising a Masters Development Day for all Masters in the region on. 20^th September 2015, 9.30am-5pm. The day will include workshops on; nutrition, strength and conditioning, injury prevention, techniques in the pool and an update on national opportunities
Venue: Culford School, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, IP28 6TX
Cost for the day is £15 which will include lunch and refreshments
A booking form is attached to this email.
Early application is advised to avoid disappointment, as there is a limit of about forty places.

Beds County Masters Records 2015
John Bellis is our records keeper, and record claims should be sent by email to him at john.bellis123@btinternet.com , or by post as detailed on the claim form on the Beds ASA website. Since the last newsletter, there have been swims at CAB SC Nottingham Masters, Staffordshire County Masters Champs, Gloucester, Newmarket Masters. and the Midland Masters Champs, where new records have been set. Many of these are also East Region records.
See the latest records at http://bedscountyasa.com/masters-county-records/

New County Record Claims

Presentation to Marcel Scholten for his win in the Beds Masters Decathlon Challenge 2014
The Masters Decathlon trophy was presented to Marcel Scholten at the Bedfordshire ASA County Championships, by the East Region President Gerry Metcalf and our County President Jo Stalley..

Presentation to Marcel Scholten: Gerry Metcalf, Marcel and Jo Stalley

Beds Masters Decathlon Challenge 2015 - Interim Results 18^th May 2015
The Beds results were extracted from the National results and are shown below, with national position in brackets.

Beds Women Masters Points Ranking
Beds ladies are off to a cracking start with six swimmers in the top 100 nationally. Janet Masters (South Beds) leads the Beds ladies. She continues to swim strongly and has cracked to 4000 points mark. So far, 913 ladies have competed nationally.

In the ladies club team results, out of 269 clubs in the national rankings, South Beds Masters (Janet Masters, Laura Robinson, Christine Ayers, and Carla King) are in 4^th place in the National rankings. Biggleswade ladies are in 82^nd place, Putteridge in 109^th place and Flitwick in 175^th place.

Beds Men Masters Points Ranking
The men are now showing strongly with Alastair Gibb now registering 10 qualifying swims and rising to 22^nd place nationally and all of the Beds top 5 are in the top 100 nationally. So far there are 1198 men competing nationally,

For the men's teams, out of 335 clubs in the national rankings, Team Luton (Alastair Gibb, Colin Mayes, Graham Powell and David Wright) moved up to 10^th place ahead of South Beds in 29^th place, Modernians in 52^nd place and Putteridge in 54^th place.

The Club Scene and Masters Training Sessions

South Beds Masters at the Midland Masters Champs
South Beds Masters had a successful weekend at Leamington Spa at the Midland Masters Championships, with 23 members swimming. The club won 50 individual medals, 20 gold, 16 silver and 14 bronze, together with another 6 in relay events 2 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze.
75 year old Janet Masters swam in 5 events and won them all, setting new East Region and Beds County records in four of them. Jackie Maycock swimming in the 50 to 54 age group won the 400 Individual Medleys, also setting new Region and County records, also winning the 400 IM in their age groups was 30 year old Jenny Owens, and 27 year old Laura Lewindon. There were 3 golds for Andrea Minor in the 65 to 69 age group and 2 for Christine Ayers in the 60 to 64 age group.
Emma Irvine won the 200 Breast in the 18 to 24 age group, Clare Warren set new County record times for the 400 Freestyle in the 35 to 39 age group, and swimming in the 30 to 34age group, Carla King won both of her events in excellent times, the 50 Free in 0.27.89, and the 100 Free in 1.01.63.
In the relay events, the 120 to 159 mixed team of Carla King, Joanne Holder, Richard and Chris Lewindon broke their own County records in both the 200 Freestyle and 200 Medley relay, and the Mixed 200 to 239 team broke their own East Region and County records in both of their events, the team for the Freestyle relay was Peter Iles, Chris Marshall, Christine Ayers and Clare Warren, with Samantha Hammond replacing Clare in the Medley relay.

In the 280 to 319 age group the South Beds team of Janet Masters, Iris Bellis, Andrea Minor, and Margot Anderson set new East Region and County records in both the 200M Freestyle and Medley relays. It was the first time since the East Region was set up, ten years ago, that a team of this age had competed.

Photo: SBM Golden Girls 280+ relay team with East Midlands President Ralph Shepherd
(Report and photo from John Bellis)

Team Luton Masters Report
Members have taken advantage of their progression to older age groups to set new County records, often outside of their preferred events, whilst travelling out of the County in their quest for decathlon points.
Both Colin Mayes and Malcolm Barton are noted for their breaststroke specialisms but that did not stop Malcolm from taking 44 seconds off the short course 400 IM and 24 seconds off the 200m Fly records in the 60-64 year age group at the Midland Masters meet. He also swam 26 seconds faster than the old 200m Breaststroke record but Colin was a further 2 seconds quicker.

Advancing years is not necessarily a bar to improvement in personal times. At Newmarket, the squad of Graham Powell, Colin Mayes, Dave Wright and Alastair Gibb lowered their own club¹s County records from last year for the 200+ age group in the 4x 50 F/s and 4 x 50 Medley relays. Their new record times are currently faster than the records for the 160+ age group.

Having been encouraged to gain decathlon points by competing in non-specialist events e.g. Butterfly and Backstroke, Colin quickly learned the importance of first checking the running order of events, particularly if thinking of swimming 8 events in one day. A surprisingly low turnout for the March Stafford meet meant that Colin¹s recovery times were sometimes put to the test, barely having time for a swim down before his next event. Even so, Colin set new County records for the 50 & 100m Backstroke. Held this year at the Stafford Leisure Centre, the spectator gallery was rather hot but this meet is worth supporting, particularly if Midlands again hold over their regional meet to May. However, given the likelihood of the Europeans being in London in late May next year, who knows what will happen.

Alastair Gibb was also lured to Gloucester for a short course 400IM. His travel efforts were rewarded, breaking the 6 minute barrier once more and setting a new East Region record for the 55-59 age group by 17 seconds. A new County record by 48 seconds, the swim was also faster than the figures he set last year for the 50-54 age group.
(Report by Alastair Gibb)

ASA Masters Hub Website
Masters are encouraged to keep in touch with what is happening nationally through the ASA Masters Hub Website that can be found by going to the ASA website.
(Try: http://www.swimming.org/masters/ ).
In particular, swimmers are encouraged to make use of the 'Masters Community' page to discuss and chat about all things masters. Sharon Lock, the ASA Masters Officer, keeps an eye on the discussions, so anything you contribute may be influential in the development of Masters Swimming in Britain.

ASA National Masters Census
Within the overall aim of increasing the number of Masters, the ASA Masters Officer wants to make it easier for potential new Masters and Seniors (18-24yrs) to find a suitable club. Currently the primary way for enquirers to find a club for Masters swimming is by contacting, or being referred to, the local County Masters Secretary. To improve the situation, the ASA Masters Officer has produced a census to be sent to all ASA clubs in the country (not just to clubs known to have Masters). The aim is to document the level of support for Masters provided by the clubs including which disciplines they cover. The results of the census will be included on the Masters Hub website and hence made available to all. The distribution of the census and collation of results is being delegated to the County Masters Secretaries (i.e. me for Beds). So we should also be able to include the information on the Beds ASA website.