Contents
Introduction
Swim England Masters Insurance Cover
Beds Masters Competition Programme for 2019
Beds Masters Decathlon Challenge 2019
Records
Remaining Old Records
The Club Scene
-- Beaver Masters Bedford SC
-- Biggleswade SC
-- Flitwick SC

-- Putteridge SC
-- South Beds Masters SC
-- Team Luton SC
Links

Introduction
With the 2019 season half way through and most of the Long Course Competitions completed, Decathlon points have been mounting up and clearer front runners are emerging.
Several swimmers are travelling to S. Korea to compete in the FINA World Masters Swim in August. We wish them good luck.
A feature of many Masters competitions this year has been the increasing numbers of Disabled and Transplant Swimmers, who compete on equal terms with Masters Swimmers. You may think that this is not fair for them. If so, I would be interested in hearing from you about ways of making swimming fairer for all. I have been drafting some notes on this and would appreciate any input from concerned swimmers.
For the Club Scene section, much of the information has been extracted from swimming club web sites.

Swim England Masters Insurance
The following information about changes to insurance cover appeared in the latest Swim England Member Newsletter – "As a result of a review of benefits for the upper ages, we are pleased to advise that the personal accident cover for 76-85 year olds has been extended. A full breakdown of the personal accident benefits can be found here. "

1. * East Region Masters Champs at Newmarket, 29 September 2019. Entries close 16th September 2019
   Details and Online Entry at https://www.eastswimming.org/masters/masters-competitions/

* Swim England Masters National Championships (25m) at Sheffield Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, Fri 25 Oct 2019 to Sun 27 Oct 2019

2. * East Region Heat of the Masters Inter-County Competition at Bury St. Edmunds Leisure Centre, 12noon to 4pm, Sunday 10 November 2019.

Beds Masters Decathlon Challenge 2019
The season is well under way with most. Beds swimmers having competed in at least one meet. Here are the top Beds results on 10^th July 2019 after the GBs at the Welsh National Pool, Swansea

Out of 1336 women, the following table shows the Beds top ten leading women’s ranking

Out of 359 clubs, the Beds women’s team ranking is :-

Out of 1797 men, the following table shows the top ten Beds men’s ranking at 10^th July 2019

Out of 450 British teams, the Beds men’s teams are ranked

Records
New records will be listed in the next newsletter.

When Swim England added new Masters records for relays, to match those swum by FINA in the World Championships, Bedfordshire Masters did likewise. So, for a couple of years, we have been waiting for clubs to organise teams of swimmers to claim them. (Pleae do.) The Events available with vacant records, which may be swum long course or short course, are:-

Mens 200M Freestyle Relay: 100-119yrs, 120-159yrs, 240-279yrs, 280-319yrs, etc.
Mens 200M Medley Relay: 100-119yrs, 120-159yrs, 240-279yrs, 280-319yrs, etc.
Mixed 200M Freestyle Relay: 280-319yrs, etc.
Mixed 200M Medley Relay: 280-319yrs, etc.
Ladies 400M Freestyle Relay: all age groups
Ladies 400M Medley Relay: all age groups
Mens 400M Freestyle Relay: all age groups
Mens 400M Medley Relay: all age groups (except 240-279yrs)
Mixed 400M Freestyle Relay: all age groups
Mixed 400M Medley Relay: all age groups (except 72+yrs)
Ladies 800M Freestyle Relay: all age groups (except 72+yrs)
Mens 800M Medley Relay: all age groups
Mixed 800M Medley Relay: all age groups

Not many meets do 4x100M or 4x200M relays, so that explains the slow take-up. The local Barnet Distance Meet, held in July does provide an opportunity to swim these events.

While on the subject of vacant records, here’s some more individual records that need setting:-
Short Course –
Women
18-24 200M Butterfly
30-34 200M Butterfly
35-29 200M Butterfly, 400M IM
40-44 200M Butterfly 400M IM
45-49 800M Freestyle, 200M Breaststroke, 200M Butterfly, 400M IM
50-54 200M Butterfly
55-59 none
60-64 none
63-69 100M Butterfly, 200M Butterfly, 200M IM, 400M IM
70-74 200M Butterfly, 400M IM
75-79 200M Breaststroke, 200M Butterfly
80 and over. All events

Men
18-24 none
25-29 200M Backstroke, 200M Butterfly
30-34 none
35-39 400M IM
40-44 400M Freestyle, 800M Freestyle, 1500M Freestyle, 50M Backstroke, 200M Butterfly
45-49 none
50-54 none
55-59 none
60-64 none
65-69 none
70-74 none
75-79 none
80 and over. All events

Long Course –
Women
18-24 200M Breaststroke
25-29 none
30-34 200M Butterfly, 400M IM
35-39 1500M Freestyle, 200M Breaststroke, 200M Butterfly
40-44 1500M Freestyle, 100M Butterfly 200M Butterfly, 400M IM
45-49 800M Freestyle, 1500M Freestyle, 200M Backstroke 200M Butterfly
50-54 100M Breaststroke, 200M Butterfly, 400M IM
55-59 none
60-64 none
65-69 200M Backstroke, 100M Butterfly, 200M Butterfly, 400M IM
70-74 200M Butterfly, 400M IM
75-70 400M Freestyle, 800M Freestyle, 1500M Freestyle, 100M Breaststroke, 299M Breaststroke, 200M Butterfly
80 and over. All events

Men
18-24 800M Freestyle, 1500M Freestyle, 100M Backstroke, 200M Backstroke, 200M Breaststroke
25-29 800M Freestyle, 1500M Freestyle, 200M Butterfly
30-34 800M Freestyle, 1500M Freestyle, 400M IM
35-39 800M Freestyle, 1500M Freestyle, 100M Backstroke, 200M Backstroke, 200M Butterfly, 200M IM
40-45 1500M Freestyle, 200M Butterfly
45-49 1500M Freestyle
50-54 none
55-59 none
60-64 none
65-69 none
70-74 200M Butterfly
75-79 200M Butterfly
80 and over. All events

So there are plenty of records to set. I note that we have a shortage of 200M Butterfly swimmers. Perhaps we should have a Masters training course for 200M Butterfly. Also I note that generally, the 40-49yrs age groups have less records. Perhaps this is a social thing, with family responsibilities taking priority. Finally, there has been poor take-up of 800M and 1500M Freestyle. This is almost certainly caused by a lack of opportunity, as few meets have provided these events in the past, but the situation is improving. This may be partly because of the increase of Triathlon competitors, who train for these distances.

Remaining Old Records
Way back in 1998, Chris Jessup started keeping Beds Masters Records. These are still held in the archive (at http://www.swimsite.freeuk.com/beds/records/records.htm). The records ran for four years from 1998 to 2001 and were short course records, no long course records were kept, and the venue was not recorded. Since then the new records, which started in 2006 have replaced them and most of the old records have been broken. However, almost twenty years later, a few remain, which are still to be beaten and I have extracted them from the old records. They are tabulated below.

Beaver Masters SC
Although Karen Rockell has been swimming for Transplant Swimming Club recently, she is also a member of Bedford Beavers and has been in training to swim in the British Transplant Games.

(See https://www.britishtransplantgames.co.uk/about-newport) to be held in Newport, Wales in July. She has also been selected to represent Great Britain in the World Transplant games in August in Newcastle. (Details at https://wtgf.org/2019-wtg-newcastle-gateshead-uk/). We look forward to hearing how she gets on.

Training sessions continue as usual on Sundays at 9am at Trinity Sports and Leisure Centre, Bedford. All Beds Masters are welcome to join us. Just pay at the door.
Report by Paul Clarke

Biggleswade SC
Masters Squad Swimming Training
- At Biggleswade Saxon Pool
Friday AM 06:00 - 07:30
Sunday 17:30 - 18:30
- Land Training
Sunday 18:30 - 19:15
Report extracted from Biggleswade SC website

Flitwick SC
Masters Squad Training Sessions
- At Fliwick Leisure Centre
Wednesday 21.00-22.00
Friday 06.00-07.30
Sunday 07.00-09.00
- At Trinity Bedford
Monday 19.15-21.00*
Friday 19.00-21.00*
*By arrangement with Head Coach
Report extracted from Flitwick SC website

Putteridge SC
Although this report is not about Masters Events, Lawrence Palmer and Brandon Nabarro have swum for us in the Masters Inter-County competition and at the Masters Nationals, where Lawrence broke the Masters World Record fo 50M Breaststroke, so it is interesting to hear from their Coach Lesley Batson, on how they are doing in the Elite swimming world just prior to the World Championships in S. Korea.

June 13 Back in the most amazing city (Barcelona) - first leg of an insane stretch of international competition with the highest world class field-- no expectations, still recovering, but a pleasure to participate -Mare Nostrum Barcelona - French Open Chartres Paris - Sette Colli Trophy Rome.

Jun 14 Training this morning then a quick walk up to Sagrada Familia a little bit of Harry Potter in the middle of Barcelona what a huge random but beautiful structure.

June 15 Better than expected swim this am for Lawrence - less discomfort & looking a lot more fluid 1.02.62 best he felt all year ranked 23 came 18 was reserve for finals but Michael Andrew pulled out so he gets 2nd swim which is beuno. Brandon struggling with shoulder today.

June 18 We arrived in Chartres (France) yesterday - straight down pool training - eat then sleep - final tonight pretty much the same tonight - very hot and muggy - fantastic complex: indoor 50m 10-Lane pool - competing in outdoor 50m 10-Lane pool - and beautiful historic Chartres.

The results are

Mare Nostrum Barcelona
Lawrence Palmer
50M Breaststroke 14^th (4^th. Brit- after Adam Peaty, Zak Aitchison and Craig Benson)
100M Breaststroke 18^th. (4^th. Brit- after Adam Peaty, James Wilby and Craig Benson)
Brandon Nabarro
50M Freestyle 84^th.
100M Freestyle 96^th.
50M Butterfly 51^st (5^th. Brit- after Calum Bain, Eduard Rednic, Calum Lawrie and Marc Elrick)

French Open Champs Chartres Paris
Lawrence Palmer
50M Breaststroke 15^th. (1^st. Brit)
100M Breaststroke 15^th. (1^st. Brit)
Brandon Nabarro
50M Freestyle 35^th.(1^st. Brit)
100M Freestyle 40^th. (2^nd. Brit- after Jakob Goodman)
50 M Butterfly 28^th. (3^rd.. Brit- after Jacob Peters and James McFazden)

Sette Colli Trophy Rome
Lawrence Palmer
50M Breaststroke 16^th. (2^nd. Brit- after Adam Peaty)
100M Breaststroke 19^th. (2^nd. Brit- after Adam Peaty)
Brandon Nabarro
DNS
Report extracted from Lesley Batson? @lesleybatson tweets from Putteridge SC and competition websites.

South Beds Masters SC
Firstly it should be noted that Club Coach John Bellis has retired from coaching but is still active for Beds ASA. We are sad to hear that John has been beset with a series of illnesses and wish him a safe recovery.

Essex Masters Championship,2nd March 2019,Basildon
We completed our first short course competition of the season and got 3rd in the club rankings for the gala! It was a long day with the gala starting at 1pm and finishing around 8pm. We had 21 swimmers complete 77 races in 1 day, which is 11 more than we did over 3 days at the national championships This is made more impressive by the fact that we equalled 95 swims considering the legs in the relays.

We achieved 35 12-month bests, 11 Masters PB’s, 16 club records, 7 county records, 4 regional records and 1 national record.

The day got off to a great start with 4 swimmers achieving 12-month PB’s in the first event and Claire Evelyn providing home made brownies! The great atmosphere continued with further good swims and multiple relay events, special mention to Rob who has 2 relays back to back and then a break of just 1 before going again & Jo who went straight from finishing 200m free into the relay that started over the top of her!
Swimmer of the gala is a very tough decision with Carla just beating Rob and Jo to the award.
Achieving County records were: Frances Merridan - 100m freestyle, 50m Freestyle & 50m Fly

County and Regional records: Chris Ayers - 100m Breaststroke & 50m Freestyle. Women’s 120+ 4x50m medley relay - Frances Merridan, Sarah Pearse, Claire Evelyn, Carla King

County, Regional & National records: Carla King - 50m Breaststroke, unfortunately, another swimmer broke this on the same day at another event.

The day finished with a few members of the team who were in the tail end of the gala going for a meal and a specialist ice cream desert bar! Well done all, a great start to the season and we are progressing well for the national championships.
.

Results from British Masters Long Course, 14th-16th June 2019
Womens 55-59 age group - Heather Patrick
200m Breaststroke 4:08.58 6^th
100m Breaststroke 1:54.48 10^th
50m Breaststroke 50.03 8^th
Womens 65-69 age group - Christine Ayers (who is going to the World Championships in S. Korea)
200m Breaststroke 3:55.94 1^st
100m Breaststroke 1:49.19 2^nd
Womens 75-79 age group - Janet Masters
50m Backstroke 52.95 1^st
200m Backstroke 4:04.75 1^st
50m Butterfly 56.20 1^st
200m Individual Medley 4:21.59 1^st
100m Backstroke 1:54.34 1^st
Reports from Website and John Bellis

Team Luton SC
After 14 years of competing as a Master, John O’Rourke won his first GB medal in the 50 - 54 years’ 800m F/s at Swansea. John immediately followed this up in the next session with a second bronze in his 400m IM. Malcolm Barton went one better to claim a GB silver for his 60 - 64 years’ 400m IM in a time of 7:31.92 just a mere 0.65 seconds ahead of the fast-finishing third placed swimmer in his age group. Malcolm also won a bronze for his 200m Breaststroke. In the 45 - 49 years’ 400m IM Karen Mackenzie also claimed Bronze, smashing her own Beds County record set back in January by over 7 seconds.

At the Barnet Distance Meet, Laura Smith won the 25 – 29 years’ 200m Breaststroke and 200m IM in her first competitive Masters’ swims. Alice Pinney swam her first Seniors’ 200m F/s and 200m IM. All their times were within the qualifying standards for the Nationals in October. Sam Bradley meanwhile brought his 25 – 29 years’ age group Masters’ County records total to four, setting new figures for the 200m Backstroke whilst taking ten seconds off the 800m F/s record that had stood since 2012. The squad of six competing at Barnet brought home a total of 7 Gold, 2 Silver and 10 Bronze medals.

As the Club’s squad continues to grow, attracting younger members, we have an increasing number looking to compete. It is great to see, Ian Norman, Graham Powell and Gwen Skingley all making their competitive returns from illness / injury. Not known for doing things by half, Gwen chose to compete in four events (50m & 100m Breast, 200m & 800m F/s) all within 1.5 hours at the Maidenhead evening meet. A flat tyre prevented Gwen from competing the next weekend in her preferred Open Water but Dave Wright represented the Masters winning Bronze in the East Region’s 3k.

The squad’s focus is now turning to the various Autumn meets where hopes are high for improving times and positions in the GB Decathlon competition. Karen, Alice, Michelle Neal and Sharon Thompson are the Club’s current four highest scoring individual females and they have so far amassed over 8,000 points in this year’s Team Decathlon. That’s already our Ladies Team’s highest ever total with possibly more yet to come….?
Report by Alastair Gibb

Links
Beds County ASA Website Masters: https://bedscountyasa.com/category/masters/
East Region Website Masters: https://www.eastswimming.org/masters/
Swim England Masters Hub: https://www.swimming.org/masters/
Back copies of Beds ASA Masters Newsletters can be found at https://bedscountyasa.com/406/
And Earlier ones in the Archive at http://www.swimsite.freeuk.com/beds/news/news.htm
You can Subscribe to the Beds Masters Newsletters by email here: https://bedscountyasa.com/406/

Paul Clarke
Email: swimsite@freeuk.com
Archive: www.swimsite.freeuk.com/beds