Contents
Introduction
East Region Award to John Bellis
Beds Masters Secretary's report for Year to November 2019

East Region Heat of the Masters Inter-counties Competition
Beds Masters Decathlon Challenge 2019
Beds Masters Records
More Vacant Records
The Club Scene
-- Team Luton SC

Introduction
With the 2019 Masters Nationals and the Inter-counties completed, the season is almost over. Decathlon points have been mounting up and clearer front runners are emerging.

The East Region Heat of the Masters Inter-County Competition at Bury St. Edmunds Leisure Centre, on Sunday 10 November 2019 was an exciting competition with the lead changing between Beds and Essex, with Essex finishing on top. .

At the East Region Council Meeting in September, John Bellis was presented with an award for Long Service to Aquatics.

John started his swimming career in 1974, at Bletchley Swimming Club, teaching width swimmers. In 1975 he passed his ASA Teachers Certificate and went on to coach the clubs Junior Squads. In 1976 John gained the ASA Advanced Teachers Certificate, and the following year the ASA Club Coaches Certificate.

In 1978 Join founded the Milton Keynes & District Junior League, a competition for 9 to 12 year olds, and was the Leagues Secretary and the Chairman for a number of years.

When the City of Milton Keynes S C was formed in 1981, John joined as one of their junior coaches, and remained with them for five years. Then in 1986 John joined Leighton Buzzard S C as their Club Coach, a position he held for eight years.

The following year he returned to CMK as master’s Coach, and also organised the CMK Masters Meet at Stantonbury for about ten years, Running the Midland District Inter-counties meet for many years also at Stantonbury. In 2008 John founded the South Beds Masters SC and been their coach. He is now the clubs President.

He has also been the Master’s Team Manager for Beds ASA Masters, and following the departure of Keith Spence, he has been the Beds ASA Masters records keeper. Following recent illnesses John has retired from many of these activities.

Organisational Activities:- There are seven swimming clubs in Bedfordshire that support Master’s swimming. There are only about 70 competing Master’s swimmers. About half are women, and half men.

There are about 60 swimmers on the Beds Masters newsletter mailing list. Two newsletters have been sent out this year. A third one is planned.

Beds ASA do not run a Master’s swimming competition but do run the annual Beds Masters Decathlon competition.

Meeting General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) for Beds. Masters Protected Information

1. The Person with the Role of Beds ASA Masters Secretary together with The Person with the role of Masters Team Manager hold and maintain the following protected information-on a secure device -

• List of swimmers .with Name, Club, Age, Gender and Contact details – for the purpose of selecting a team for the Masters Inter-county competition

2. The Person with the Role of Beds ASA Masters Secretary holds and maintains the following additional protected information-on a secure device -

• List of Subscribers – with Name, Email Address and Agreement of Subscriber. for the purpose of distribution of the Beds ASA Masters Newsletter
• List of Club Masters Contacts – with Name, Club and Email Address - for the purpose of gathering news for the Beds ASA Masters Newsletter and forwarding information from Swim England and SE East Region.

A Draft proposal about fairness in (all) Adult competitive swimming is being produced by the Masters Secretary who has been trying to find a metric to ensure fairness of results for all competitors of all ages, of all disabilities, of all genders, etc.

Currently I am collecting sample swim data covering a few swimmers’ results. I need a series of results for the same event over a long period, e.g. twenty or more results for 50M Freestyle for each competitor.

This will allow me to test how the proposed handicap system would work in practice.

Swimming Activities:

Two Beds swimmers competed at the FINA World Championships in Guangju, S. Korea and their results were:- Christine Ayers (65-69) South Beds Masters: 5th 100M Breaststroke, 5th 200M Freestyle, 4th 200M Breaststroke, 7th 50M Breaststroke and Heather Patrick (55-59) South Beds Masters: 10th 200M Freestyle, 34^th 50M Freestyle.

At the East Region Championships at Newmarket 27 Sept 2019, Beds had a good representation with swimmers from most Beds Masters Clubs.

At the East Region Heat of the Masters Inter-County Competition held at Bury St Edmonds on 10 November 2019, Beds came second of the four counties competing.

During the year to mid-October swimmers set 34 Beds Masters Long Course records and 70 Short Course records.

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.

The full team was –

Ladies - Lauren Grice Leighton Buzzard, Emma Irvine South Beds, Frances Merridan South Beds, Claire Evelyn South Beds, Joanne Holder South Beds, Carla King South Beds, Sarah Pearse South Beds, Samantha Hammond South Beds, Chrissie Dixon South Beds, Emma Roch South Beds, Karen MacKenzie Team Luton, Liz Woolner Flitwick Dolphins, Heather Patrick South Beds, Alison Sheehan South Beds, Christine Ayers South Beds and Janet Masters South Beds
and Men -Thomas Pickering Linslade Crusaders, Daniel Hill Linslade Crusaders, Michael Judd Dunstable, Matt Masters South Beds, Jack McGarry South Beds, Sam Parry South Beds, Mike Outtram Flitwick Dolphins, Alistair Shaw Flitwick Dolphins, Howard Gell South Beds, Graham Powell Team Luton, Peter Iles South Beds, Joe Lounds-Keast Biggleswade and Paul Clarke Beaver Masters

Beds Masters Decathlon Challenge 2019
The season is almost over, with most. Beds swimmers having competed in at least one meet. Here are the top Beds results on 30^th. October 2019 after the Nationals at Sheffield.

Out of 1632 women, the following table shows the Beds top ten leading women’s ranking

Out of 410 clubs, the Beds women’s team ranking is :-

Out of 2197 men, the following table shows the top ten Beds men’s ranking at 10^th July 2019

Out of 496 British teams, the Beds men’s teams are ranked

Beds Masters Records
The following new records have been set this year.

Many thanks to John Bellis for preparing this list and for maintaining the records.

While on the subject of vacant records, here’s some East Region records that have yet to be claimed.

Women Short Course

75-79 200M Butterfly

80 and over. All events

Men Short Course – Note Q means Qualifying time

30-34 50M Breaststroke (Q30.84), 100M Breaststroke (Q 1:09.11), 200M Breaststroke (Q 2:36.55), 400M IM (Q 5:28.50)

35-39 1500M Freestyle (Q 18:49.95)

65-69 100M Butterfly (Q 1:36.96)

80 and over. Some events

280-319 200M Freestyle Relay

280-319 200M Medley Relay

Mixed Short Course (Relays)

280-319 200M Freestyle Relay

280-319 200M Medley Relay

Women Long Course

35-39 1500M Freestyle

45-49 200M Butterfly

75-79 100M Breaststroke, 200M Breaststroke, 200M Butterfly, 400M Freestyle, 800M Freestyle, 1500M Freestyle,

80 and over. All events

Men Long Course

18-24 1500M Freestyle

25-29 200M Backstroke

35-39 200M Butterfly, 1500M Freestyle

70-74 200M Butterfly

80 and over. Some events

So there are plenty of records to set.

Ladies Shine At 2019 Barnet Masters Sprint Meet

With three of the six making their Masters’ competitive debuts this year, it was the turn of the Ladies to shine at the Barnet Masters Sprints Meet. They collected 17 medals, emulating their male colleagues, but had the surprise bonus of breaking a Beds County Masters relay record whilst adding to what is already the Club’s highest ever Ladies Team decathlon score.

Laura Smith, aged 25, propelled herself to become the Club’s second highest scoring female in the Ladies decathlon in only her second Masters’ meet. She claimed two silver medals (100m Individual Medley "IM" and 50m Butterfly) and three Bronze medals (50m & 100m Freestyle and 50m Breaststroke) in the 25 – 29 years’ age group.

Jodie Armstrong won two individual golds on her debut swims in the 35 – 39 years’ 50m Butterfly and 50m Backstroke, pushing Michelle Neal into the silver position in the Butterfly. Michelle exacted her revenge on the 50m Freestyle, coming 4th to Jodie’s 6th place. Thirty-seven year old Michelle also just missed out on a further medal, touching 4th in the 100m Freestyle.

Kelly Cooke was the Club’s third Masters’ debutante, finishing 4^th in her 40 – 44 years’ 50m Freestyle and 5^th in the 4 x 25m IM. She still came away with two Gold medals courtesy of being a member of both the 160+ years’ Ladies 4 x 50m Freestyle and Medley relay teams. Winning both of those relays, the quartet of Jodie, Michelle, Kelly and Karen Mackenzie were never really challenged by the second placed team. They still broke the Beds County freestyle relay record for their age group that had been held by South Beds since 2015 much to everyone’s delight – including the children who had travelled to support their mothers. In a real team display each of the Ladies recorded 31 second splits to finish in a time of 2:06.20.

Karen Mackenzie picked up an individual gold (50m Backstroke) and two silvers (100m IM and 100m Butterfly) in her 45 – 49 years’ age group.

Like Karen, Sharon Thompson was on the hunt for adding to her personal individual decathlon score. Competing over some of her weaker strokes, Sharon still picked up two silvers (50m & 100m Breaststroke) and two bronze medals (50m Butterfly and 50m Freestyle) in her 50 -54 years’ age group.

Barnet provided Graham Powell with only his second competitive Masters’ swims of the year after an enforced absence for health reasons. He was back to his old winning ways with four golds (50m Freestyle, 50m Backstroke, 100m Butterfly and 100m IM) as Team Luton’s men dominated his 60 – 64 years’ age group. Breaststroke specialist Malcolm Barton took the opportunity to test himself over all four strokes in preparation for his 400m IM at the National Masters come October. Winning both the 100m Backstroke and 100m Breaststroke, Malcolm was second in the 100m Freestyle and third in the 100m Butterfly. Having been edged out of first place by Malcolm in the Breaststroke, Colin Mayes picked up a gold for the 100m Freestyle and a Bronze in the 100m IM.

In the 55 – 59 years age group, Alastair Gibb was placed first in his 100m Freestyle and second in both the 100m Backstroke and 100m Breaststroke.

John O’Rourke competed in six events in a highly contested 50 – 54 years age group. His best placings came with a gold in the 100m Backstroke and a bronze in the 100m Butterfly. Ian Norman had three top ten finishes in the same age group, his best being fifth over 25m Freestyle.

Twenty-two years old Alex Mason won the 18 – 24 years’ 100m IM and came third in the 100m Butterfly.

With a total of 34 medals and 1 new County record, Masters coach Pauline Harrington was suitably proud, not least as she had spent the best part of her birthday and the 60th anniversary of joining a swimming club, with the squad of 13.

A special mention should also go to the support from all the family members and partners of all ages who on this occasion almost outnumbered the Club’s competitors.