Contents
Introduction
New Masters Manager for East Region
Report on the National Masters Inter-County Competition, November 2019
Beds Masters Decathlon Challenge 2019 Results
The Club Scene
-- Team Luton SC
Links

Introduction
This newsletter provides the final summaries for the 2019 Masters swimming season. It covers the Nationals and the National Inter-counties. The Beds ASA Masters Decathlon Challenge has been completed and the results are included.

New Masters Manager for East Region
Masters may not be aware that without a Masters Manager, there would be no ER Masters Swimming activities. Sharon Parry (Suffolk) resigned last year after completing her three years in the role, and we thank her for doing a great job organising the development days and running the ER Championships and Inter-Counties competitions. She also started the ER Masters Decathlon and produced a Masters newsletter. So, facing a complete shutdown, the search was on the find someone new to take her place. Until recently no-one has come forward. Thankfully Louise Mackie (Bedfordshire) has taken up the challenge. Louise is the retiring past President of Bedfordshire ASA and has served as the Officials Secretary. So, please give her your support and wish her luck in this new role.

Report on the National Masters Inter-County Competition, November 2019
When the East Region results were aggregated with those of the other regions, Bedfordshire Masters finished in 12^th. Place out of 27 counties that competed. That is five places better than last year.

Notable high scoring Top-10 swims were:-
1^st. Liz Woolner 45+ Butterfly
10^th. Mike Outram 35+ Freestyle
1^st. Carla King 35+ Freestyle
6^th. Matt Masters 25+ Backstroke
7^th. Frances Merridan 25+ Backstroke
8^th. Daniel Hill 18+ Breaststroke
2^nd. Janet Masters 75+ Freestyle
10^th. MENS/WOMENS 220+ YRS 200M MEDLEY TEAM
6^th. MENS 072+ YRS 200M MEDLEY TEAM
4^th. Christine Ayers 65+ Breaststroke
4^th. Mike Outram 35+ Backstroke
7^th. WOMENS 180+ YRS 200M FREESTYLE TEAM
7^th. WOMENS 100+ YRS 200M FREESTYLE TEAM
9^th. Pete Isles 65+ Butterfly
4^th. Liz Woolner 45+ Backstroke
4^rd. Sarah Pearse 35+ Breaststroke
10^th. Claire Evelyn 25+ Butterfly
5^th. Tom Pickering 18+ Freestyle
9^th. WOMENS 140+ YRS 200M FREESTYLE TEAM
5^th. MENS 072+ YRS 200M FREESTYLE TEAM
8^th. Christine Ayers 65+ Freestyle
10^th. Claire Evelyn 25+ Freestyle
3^th. Tom Pickering 18+ Backstroke
6^th. WOMENS 180+ YRS 200M MEDLEY TEAM
10^th. WOMENS 100+ YRS 200M MEDLEY TEAM

So well done everyone.

Beds Masters Decathlon Challenge Results 2019
The 2019 winners of the Beds Masters Decathlon Challenge are, again Liz Woolner (Flitwick) for the women and Marcel Scholten (Modernian) for the men.
Overall Beds swimmers have made a strong showing. For the women, competing against 1731 women, we have three in the top-100 nationally. In 13^th place is Liz Woolner (Flitwick) with 5848 points, in 60^th place is Claire Evelyn (South Beds) with 4511 points and in 71^st place is Carla King (South Beds) with 4266 points.
For the men, competing against 2356 men, we have four in the top-100 nationally. In 25^th place we have Marcel Scholten (Modernian) with 5564 points, in 39^th Graham Powell (Team Luton) with 5115 pts, in 40^th Alex Mason (Team Luton) with 5110 pts and in 94^th Peter Glead (South Beds) with 4346 pts.
The top women’s team, in 19th place nationally was South Beds with 15560 points. Top men’s team in 12th place was Team Luton with 17722 points.

Here are the full results at the end of the year (extracted on 2^nd. January 2020).

Out of 1731 women, the following table shows the Beds women’s ranking

Out of 422 clubs, the Beds women’s team ranking is :-

Out of 2356 men, the following table shows the Beds men’s ranking

Out of 521 British teams, the Beds men’s teams are ranked

Individual and Relay Medals at 2019 English National Masters

Laura Smith was one of four making their National Masters’ debut. She was very unlucky to miss out on a medal, finishing 4^th = in the 25 – 29 years’ 100m Breaststroke in a time of 1:23.04, a personal Masters best by over a second and an agonising 0.02 outside of the bronze medal position. Laura’s time was also just 0.2 seconds slower than her best ever short course time recorded over ten years ago! Laura swam personal best Masters times in four other races and ended the meet finishing 5th in her 50m Breaststroke.
Jodie Armstrong’s debut saw her come 5th in the 35 – 39 years’ 50m Backstroke, in a time of 35.29 seconds, one of two personal bests over the weekend.

Kelly Cooke, another Masters’ debutante, clearly had the bit between her teeth, smashing her personal best time in the 40 – 44 years’ 50m Freestyle by 1.14 seconds. Touching in 31 seconds, Kelly’s time was a new Beds County Masters record by 0.25 seconds. That record had been held by Karen Mackenzie who had the consolation of setting a new County record of 6:21.11 in her 45 – 49 years’ 400m IM, finishing in 7th place.
The 50m Freestyle event, swum in descending age group order, saw all our Ladies in fine sprinting form. Sharon Thompson set the pace in the 50 -54 years’ age group beating her best time for the year by 0.6 seconds, followed by Karen MacKenzie in a season’s best. Michelle Neal, aged 39, continued her habit of swimming faster each and every time she races over 50m; her time of 30.61 seconds was a further improvement by 0.63 seconds. Jodie then swam 31.66 to better her time by 0.15 seconds for Laura to follow with a 30.71 that beat her best by 0.38 seconds.
Alex Mason retained his 18-24 years’ 200 Individual Medley ("IM") title and once again collected a silver medal for his 400m Freestyle. This year he also won the 200m Breaststroke, having only finished third in 2018. Alex picked up a further gold and bronze medal as part of two GB Police team relays.
Graham Powell missed the first half of the year due to ill-health. Undeterred, Graham still claimed a silver in the 60 -64 years’ 100m Backstroke and bronze in his 50m Backstroke, 100m Butterfly and 100m Freestyle whilst finishing 4^th in his 50m Butterfly and 200m IM. Just for good measure Graham rounded off his programme of 7 individual and three relay races with a 10^th place in the 50m Breaststroke.
For the second successive year Malcolm Barton achieved five top ten finishes in the 60 – 64 years’ age group, coming 11th in his other race. However, this time around and despite being at the oldest end of his age group Malcolm also won a silver medal for his 400m IM, emulating his achievement at the GB Masters back in June.
Colin Mayes also achieved 5 top ten finishes in the 60 – 64 years’ age group, his best placing being 5th in the 200m Breaststroke.
In the 55 – 59 years’ age group Dave Wright came 6th in the 400m Freestyle, 7th in the 400m IM and 8th in his 100m Butterfly. Despite his 2:48.73 in his 200m Butterfly being only 1.7seconds slower than his winning time the year before, Dave – now aged 58 – had to settle for 4th place behind three "young" 55 year olds.
The quartet of Dave Wright, Graham Powell, Malcolm Barton and Colin Mayes nevertheless set two new Beds County Masters records in the 240 – 279 years age group finishing fifth in both their 4 x 100m and 4 x 200m Freestyle relays. Their time of 5:14.45 in their 4 x 100m Medley relay to claim a silver medal was just 0.25 seconds ahead of the fast-finishing team from St Albans Masters. Entering the relays had principally been the idea of Masters Secretary, Alastair Gibb. Forced to miss out competing himself due to a heart condition diagnosed just two weeks before, the close finish did little to keep anyone’s heart rates in check. For Malcom, it transpired that his own take-over had literally been a "trunk- splitting" event!
John O’Rourke’s swam season best times in five of his six events. His best placings were 6th in the 50 -54 years’ 400m IM and 7th in his 400m Freestyle.
Sam Bradley also competed in six events in the 25-29 years’ age group, recording personal best times in both his 50m and 100m Backstroke and season best times in his other four races.
All in all it was once again a sterling team performance. Great camaraderie was in evidence both poolside and at the evening team dinners – despite arriving the first night as if everyone had all stepped fully clothed straight out of the Ponds Forge pool, such was the extent of the downpour on the "short" walk from the hotel.
With points awarded for each top three placing and all finishes, Team Luton were the 43^rd highest points scoring club out of the 232 clubs that were represented at the English Nationals, many of which had far more competitors.

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