• LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN, GRANT DENHOLM
• DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
• RESULTS UPDATE FROM HEAD COACH FIONA ANDERSON
• iPADS FOR TRAINING SESSIONS
• KIT
• AND FINALLY...

A very warm welcome to the November newsletter and thank you for a great response to the last one. 

Questions were raised about the East District competitions, the Annual Dinner Dance and the Club Championships all of which Fiona and I attempt to answer below.

It’s been an extremely busy last few weeks with a lot of competitions taking place. Our swimmers have performed fantastically and have recorded many PBs.

We also had a great night at Leith Victoria with the Gavin Fulton Club Relay.  Congratulations to all teams for making it such an exciting competition, it’s quite unique to see all age groups swimming together in the same event and my thanks go to Malcolm Dow for his splendid organisation of the event. We were all delighted to have Gavin's daughters Mia and Faye (pictured below) presenting the prize to the winning team.

Later this month we have the second round of the East District Age Groups which brings together all the top swimmers in each age group across the whole of East District.  Congratulations to those of our swimmers who have qualified for this prestigious event.

On 6 December we are holding our 2014 Club Championships at Leith Academy. Kathy will be in touch with everyone very soon with details and please make every effort to attend. She needs to know names in advance in order to prepare a programme so please reply as soon as the letter comes out. If you’re new to the club this is a great day where all of our swimmers are together and compete for age group cups plus, of course, overall Club Champion.  There are categories for the very youngest swimmers and 1st, 2nd and 3rd places within each age group so there really is the opportunity for something to be won by everyone.

There’s a large viewing gallery on poolside where parents will really feel close to the event (sometimes a bit too close!) and everyone is encouraged to provide noisy support for each race. There will be lots of delicious homemade food to purchase at lunchtime as well as a tombola and Judith will bring a large selection of kit from the Club Shop to buy on the day. Kathy already has volunteers for the café, toastie section and tombola but would like timekeepers too, if you are available for morning, afternoon or both sessions please let her know. Donations for the tombola should be given to Leanne Reid (mother of Morgan) or Gillian Alexander (mother of Cameron and Amber)

A major part of the day is the prize giving and swimmers who have won Internal Cups throughout the year will receive their presentation. If you have won a cup, make sure you attend to collect your trophy! The cups that are won the day of the Championships are presented in February at our Annual Dance.

As ever if you have any questions, comments or observations about anything to do with the club, please speak to me or any of the committee members and we will be delighted to help.

Kathy (club secretary) will e-mail swimmers regarding internal cups. Grant (chairman) will e-mail swimmers regarding external competitions at the request of the coaches. Make sure you reply before the deadlines or you will not be entered!
 
Lothian Graded Meet, 8th November at Prestonpans

Club AGM, Wednesday 19 November at South Leith Church Hall, Henderson Street at 8.15pm.  Anyone wishing to come on to the Committee would be most welcome. If you are interested please speak to Kathy.

Edinburgh Schools, 23^rd November at Ainslie Park (NB: This is nothing to do with the club. Your school is responsible. Primary schools morning. Secondary schools afternoon)

East District 200s, 2nd Round, 30th November at Glenrothes

Anderson / Huntley Cup, 30^th November at Leith Victoria

Club Championships, 6^th December at Leith Academy (open to all members, do keep free. A great day out and the prizes – for each age group - are awarded at the Annual disco in the spring)

East District 100s, 3rd Round, 10th/11th January at Commonwealth Pool

Easter Swim Camp, 6th-10th April at Newcastleton in the Borders (letter just sent out, places will fill up quickly so do respond if you are interested. Numbers are limited)

CARNEGIE WINTER MEET – 25/26 October

What a start to a meet! We all arrived at Glenrothes hung about in the cold for a bit and were then told that the machine room was flooded and the organisers were trying to get another pool at short notice and at 8.15am on a Saturday morning! 

Amazingly Carnegie Leisure Centre in Dunfermline agreed to hold the competition at their complex.  It was all very well organised and despite going from an eight lane pool to a six lane pool the meet ran extremely well.

We had some fantastic swims with a total of 71 PB swims. The swimmers were brilliant and Inverleith now have a noticeable presence at competitions.  Angus Allison made two finals, doing PB’s to get into them and then again in the final. He picked up a bronze in the 100 BR and was 5^th in the 100 F/C. Cameron Alexander also made the 100 BR final coming in 6^th. Great swimming boys.

Swimmers who took part were Scarlett Donald, Carla Lovell, Charlotte Drainer, Claire Dow, Adele McDaid, Rebecca O’Donnell, Angus Allison, Cameron Alexander, Ted O’Connor, Felix Hale, Daniel Penman, Angus Skakle, Logan Dow, Aryan Singh and Stuart Crawford. Very well done to everyone and a special very well done to Angus Allison and Felix who did a 200 fly for the first time.

Thanks to Alex Hale for stepping in when Chris had some technical problems getting there.

EAST DISTRICT AGE GROUPS

As Grant mentioned the East District Age Groups is a prestigious competition with tough entry requirements. Many of our swimmers went along to the East District Time Trial on 4/5 October to try to get the entry time if they didn’t have them already.

The first competition in the East District Age Groups was the long distance events from 400m at Glenrothes on 1 and 2 November. Joe Penman, Logan Dow, Felix Hale, Daniel Penman, Angus Allison and Claire Dow all qualified.

The second competition will be 200s and takes place on the weekend of 29 and 30 November at Glenrothe. Claire Dow, Emily Mander, Scarlett Donald, Carla Lovell, Angus Allison, Felix Hale, John Mander, Daniel Penman, Aryan Singh, Stuart Crawford, Cameron Alexander, Angus Skakle and Joe Penman have all qualified.

The final competition will be on 10 / 11 January at the Commonwealth Pool and will be primarily 100s plus 200 IM.

DISTRICT AND REGIONAL PROGRAMME

This year we have three swimmers from Intermediate 1 who have been selected for the DRP (District & Regional Programme) Bronze Squad, Angus Allison, Carla Lovell and Daniel Penman.

The swimmers had to achieve at least three times over swims of 200 or above at accredited competitions (competitions which adhere to guidelines regarding number of officials and other requirements for their licence) to be considered for the squad.  There are three training sessions between September and the end of the year which they are required to attend.  Most of the work is technique, some land training and a bit about mind set.

The first training session was in September and our swimmers thoroughly enjoyed it. The lead coach for the 11 year olds is Ben Higson who is Ross Murdoch's coach and he was great.

I have to attend all the sessions as well which is interesting and gives me new ideas.

The times for the DRP are set every year and can be found on the East District web site.

NB: Internal results are posted on www.swiminverleith.com External results are usually - but not always! - posted at www.swimscotland.co.uk

The club will be purchasing an iPad to film swimmers and help them understand comments about their technique. Only swimmers who have returned the Photography and Video consent form sent out by Kathy on 16/9 are allowed to be filmed. It's a great opportunity so please if you haven't done so already dig out the forms and return them to Kathy as soon as possible.

For swimmers attending their first competition this weekend you'll be aware that most club swimmers wear branded kit.  Inverleith branded kit is available from Judith (mother of Angus Allison, Int 1) who can be found at Leith Victoria most Sundays. Her e-mail is judithhetherington@blueyonder.co.uk  

Inverleith caps are very useful in external competitions so that other Inverleith supporters know who to cheer for and it’s great to see swimmers accepting their medals wearing Inverleith branded tops. If you haven't got one and are lucky enough to win a medal this weekend ask someone to lend you one to go up to collect it.

The new yellow T shirts with names on are proving very popular and have the advantage of being cheaper than the tracksuit tops.

 

GOOD NEWS: Coach, David Little, opened his Sunday paper recently to find a feature about former Inverleith swimmer, Phoebe Strachan, who has been selected to compete in the ISA World Surfing Games in Peru. In the interview the former Heriots pupil says 'during my school years I was also a competitive Highland dancer and a swimmer. I think that both these sports gave me a good background for surfing'

AND BAD NEWS: An Inverleith parent recently received a parking ticket outside Glenogle at 9.30pm. Don't think that it is OK to park in disabled bays even when the pool is closed, parking attendants may be lurking close by. However much you may wish to dash in to watch your child in the final relays it may not be worth a £60 fine!