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Charirmans report - 05-01-2012Dear Club Member 2011 has been a fantastic year for the Club, and I though a brief report would help bring together just some of the things that you, the members have achieved. Whilst the achievements of individual swimmers are quite rightly to be celebrated, the real progress of the club is measured by our team performances, and this year they have been superb. We started the year with men's team finishing third overall at the Kent County Championships. A squad of Xander Alari-Williams, Tom Foley, Patrick Foley and James Manning won the Open freestyle and medley relays, the first time the club has won either event. A youth squad of Patrick Maclachlan, Xander Alari-Williams, Patrick Foley and Joe Choong then swam superbly at the South East regionals to qualify for the medley relay at the National Championships - another club first. At the Nationals Patrick Maclachlan was replaced by Patrick Ham, and they managed to improve on their entry ranking and finish in 20th place. We had 3 individual qualifiers at the Youth Nationals Joe Choong for the first time and old hands Patrick Foley who made the final of the 200 backstroke and Xander Alari-Williams who won silver medals in both the 100 and 200 breaststroke. The Autumn has seen our major league competitions, the results of which have demonstrated the real strength of the club. In the Kent Junior League our A team finished 2nd in the top division behind Beckenham over the 3 galas, our best ever result including handing Beckenham a very rare defeat in the second round of this competition. Our B team, meanwhile were convincing winners of division 5, but unfortunately the rules of the league prevent them from being promoted! In the Arena league our A team made the final of the Premier league and finished 8th, again a best ever result for the club, particular thanks to Patrick and Tom Foley and Natasha Hickey all of whom travelled back from University to swim and show true team spirit. Our B team meanwhile won the final of division 2, with a nail biting finish - they trailed Redhill & Reigate from the start of the gala, only moving into the lead with 3 races to go and clinching the gala and the league by 2 points. In relation to our league performances it should be borne in mind that we are the only club with 2 teams in the Kent Junior, one of only 2 Kent teams with 2 teams in the Arena, and finally that it is as recently as 2003 that our A team finished 3rd in the second division. Our senior and junior water polo teams have struggled with numbers at times during the last year, but things are picking up through recent collaborations with RTW Monson and Sevenoaks School. The latest evidence of this being a convincing win for our seniors in the South East league against City of Oxford. They are always on the look out for new players. Our new life saving section continues to progress with Mandy Turner running another successful course on Sunday afternoons. On more mundane administrative matters, 2011 showed the club making a small operating profit and with our largest membership ever. Wishing you a happy and successful 2012 Peter Manning Sevenoaks Swim Club Chairman more news articles... |  Noticeboard
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