This is the first of what I hope will be regular reports from your Chairman on the Club‘s highs and (hopefully only occasional) lows. It is not intended to replace the more detailed newsletters. Firstly, I would like to thank my predecessor - Hamish Dickson – for leading the Club so effectively over the last two, very successful years. In particular, Hamish was instrumental in introducing the new “squad” system. Whilst the new system has not been without its teething problems it does seem now to have bedded in well and the benefits have started to flow through in the Club’s results. In the pool, 2009 was a very successful year and I will list just some of the achievements in broadly date order: Seven swimmers achieved Kent Schools’ top three places in their events and went on to represent Kent against Surrey Schools. Two of our swimmers swam for Surrey Schools in the same event. Fifty five swimmers qualified for the Kent Championships – another new record for the Club Eight swimmers achieved twenty three Kent championship titles between them and Sevenoaks also won two relay titles. Our men achieved their best-ever result finishing fourth overall whilst our ladies finished eighth. Xander Alari-Williams represented English Schools at the Home Countries International. Three club members won silver medals in the ASA Cup playing water polo for Invicta, they then went onto to represent Kent in winning the South East Region inter-counties competition. Another water polo member has been selected to join the England Talent Squad for her age group, keeping up coach Dave Clifford's excellent record of having at least one player on a National squad for at least 5 years that I am aware of. Dave is also actively involved in coaching at Kent and GB levels. We had a record number of qualifiers at both the Youth and Age Group South East Regionals. Xander and Natasha Hickey both qualified for the National Championships held in Sheffield in August. Xander went on to win bronze medals in both the 100m and 200m breaststroke. At the English Schools competition held at Crystal Palace in October we had six swimmers representing Division 11 (Kent and Surrey Schools) Our “A” team finished fifth in the Kent Junior League whilst our “B” team finished second in division five. We are one of only three clubs to enter two teams in this league. After a disappointing first round our “A” team managed to secure the South East Division One title of the Arena League and won promotion back to Premier League South. Our “B” team finished ninth in South East Division Two – a fantastic result. It was as recently as 2003 that our “A” team finished only seventh in that same league. Our coaches remain active at Kent and Regional level with both Jo King and Julian Metcalfe coaching at Kent, Division 11 and South East Region level - helping them gain valuable experience that they can bring back to the club. What does 2010 hold for the Club? Well we are already off to a great start with fifty eight swimmers who have qualified for the Kent Championships this year and seven of our swimmers are due to represent their individual schools at the English Schools Team Championships. Our main aim must be to consolidate our place in the Arena Premier League South. However our successes at the highest level must not allow us to forget that we are, and seek to remain, a broad community based club. With this in mind your committee is looking to strengthen the Club’s existing masters and water polo sections as well as looking at opportunities to promote a life saving section. We are also conscious of the need to ensure that our swimmers find ways to develop which suit their needs and which may not involve competing at the highest level. We are currently looking at setting up a life saving section for the club. We always welcome your feedback and ideas for improving the Club and reaching our objectives which would not be possible without the continuing efforts of our many volunteers. You can find further details about the activities and running of the Club both on our website, the board at the Leisure Centre and in our regular newsletters where you will also find details of our meetings for parents. | 
