31^st May 2003

Our run of huge nights ended when the Canberra Raiders came to town. It seems that we’re a club of football supporters also. (Go Cronulla!) For those who did come down – did you stop and watch White Collar Blue filming in the park?

Welcome to new members Zac and Sam Fowler. These boys had a great first night and have already put entries in for their first carnival. That’s the type of enthusiasm we like to see.

This season we have gained an increased number of younger swimmers and it is great to see the shorter distances so hotly contested. It is a pleasure to be in the marshalling area with these little ones who have already grasped the concept of swimming for a PB.

The competition in the older age groups has really moved into another gear lately and Lauren Smith returned to club after a couple of weeks absence to find herself seeded in an outside lane! Some great swims were produced and Lauren should find herself in her more usual position next week.

There were many, many PB’s swum tonight. Special mention again goes to 6 year old Daniel Davis who swam 3 PB’s tonight. Freestyle PB’s were also set by 5 year old Alexandra Budd and 6 year old Nicholas Garland. Matt and Ben Hunter both swam 28’s in their 50m Free and Matt Harden went sub 30 in his 50m Free for the first time – Woo Hoo! Matt has been on the verge of this for so long – congratulations. Hot on their heels is John Eggins who swam his first 30 in his 50m Free tonight.

Sean Mulligan, Becky Davison and Kate Sharp all lowered their 200m Free PB’s. In the Fly Meagan Cox swam a 30.75! Other Fly PB’s were swum by Sean Mulligan, Rachel Mulhane, Rebecca Kennedy, Geoffrey Gerlach and Alexandra Budd. Backstroke PB’s were swum by John Eggins, Becky Davison, Adam Verrender, Rachel Mulhane and Sam Sammut.

Congratulations everyone and my apologies if any PB’s were missed. Great swimming, hope you had fun!

23^rd May 2003

Once again – a huge night! Tonight we had more swimmers again and, being the I.M night which always makes it run a bit longer, we were still pleased to report that we finished at 8.30. A huge thank you to our coach Tomas who filled in as Starter and to all the other parents who take an active role in their children’s sport. Thank you to Lyn Garland and Debbie Dewar for running our fortnightly raffle and to all the families who support it by buying their raffle tickets.

Sue Rigby, our super efficient Registrar who keeps everyone on their toes, has still not been able to return to her usual race desk position because she is still busy taking registrations! Our club now has a record number of swimmers and we notice that the teenagers have relocated and staked their claim to the far corner – the little ones will still be able to find you there!

As usual, the night had highlights in the pool. Kristen McAree and Timothy Davison have moved up to the 200m I.M and have also qualified for the 200m Choice event. Daniel Davis has qualified for his first 25m event – in the Breaststroke! The Free and the Back are sure to soon follow. Conor Davis has kept it in the family by moving up to the 50m Free with a great swim out of lane 5.

Welcome to new members Jessica and Amanda Cox, and Matt, Ben and Aron Hunter, all of whom had their first swims tonight. It is great to be able to report that this evenings’ top 50m free heat had all sub 30 swims. Alex Cox won this heat in a 28.25 which is a PB swim.

Tonights’ other PB’s include Rachel Mulhane (50m Breast), Andrew Kennedy (100m Breast),

Ryan Kishawi (100m Free), Becky Davison (50m Breast and 100m I.M), Bree-Ellyn Davison (50m Free, 50m Breast and 100m I.M) and Kristen McAree (100m I.M).

A special mention for Justin Riley who is awaiting further X-Rays to help determine the nature of an arm injury. Justin continues to train – lots and lots of kicking – and competed tonight. We all hope you recover soon.

And finally, good luck to all 51 swimmers who will be attending Winter District on 1^st June at NSW Uni. This is by far the most swimmers we have ever sent to a meet and we hope you all have fun, swim lots of PB’s and encourage each other all the way!

Our next meeting will be held on 26^th May. Please let a Committee member know if you would like any matters raised at the meeting. Good luck to Larry King, Gail Brennan, Chris Harden, Mick Cullen and David Eggins who will be sitting their Technical Officials exams on Monday night.

16^th May 2003

What a great turnout on such a miserable night. The season is into it’s third week and the registrations are still coming in and keeping Sue busy! Tomas was active through the night encouraging as many swimmers as possible to attend the St George Sutherland Winter District meet at NSW Uni on Sunday afternoon 1^st June. At present we have over 40 swimmers attending so there will certainly be a lot of support on pool deck. A request to parents - all clubs are required to provide timekeepers at this meet so please be prepared to take your turn.

Tonight in the pool we had some great swims. Congratulations to Tim Davison who did 3 PB’s. Carly Murray swam a great 50m Free and Matt Spence broke the magical 3 minute barrier in his 200 IM. Josh Flecknoe has qualified to go up to the 50m Fly. William Budd, Hannah Facey and Alex Cox swam Freestyle PB’s and Conor Davis swam his first 50m race at club in the 50m back and had a fantastic swim!

The Kiama club are holding a meet on the long weekend in June and some of our more intrepid explorer types are planning to make a weekend of it. If anyone is interested please see Helena and we may get enough to submit some relay entries.

A notice has been placed on the board showing swim meets for June.

9^th May 2003

What a great night of swimming for our second night of winter club! We were pleased that we managed to finish by 8.20 even though we were still taking lots of registrations and had another great batch of visiting swimmers. It’s great to see some old faces come back for the winter season. The swimmers seem to be having a good time together which is the most important thing of all. Also, it was great to have parents come up and take timekeeper boards without being asked. A special thankyou to Kathy Hooper who offered to timekeep on only her second night at club.

A reminder that the technical official courses will be held at Port Hacking High on Monday 12^th at 7.30pm. Thankyou to those parents who are attending. If there is anyone who still hasn’t received an application form for the Development camp please contact Helena or Tomas either in person at the pool or via sthcronulla@hotmail.com.

Once again there were some great swims on the night. John Eggins and Becky Davison, who are both new to our club, had great 50m Breaststrokes in lane 1 and Matt Harden did a major PB in his 100m Free. Congratulations to Brigitta Schyns who shaved another .1 off her existing 11 year old 50m Breaststroke record.

A reminder to have a look at the notice board and get your entries in for the Winter District Championships to be held on 1^st June at NSW Uni.

4^th May 2003 – Swimwest Meet

9 of our swimmers made the journey out to Windsor to attend this meet. From the sea to the mountains and back again! It was a very long day but it was worth the trip. Our swimmers came away with 16 individual medals, 2 relay placings and lots of PB’s which was great for this early in the season.

Gold medals were won by Rebecca (7 yr 50m Breast PB), Andrew (10 yr 100m Breast), Jack (10 yr 50m Breast), Sean (10 yr 50m Free) and Matt (10 yr 50m Fly). The highlight of the day was the 9-10 4x50 Free relay. Andrew, Barbara, Matt and Sean swam alongside the Maroubra team. It was a great race from both teams and had all the parents enthralled. We chased Maroubra the whole way and the only time we drew in front was right at the finish! There you go guys, it just proves that “it ain’t over till it’s over” so remember that the next time you think the opposition is just too strong.

Also, we would like to add that it was great when we saw you shaking hands with the other competitors. Keep up the good work, both in and out of the pool!

2^nd May 2003

Our Winter 2003 season commenced last night and everything went as smoothly as possible when you consider that it was Registration night as well! We had 15 visiting swimmers on the night so we hope they will come again.

Thank you to the parents who swung back into action and made the night run so smoothly. A special thank you to Tony Sharp who had to go on a search mission to find our stopwatches and clip boards and to Debbie and the two Sues for running the desks with a minimum of chaos. Than you also to Julie Davis for our newsletter which was prepared on very short notice.

The District Development camp nomination form is on the notice board so please have a look and see me if you are interested.

The St George Sutherland District Winter meet will be held on Sun 1^st June at NSW Uni so please keep that date free as we would like as many as possible to attend.