NEWS

22 June	For the second year in a row Richard Clarke has come home as Top Boy at the Development Championships. What a STAR!
29 May	Jenny on form in pool JENNY Seaman of Beccles Town Kingfisher swimming club attended the 2010 British Gas East Region Youth Championships at the University Of East Anglia. Jenny had three swims during the weekend, 100m Butterfly, 50m Freestyle and 50m Butterfly. She revealed her skill in swimming during the weekend where she put 100 per cent effort and her natural ability for the strokes. Jenny has spent months of hard training to achieve her times for the regions. Jenny had to race against swimmers from Essex, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire Norfolk and Suffolk It was a great experience for Jenny and the coaching team of Beccles Kingfishers swimming club. The high light of the weekend was when Jenny swam her way into the final of the 50m Butterfly where she came eighth in the Eastern Region. She has lead the way for the swimming club by showing what can be achieved with limited time in the pool. The club trains Tuesday, Thursday and Friday evening with morning training on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays
22 May	Well done to Nina Bircham who has had her 100m back time accepted for the BAGCAT regionals in June. And good luck to those swimming today in round 2 of the summer league at Bungay - Everyone welcome to show their support. Also well done Jenny Seaman in coming 8th in her 50 fly in the regionals.
3 May 2010	Early boost for Kingfishers The Beccles Kingfishers Swimming Club began another season in the top flight of the County Summer League in encouraging fashion. After narrowly avoiding relegation last season, Beccles once more were fighting it out with the county's top teams in this year Summer League. Seen as one of the smaller clubs in the league, Beccles got off to a great start and sent a shock through the other teams taking part showing that they weren't looking to just make up the numbers in their third year of being in the top flight. The night got off to a great start as Jenny Beevor and Robert Thurtell kicked things off. The two more experienced swimmers put the pressure on from the off with strong swims in the boys and girls 100m individual medley. Jenny picked up a good second place which she later matched in her 100m freestyle and breaststroke events, as did Robert in his 100m breaststroke event. Jenny's team-mate Nina Bircham, another experienced swimmer, took maximum points with two first places in her 100m backstroke and butterfly races. To round off the 13 and under age group Dalton Yallop put in his best performance so far in his races getting two personal bests for 100m freestyle and backstroke. In the 12/u age group Rhianna James set the pace in the 50m butterfly event with another first place for the team and a great pb. Hannah Barnes secured two solid third places and a pb in her 50m backstroke race while for the boys Elliot Fenn, who was swimming up an age group, secured a third place in his 50m breaststroke race, with a further pb for Matthew Seaman in his 50m freestyle event. Elliot also took second and a great pb swimming breaststroke in his own 11/u age group. Melissa Bygrave joined the list of first places in the 50m breaststroke for the 11/u girls as did her team-mate Tamara Spooner in her 50m freestyle event followed by a strong second in her 50m butterfly race. Nina Howell and Josh Birch rounded off the great 11/u performances with a second (Nina) and third (Josh) place in their 50m backstroke events. Not to be outdone by the older swimmers the 10/u age group made sure they more than matched their team-mates' efforts. Katie Howell and Matthew Doran kicked things off with two great pbs each in 50m backstroke and freestyle. It was left to Sophie Thurtell and Henry Barnes to battle it out in their 50m butterfly and breaststroke races. Henry secured two second places and a pb in his breaststroke race and Sophie a third in her breaststroke event. Those great individual races along with some brilliant relay events really put the Beccles squad in the mix and at the end of the night's first round saw the club reach its highest position in the Summer League. The club will now go into round two sitting in an impressive second place in the league, showing how far they have come over the past few years following their promotion in 2008. It sets up an exciting round two gala, which Beccles will be hosting on May 22, at Bungay pool.
26 April	Summer League Round 1 1st.....211....Lowestoft & OB A 2nd....185....BECCLES 3rd....181....Stowmarket 4th.....162....Gt Yarmouth 5th.....143....Deben A
16 April	Relay marathon by Beccles swimmers FIFTY swimmers from Beccles Town Swimming Club completed a gruelling 24-hour relay at Bungay pool in aid of Sports Relief and also to help raise money towards a new club electronic timing system and scoreboard. The endurance relay was kicked off by Richard Clarke and Louise Shepherdson at 8pm last Tuesday with the 50 swimmers split into two teams and each swimmer completing an hour or half stint in the pool. Swimmers of all ages took part in the event from the under nine-year-olds of Max Beevor, Adam Seaman, Phoebe Chick and Alice Collyer to the more senior swimmers of Steven Kirby, Ellen Nelson, Zanna Yallop and Amber Bircham. The event also brought out the uni swimmers Rachel Doran, Ellie Clarke, Jonny Harrison, Douglas Olley and also Masters Jon Doran and Tim Millett. It was in fact the experienced heads of Jon and Tim, along with Amber, who managed to stay up and awake for the full 24 hours. It was the first time the club has put on this kind of event and proved to be a huge success with massive support from the swimmers and parents. It was the more youthful swimmers Nina Bircham, Jenny Beevor and also seniors Alex Eames-Bayton and Jenny Seaman who clocked up the most meters and broke the 4,000m barrier in their hour swims. In total the swimmers clocked up a massive 155,150 metres or 96 miles which is the same as crossing the channel over four times. The club would like to thank all the swimmers who took part and made the event possible, along with Waveney District Council for their support in putting on the event and the members of the public who supported the event.
24 Dec	Kingfishers end on a high This year with the help of Goldline Travel, Beccles Kingfishers Swimming Club took on a new level of competition for the club and entered into the National Swimming League for the first time. A great performance at Corby meant that Kingfishers finished another year with plenty of silverware, on a high, and looking forward to next season's National League. The competition was held over three rounds and gave the club a chance to visit teams further afield, with visits to Market Harborough and Corby, as well as coming up against national teams and international swimmers. The first outing was, however, a local visit to Thetford pool with the round draw including 20 other East Midlands teams, placing them against Thetford, Great Yarmouth, St Ives and Lincoln Vulcans. This round proved to be a big learning curve for the coaching team and also showed they are not a team to be taken lightly, finishing only four points behind fourth-placed Lincoln, with some impressive swimming. Most noteworthy was Will Pye, who notched up the club's first win in the competition, followed by another impressive swim from Jenny Beevor, who also gave the club its only other individual first place of the night. Round two saw the club take on some of the biggest teams in the league, as they were picked to make the long journey up to Market Harborough, where they came up against round one winners St Ives for the second time, along with City of Peterborough, Market Harborough and South Lincoln. Learning from the first round, a team of 32 made the trip up the A14 and secured five individual first places, with great swims from Robert Thurtell, Jenny Seaman, Alex Eames-Bayton and again William Pye. Also adding to the team were Zanna Yallop, Eleanor Chick, Dalton Yallop and Bonnie Birch, bringing extra depth in the relays. As a result, the team finished the night with 48 more points than they had in the first round. Results: St Ives 227, Peterborough 221, Market Harborough 187, Lincoln 183 and Beccles 172. For the last round, 20 changes were made to the team as they travelled to the new Corby International swimming pool. Another 30-strong team then set about taking on Corby, Newmarket, Daventry and Newport Pagnell. This time everything went to plan, with seven individual first places and seven relay first places. It was the girls who led the way, with strong swims from Louise Shepherdson, Rhianna James, Nina Bircham, Jenny Seaman and Ellen Nelson, all gaining new personal best times - followed by the boys with Ross Barnshaw, Robert Thurtell, Matthew Seaman, Dalton Yallop, Elliot Fenn and Richard Clarke. Again Bonnie Birch, Rhys Spencer, Dominic Harris and Matthew Doran brought extra depth in the relays, along with Philippa Doran, who produced two great finishes to secure the club two first places. There were also great swims from Nina Howell and William Pye in the backstroke, Steven Kirby, Tamara Spooner and Eleanor Veasy in the freestyle, Amber Bircham, Thomas Taylor, Melissa Bygrave and Sophie Podd in the breaststroke and Alex Eames-Bayton, Eleanor Mcgrath and Jacob Barber in the bufferfly. Beccles finished top on 220, with Corby close behind with 213, and Newmarket third on 203. An excellent display by Kingfishers who finish the year with another success and looking forward to next season's National League. If you are a keen swimmer and would like to know more about the joining a competitive club, then call Tim on 07727125427 or email tim.kingfishers@hotmail.com who will pass on details of trials to be held in early 2010.
24 Jan 2003	The Kingfishers are celebratng 100 years of teaching children to swim with special medals to mark the event and gold printed swimming hats given to all club members at the presention evening.
20 Mar 2001	This is when the first KINGFISHER WEBSITE appeared. Since then it has changed radically.