| 27 June | Help for White Dolphins required
Hobart High School, the home of Loddon White Dolphins, are trying to raise the funding to refurbish and improve the pool. It needs anyone in the Loddon area or beyond to fill out a questionaire to help the potential funding partners guage the level of community usage. To fill out a questionaire goto hobart high pool survey or type in http://hobarthigh.hobartpoolsurvey.sgizmo.com before the 12 of July PLEASE
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| 11 July | Kingfishers show strength in numbers
Although the night for once didn’t end in a win for the club it was a night that continued to show that the clubs progression is very much on track. The M&H Trophy gala gave Beccles the chance to field two teams. In the past it was a case of the A-team taking the wins with the B-team propping up the table. This time though it was a different storey and the club produced 2 teams that fielded mainly A-team swimmers along with a selection of swimmers looking to break into the A-squad.
The 2 teams ‘Beccles White and Beccles Green’ not only produced some good results against the then Trophy holders Aylsham and the formidable Great Yarmouth teams but also produced more great personal best times in the individual races.
In the 15/unders for the Green’s William Pye swam well to get 2nd in the Backstroke and Tom Guttridge knocked 9 seconds off his Freestyle time. For the girls Louise Shepherdson brought home 2nd in the Backstroke with team mate Phillippa getting 2 Pb’s in the Butterfly and Breaststroke. The 13/u boys saw Jacob Barber secure 2 new pb’s in the Butterfly and Breaststroke with the new A-team member Matthew Stokes knocking off 12 seconds in the Backstroke. Lucy Pye and Jenny Seaman got the team more points, Jenny getting 1st in the Butterfly and Lucy a Pb in the Breaststroke.
The White team secured 3rd place ahead of Aylsham with some great swims. In the Open age group Zanna Yallop picked up Pb’s in the 200 Freestyle and 100 Backstroke. Rachel Doran matched this with 2 Pb’s and 2-second places in the Butterfly and Breaststroke. Richard Clarke followed suit for the boys Open with 2 Pb’s in the Breaststroke and Freestyle and Robert Beaumont done the same in the Backstroke and Butterfly. Steven Kirby claimed 2nd in the 15/u Butterfly with McCauley Woodard gaining a new time in the Breaststroke.
In total 38 new times were recorded with some very close swims. The final results being
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| 10 July | Beccles Regatta Gala
The Beccles Town Swimming Club Regatta took place on Wednesday 2nd with good success and a great turn out of swimmers. This year the annual competition was sponsored by Goldline Travel and a total of 45 swimmers took part competing in three age groups. Robert Beaumont, piping last year’s winner Jonny Harrison at the finish with Russell Rookyard taking 3rd place, won the Men’s Open age group. For the girls Open Rachel Doran came in with a comfortable victory leaving Zanna Yallop (2nd) and Sarah Kirby (3rd) to battle it out for the final top 3 places. Luke Bailey returned back to Bungay Pool for the night to take the win in the boys 14 and under age group with Thomas Taylor taking second just ahead of William Pye in third. The girl’s 14/u saw the closest race with Jenny Seaman taking 1st place finish on one hundredth of a second ahead of second place Phillippa Doran. Ellen Nelson took 3rd and Sophie Podd 4th, all four swimmers finishing within a second of each other. The youngest age group the 11/u saw for the boys a good win for Charles Lees beating teammate Robert Thurtell who took second. Dalton Yallop completed the top three. For the girls Nina Bircham finish less than a second ahead of second place Jenny Beevor with Amy Howell finishing closely behind in 3rd.
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| 2 July | Kingfishers Top the Table
Following last weeks success a small squad of swimmers made the short trip to Leiston at the weekend to take part in the final round of the 2008 Summer League. The team were in no mood to sit back on a 50 point lead built up in the previous 2 rounds and put the tiredness of the trip to Ipswich behind them to take the Division 2 title by a massive 81 points. Clocking up 16 first places, 10 of them in individual swims and a further 6 in the relays showing how much of a close team the 2008 squad have become. It was the boys who just piped the girls to take the majority share of the team’s points. Lead by boys junior captain Jacob Barber doing Backstroke in the 13/under age group, who had the support from the promising duo of Thomas Taylor and William Pye. Thomas picking up 2 firsts in his Individual Medley and Breaststroke race followed by William gaining 2 thirds in the Butterfly and Freestyle. Charles Lees and Robert Thurtell swam up an age group in the 12/u. Charles getting a 1st place and a personal best in the Freestyle followed by a second in the Backstroke. Robert following suit with a Pb in the Butterfly and a 3rd place in the Breaststroke. The 11/u saw Matthew Hayward put in a strong swim in the Freestyle and Dalton Yallop pick up two 2nd places first in the Breaststroke with a pb and then in the Butterfly. In the Boys 10/u saw the talented trio of Josh Birch, Elliot Fenn and Matthew Seaman add to the boys 108 point total. Josh claiming a pb and 1st place in the Freestyle and 2nd in the backstroke, with Matthew taking on the Butterfly and Elliot getting a 3rd in the Breaststroke. The girls picked up a further 105 points for the team. Lead by Girls junior captain Louise Shepherdson in the 13/u Backstroke followed by her two age group teammates Sophie Podd who got 1st in the Breaststroke and Jenny Seaman doing the same in the Butterfly. Lucy Pye in the girls 12/u picked up more points in the Breaststroke and a 3rd in the Freestyle along with Sophie Bircham in the Butterfly and Eleanor Capps-Jenner in the Backstroke. As in the previous 2 rounds in was left to Nina Bircham and Jenny Beevor to take on the 11/u age group. Jenny collecting 2 pb’s in her Freestyle and Breaststroke and Nina gaining 2 second places in the Butterfly and Backstroke. The injured Eleanor Mcgrath went through the pain barrier to secure a 1st place in the Breaststroke for the 10/u with her team mate Felicity Putman getting a 1st place in the Freestyle. Just 6 days after winning in Ipswich the Kingfishers added to the year’s collection and became Summer League Division 2 champions. The final league positions being A special thank you from the team goes to the summer league team manager Nicky Taylor along with Brian Kirby, Julie Yallop, Dawn Shepherdson and Zanna Yallop for help the team along the way. With Goldline Travel supplying the team with transport to the Gala’s.
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| 26 June | BECCLES Town Swimming Club were crowned champions of the Suffolk Development Championships last weekend.
A team of over 60 swimmers went down to Ipswich for the weekend long event involving every competitive club in the county. What made the weekend even more amazing is that not only did the club take home the top club award with a staggering 1,235 points but they also scooped top boy and top girls awards too. Robert Thurtell brought back the top boys award followed by Sophie Podd for the girls with Rachel Doran taking second closely behind. It was a complete mix of ages that turned up ranging from the more senior of Ellie Clarke and Club Coach Tim Millett to the younger nine 9 year olds. Every swimmer took part in a mix of events and everyone played their part in and out of the pool to make sure Beccles returned successful. The talented nine year olds got the ball rolling in each event. The 12 team consisted of for the girls Melissa Bygrave, Imogen Long, Nina Howell, Tamara Spooner and Hannah Stokes. For the boys Josh Birch leading the way with an impressive 200m Fly followed by great swims from Elliot Fenn, Matthew Seaman, Sam Norton, Kieran Hayward, Thomas Hayward and Ross Barnshaw. All these swimmers along with the 10-year-old boys of Matthew Hayward and Eric Chapman were swimming in Ipswich for the first time and were not fazed by the surroundings. Also competing for the first time in Ipswich for the 10 year old girls were Hannah Barnes, Lauren Howe and Eleanor Boardman who did not look out of place along side their age team mates Eleanor McGrath, Felicity Putman and Elena Catchpole who used their experience to gain several top three places. Robert Thurtell's age group, the boys 11 years saw some impressive swims from Charles Lees, Dalton Yallop, Matthew Stokes and Regan Woodard. The girls 11 year age group was painted green with eight Kingfisher swimmers. Jenny Beevor lead the way getting fourth top girl followed by her team mates Nina Bircham, Amy Howell, Eleanor Capps-Jenner, Laura Podd, Bonnie Birch, Bethany Rogers and Elizabeth Byrne. For the 12-year-old girls the duo of Lucy Pye and Sophie Bircham kept the points tally going. Louise Shepherdson finish equal fourth top girl swimming in the 13 year olds with team mates Laura Catchpole, Eleanor Chick, Jenny Seaman, Charlotte Palmer and top girl Sophie Podd. For the Boys William Pye lead the points for the 13-year-old boys closely followed by Thomas Taylor with some strong distance swims and the ever improving pair of Jacob Barber and Macauley Woodard. It also set the stage for Lily Capps-Jenner to mark her come back into competitive swimming with a strong fly swim in the girls 14-year-old age group. Following her team mates Ellen Nelson and Fly champion Philippa Doran. Both giving the open swimmers a good run. A total of 14 swimmers from Beccles took part in the open age group, the likes of injured Jonny Harrison and Steven Kirby fighting through the pain barrier, Jonny collecting fifth top boy. Captains Robert Beaumont and Lindsey Sale put in great swims. Followed by for the girls Zanna Yallop, Rachel Doran, Ellie Clarke, Amber Bircham and Alice Jennison. The boys Richard Clarke, Alfie Chapman , Douglas Olley, Tim Millett, and Karl Palmer finished the line-up. An amazingly successful weekend for the club, with a big thanks to all those that helped along the way. Helen Clarke and Brian Kirby took on a lot of work in their spare time to make this happen. A big thank you also to the weekend helperd of Nckey Taylor, Sue Pye, Jamie Fenn, Mickey Cooke, Julie Yallop, Leslie Beevor, Jon Doran, Jackie Harrison and many more.
The top five teams of the weekend as follows: Well done all.
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| 23 June | Here are the results from the development championships, and the winners of the top boy, top girl awards.
Overall top boy, was Robert Thurtell (77pts), and Top girl was Sophie Podd (76pts), 2nd place Rachel Doran (71pts) Hope you enjoy the pictures, can you spot Regan's funny face! Final club results 1st Beccles........1235pts 2nd Low & O/B........625 3rd Team Ipswich........562 4th West Suffolk........542 5th Sudbury.........456 6th Stowmarket.........446 7th Deben........414 8th Newmarket........341 9th Mildenhall........330 10th Felixstowe.......297 11th Hadleigh.........232 12th St Felix.........176 13th Leiston..........149
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| 5 June | Strong 3rd For Kingfishers
On Saturday 31st Beccles Kingfishers Swimming Club took part in the Denis Kemp Trophy gala at Lowestoft. A gala held for the big guns of each swimming club competing over the sprint distance of 100m in all four strokes. As common of this time of year the school holidays had an impact on the team which took part meaning that a number of fringe swimmers had a chance to shine along with those who took on the challenge of swimming up an age group. This was the last chance for those taking part to get some competitive practice before a 2 week gap leading up to the big weekend competition in Ipswich on the 21st and 22nd June. Even with that weekend in mind the swimmers were in no mood to take their foot off the gas as out of 32 individual races 23 personal best times were recorded. An amazing effort considering most times were set only a month ago before this competition. It was the girls however who lead the way, most noticeably the pairing of Nina Bircham and Jenny Beevor who combined took three 1st places and a fourth. Nina getting a 1st and pb (personal best) in her Freestyle and Jenny a 1st in her Butterfly. The clubs only other first place came from the most senior girl in the team Lindsey Sale in her Freestyle after capturing a 3rd in the Breaststroke. Her open partner Rachel Doran gained a 3rd place and a pb in her Backstroke and a 3rd in the Butterfly. Not to be outdone her young sister Philippa Doran achieved an impressive 2nd place in the Freestyle after sealing a two seconds pb in the Butterfly. In the same age group Laura Catchpole swam well by getting 2 pb’s one in her Backstroke and the other along with a 3rd in the Breaststroke. Rounding things off for the girls Amber Bircham done the double by gaining 2 third places and 2 pb’s in her Breaststroke and Butterfly events. With Ellen Nelson following that up with a 3rd and a pb in the Backstroke and a 3rd in the Freestyle. For the boys a last minute call up for Lewis Taylor saw him achieved a 7 seconds pb in the Breaststroke while swimming up an age group. Likewise his brother Thomas Taylor also in the 15/unders who gained pb’s in the Butterfly and Backstroke. Jacob Barber swimming in the 13/u and 15/u age groups came away with a hat trick of pb’s in his Butterfly, Breaststroke and Freestyle events. The pairing of Dalton Yallop and Matthew Seaman in the youngest age group added to the nights pb list with them gaining 4 out of 4 possible pb’s. Dalton in his Breaststroke and then with his 2nd place in the Butterfly and Matthew in the Freestyle and Backstroke. In the men’s open the trio of Jonny Harrison, Robert Beaumont and Douglas Olley showed that they still have what it takes in their aging legs. Jonny bringing in 2 second places in his Backstroke and Freestyle despite carrying an injury. Robert and Douglas matched this with both gaining new pb’s, Robert in his Breaststroke along with a 2nd place and Douglas with a 3rd in the Butterfly. A strong gala with a good mix of teams. Ending what has been a very successful month. The results finishing.
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| 25 May |
New Sponsor
Beccles Kingfishers Swimming Club launched their new club sponsorship with a very successful gala at Hadleigh on Saturday. The launch of Goldline Travel of Beccles as the new club sponsor looks set to help bring more successful and exciting times at the club. Kingfishers and Goldline are looking to form a strong partnership and support the further growth of the club.
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| 17 Nov 07 | On Thursday for the first time in my career as a swimming official have I seen anyone attempt 800m BUTTERFLY but Douggie said he would give it a go. Everybody thought this might prove to be a bit out of his reach but watched intrigued as Douggie drew on his inner strength to complete his swim and become the hero of the night.
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| 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.
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| 20 Mar 2001 | This is when the first KINGFISHER WEBSITE appeared. Since then it has changed radically. |