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Braintree hosted the first round of the Junior Speedo league at the Braintree Swimming Centre; this competition is for the age range 9 years to 12 years.

The boys 12 and under medley relay team of Tom Mclagan, Lewis Birks, Luke Durban and Philip Hart took Braintree's first win of the afternoon. The 9 year old boys relay team of Elliot Birks, Daniel Mclagan, Ben Durban and Ben Lane took a fine second place in their freestyle relay, this was the same position earned by the girls 11 year old team of Sophie Howard, Louise Lazell, Harriet Bartram-Baird and Hannah Travell. Amy Lazell picked a PB and second place in her Freestyle swim, with Sophie Howard also getting second in her backstroke event.

Hannah Travell picked up the teams first individual win in her fly event in a new PB time, this started a good run of swims for the team with Orin Mann claiming second in the boys fly while Alice Hickmott took second place in the 12 years age group freestyle a position bettered by Luke Durban who took the win in the boys same age bracket in a new PB time. Isabella Salthouse swam a three second Pb in her 10 years fly event to claim second place, whilst Hannah Travell returned to claim her second win this time in her 11 years freestyle event. David Fryatt took second in the same stoke and age group event for the boys, whilst Abigail Hart then swam to victory in her fly event for the 9 year old girls. Orin Mann then took first place in his breaststroke event, while Alice Hickmott and Tom Mclagan both had second places in their 12 years backstroke events.

The girl's 9-year medley relay team of Holly Bristow, Jessica Bulleid, Abigail Hart and Amy Lazell had a second place this was matched by the boy's team of Durban, Birks, Mclagan and Lane for their second time. The eleven year old girls team from earlier returned for another second place swim, whilst the boys 12 year old squad also returned to claim another victory. The last race saw the cannon relay which consists of one boy and girl from each age group to swim alternate lengths, another second place was achieved to round out a consistent afternoon's swimming.

Final score Halstead 236, Braintree 191, Anaconda 183 Basildon 158, Eltham 150, Harlow 66

Braintree Swimming Centre Officially Openedl
Sponge Bob Proves a Hit

The Braintree Swimming Centre was officially opened by ex Braintree swimmer Giles Long MBE. The facility which is amongst the finest in the region and will be home to the Braintree Club.

The club was also presented with its' Swim 21 Certificate by Kevin Wray - East Region, Regional Director

Any questions please contact Steve.
(hall@braintreeswimming.co.uk or mob: (07894 140581))

For further information contact:
Steve Hall: hall@braintreeswimming.co.uk or mob: (07894 140581)
Janet Watkins: 01376 329289

The final weekend of the Essex County Championships saw several Braintree Swimmers once again make their way to Blackshots Pool at Thurrock in their attempts for more honours amongst the counties finest.

On Saturday Helen Mitchell competed in the Girls 12 years 1500 metres Freestyle event, she can be delighted with a Bronze medal for her efforts over the gruelling 60 lengths. For the Boys it was Luke Durban and Tom Mclagan in the 11years category and David Fryatt in the 10 years band, they were joined by Matthew Horne. The boys morning events saw the 200metre backstroke for the 10 and 11 age groups with David finishing just outside the medals in seventh, Tom finishing ninth while Luke finished in the medal places with a fourth all gaining new Pb times. Matthew Horne qualified for the 100m Breaststroke final.

In the afternoon David and Luke competing in their respective age groups in the 200metre fly, David swimming to a fine Pb and a fifth place whilst Luke again showed his consistent swimming throughout the championships with another top six medal place.

On sunday Helen Mitchell returned and was joined by Alice Hickmott and Hannah Travell. The morning event for the Girls was the 100metre freestyle, Hannah qualified for the Girls 11 year old final in fourth with a three second Pb in her heat, while in the 12 year group Alice can be pleased with a Pb from her swim whilst Helen was first reserve for the final missing out by an agonising 3 hundredths of a second on a final place. In the final Hannah showed her determination by improving her time and place yet again to swim a fine race and pick up a deserved Bronze medal.

The afternoon session started with the heats of the 100m backstroke Helen claimed herself another Pb while Hannah picked up a 3 second Pb and was third fastest going into the final of her 11 year age group, with Alice placing herself second fastest from the heats in the 12 years. The second event of the afternoon was the 200metre backstroke where again all 3 girls swam to Pb's Alice doing enough to gain a sixth place finish overall in her age bracket. And so to the finals of the 100metre back events and at the end of a long day the question was could Alice and Hannah raise their game for the finals. Up first was Hannah she got off to a blistering start and improved her heat time by over a second to earn herself a second Bronze on the day, she was followed up by Alice who also answered the question and swam a determined race to claim a fantastic Gold and improve her Pb by around a second from the heat time. The perfect end to this seasons County championships for the Club and it's swimmers, Gold in the final event.

The continued improvement by all involved saw a 12th place finish for the club, its highest for many years

The total medal count for the championships was 34 with, 5 Gold 3 Silver 10 Bronze and a further 16 fourth to sixth place finishes. Notable top ten BAGCAT finishes were achieved by; David Fryatt 6th 10 years Boys Luke Durban 2nd 11 years Boys Hannah Travell 5th 11 years Girls Alice Hickmott 4th 12 years Girls While Helen Mitchell, Tom Mclagan and Max Palmer Everson all finished just outside the top ten in their respective age groups.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OUR SWIMMERS

Nine swimmers from Braintree Swimming Club travelled to Southend on Easter Friday for the annual Open meet hosted by Southend swimming club to compete over 100 metres in the four stroke disciplines.

Elliot Birks can be pleased with his days swimming efforts picking up 4 Pb's from his four events whilst his older brother Lewis can also be pleased with his performance also picking up 4 Pb's, all in medal earning places the best of which were 2 fourth places finishes in his back and fly events.

Abigail Hart swam in 3 events and collected herself a full set of Pb's from her swims the highlight being a twelve second Pb in the freestyle, whilst her brother Philip also had 3 swims, he collected a full set of Pb's and 3 medal finishes with two third places in his free and fly events being the pick.

Sophie Howard competed in all 4 disciplines and had two Pb's with her best result being a sixth place medal finish in her freestyle event.

Isabella Salthouse swam to a fantastic 21 second pb in the fly event to earn herself a medal finish with a sixth place, whilst also achieving a massive pb in her back stroke event to enjoy her day. Emma Wilde was another who had 3 swims and can celebrate with a full house of Pb's.

The Lazell Sisters of Amy and Louise rounded out the Braintree Swimmers with Amy collecting 2 Pb's from her two swims in the back and free while Louise had a Pb in her breaststroke event.

Every swimmer achieved at least one personal best during the day with 24 of the 28 total swims being new best times a fine event from all the swimmers.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OUR SWIMMERS

The penultimate weekend of the County swimming championships saw more highly competitive swimming take place from Braintree swimmers with medals being won and lost by fractions of a second, in some of the closest swimming seen this championships. Luke Durban in the 11 years 400m Freestyle had himself a ding dong battle over the entire distance and was touched out by 2 hundredths of a second to collect Silver in a massive new PB time a fine effort from Luke, in the 10 years age group David Fryatt also earned himself a new PB and was also a medal winner collecting himself a Bronze and a club record, Tom Mclagan also competed in the 11 years and swam himself to a regional qualifying time, Max Palmer Everson completed the Boys entries gaining a final place in his 100m fly event where he achieved a Pb to finish 5th in the final and another medal place for Max, he also had a solid 200m Medley event and a top ten finish.

Hannah Travell in the 11years, Alice Hickmott and Helen Mitchell both in the 12 years were also in attendance all three girls swam the morning events of 100m Breaststroke and 200m Free, Hannah took nearly 5 seconds off her breaststroke time and improved her entry position, she also took over six seconds of her Freestyle time and missed out on a medal finish by just over a tenth of a second. Alice also swam a PB time in the Breaststroke and was a reserve finalist, she also improved her Freestyle time for a pair of PB's whilst Helen Mitchell had a top ten finish in the freestyle. Both the Girls returned for the afternoon in the 400m Medley both will be satisfied with good Pb's finishing 13th and 14th respectively.

Day two saw Hannah Travell, Alice Hickmott and Helen Mitchell return for their 100m Medley event both Alice and Hannah qualified for their respective age group finals in sixth with Helen again settling for a PB effort from her swim. The finals were again very close, Hannah improved her heat time by a second but was touched out of third into fourth place whilst Alice went one better and took Bronze. Max Palmer Everson had a tremendous swim in his 100m Freestyle going under a minute for the first time but missing the final by an agonising tenth of a second.

The afternoon session saw the boys in the shape of Luke Durban David Fryatt and Tom Mclagan return for their 200m Medley. First up was David who improved his entry position to collect his second Bronze medal of the weekend this was a theme that continued with Luke also improving his entry position and collect his second Silver of the weekend in yet another very close finish that was in the balance until the final 5 metres, Tom Mclagan rounded out the boys swimming with a PB and eighth place finish a good effort to move up the rankings by Tom.

The final event of the weekend was the Girls 400m Freestyle with Hannah Travell improving her lifetime best by 6 seconds and gain regional qualification, Grace Bauckham had her only swim of the weekend and improved her Pb whilst finishing one place out of the medals in seventh, Helen Mitchell swimming in the same heat also gained regional qualification and took home a 5th place finish to finish of another fine weekend for the swimmers and club.

Several of the clubs swimmers hold high ranking positions in their respective age groups and with one weekend left will look to consolidate or indeed improve their position they are David Fryatt 4th Boys 10 years, Hannah Travell 5th Girls 11years and Luke Durban 3rd Boys 11years.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OUR SWIMMERS

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OUR SWIMMERS

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OUR SWIMMERS

Achievement Awards:
Best Young Swimmer Girls- Verity Foster, Georgia Harrod
Best Young Swimmer Boys- Ben Durban
Sean Eveleigh Achievement Award - David fryatt

Saturday 12th January saw the annual Presentation Evening for Braintree & Bocking Swimming Club.

It has been a very successful year for the club & the competition for the awards reflected this.

Club Championship Awards:
Girls 8 & Under - Abigail Hart
Boys 8 & Under - Daniel McLagen
Girls 9-10 - Sophie Howard
Boys 9-10 - David Fryatt
Girls 11-12 - Helen Mitchell
Boys 11-12 - Luke Durban
Girls 13-14 _ Paige Dutton
Boys 13-14 - Max Palmer Everson
Girls 15-16 - Rachel Firth
Girls 16-17 - Rachel Farley

Stroke Trophies :
Girls 100m IM - Rachel Firth
Boys 100m IM - Adam Byford
Girls 100m Breaststroke- Rachel Firth
Boys 100m Breaststroke- Dan Messenger
Girls 100m Fly- Rachel Firth
Boys 100m Fly- Adam Byford
Girls 100m Back - Alice Hickmott
Boys 100m Back- Adam Byford
Girls 100m Free- Georgia Manning
Boys 100m free - Adam Byford

Braintree clinched promotion to division 1 after an exciting night of swimming at Bexleyheath.

It was a tremendous effort from the squad, with many swimmers having to swim in older age groups, notably Luke Durban and Alice Hickmott.

It was the younger swimmers who again caught the eye, with Hannah Travell, Roz Smith, Harriett Bartram-Baird & Helen Mitchell leading the way. Becky Booty had a memorable evening winning both her individual events in addition to both relays.

Thanks to to the senior swimmers who earned many valuable points..

Final positions:
Redhill & Reigate 314
Braintree & Bocking 238
Elmbridge Phoenix 236
Dorking 227
Bekenham 222
City of Canterbutry 198
Eltham Stingrays 184
Maidstone 174

The afternoon session produced more of the same, with the highlight being the girls 4x50 medley relay. Braintree went into the final in fifth place more than 2 seconds away from a medal. Alice Hickmott was first away setting a new PB for her 50m backstroke, Helen Mitchell took over and took a second off her breastroke time (which she had set in the heats) Grace Bauckham was magnificant on the fly leg putting the team in 4th position, it was down to Hannah Travell who also set a new PB as she claimed third place for the team.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OUR SWIMMERS

Funding For Braintree swimmer
Support from local businesses for David

Through the Braintree Supporting Sport Partnership local businesses have made a contribution to funding atheletes in the area who have the potential to reach national and possibly international level.

Braintree swimmer David Fryatt was one five local athletes who received their Braintree Supporting Sports Partnership Awards at the Sports Essex Awards Evening..

The improving Braintree swimmers recorded their first Speedo League win for a number of years when they triumphed at Beckenham. It is the depth of talent available that is making the difference and in this event it showed with a total of 11 1st places and 15 seconds.

Good swims from many, but the 11&U girls team of Roz Smith, Hannah Travell, Becky Booty and Sophie Howard deserve special mention, not just for winning both relay events, but the manner in which they did it.

Thanks to all at Rochester for hosting and to all those Braintree parents who helped.

Final positions:
Braintree & Bocking 313
Dorking 291.5
Olympos Marlins B 255
Hythe Aqua 218
Black Lion B 199
Barracudas 185
Sutton Atlantis 169
City Of Rochester 145

Braintree finished in 4th position(1 point behind 1st) after Round 2 and as such we have made the No1 Gala for round 3 with the possibility of promotion. Full league table here.

Round 3 draw has been made & the details are as follows:

Saturday 8th December - Venue TBA
Redhill & Reigate
Elmbridge Phoenix
Dorking
Braintree & Bocking
Beckenham ‘B’
Maidstone
City of Canterbury ‘B’
Eltham Stingrays

Keep this date free!

THE 2007 CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS

SPONSORED By BUSHCADE LTD at RIVERSIDE POOL - BRAINTREE

Sunday 11th November 2007 - WARM-UP 4.30pm - FIRST EVENT 5.00 pm

Thursday 15th November 2007 - WARM-UP 6.00pm - FIRST EVENT 6.30 pm

Saturday 17th November 2007 - WARM-UP 6.00pm - FIRST EVENT 6.30 p

Sunday 18th November 2007 - WARM-UP 4.30pm - FIRST EVENT 5.00 pm

Thursday 22nd November 2007m- WARM-UP 6.00pm - FIRST EVENT 6.30 pm

A full programme is available for download here.

IMPORTANT - There will be NO TRAINING on any of the above dates.

The following events are Time Trials only and do not count towards the Club Championships

200 Fly - Wednesday 21st November 2007 - WARM-UP 6.00am - Start 6.30 am
800 FC Saturday 22nd December WARM-UP 7.30am - Start 8.00am
400 IM Sunday 23rd December WARM-UP 4.30pm - Start 5.00 pm

400 FC TBA
1500 FC TBA

Congratulations to all our swimmers on an excellent round 1 at Bexleyheath. In a closely fought event Braintree came 2nd to Dorking. Building on the progress made last season Braintree continued their improvemet. There was some some great swimming and team spirit, plenty of PBs and a well deserved result.

It was the younger swimmers who provided the platform for the evening, winning many of the relay and individual events. The senior girls backed this up, with the highlight being the final relay event, Rachel Firth, Meagan Costin, Hayley Brown, Amy Shambrook and Shelley Wakeling gave Helen Mitchell the opportunity to hold off Dorking in an exciting finnish.

Thanks to all Dorking for hosting and to all those Braintree parents who helped.

Final positions:
Dorking 236
Braintree & Bocking 221
Canterbury B 181
Edenbridge Piranhas 136
Croydon Amphibians B 135
Erith & District B 121

All results & news from YEAR 2007 NATIONAL SPEEDO SWIMMING LEAGUE SOUTH can be found here

Round 2 draw has been made & the details are as follows:

Saturday 10th November - Warm Up 6:00 PM - Start 6:30 PM
Barracudas
Black Lion B
Braintree & Bocking
City of Rochester
Dorking
Hythe Aqua
Olympos Marlins B
Sutton Atlantis

All round 2 draws can be found here.

Congratulations to Alice
misses out on final by narrowest of margins.

Alice Hickmott travelled to Ponds Forge ISC, Sheffield to compete in the 100 & 200m backstroke events at the ASA National Age Group Championships. The best swimmers in the country were there and Alice showed no nerves as she set a new personal best time in the 100m backstroke and was unlucky to miss out by 1 position and 0.01s on a place in the final.

Head Coach Steve Hall summarised it by saying that this was a great experience for the club to see, first hand, just what is required to reach the next level. It serves to remind the us that there is no short cut to training. If you want to compete with the best you have to be thorough in your preparation and maintain focus throughout the season.

Full meet results can be found here.

Runnymede Summer Sprint Gala
Plenty of Medals

Four Braintree swimmers made the trip to Runnymede to compete in their annual Sprint Gala. The effort was well worthwhile, with Matthew Horne setting 3 PBs as he claimed a first and two third places. Philip Hart matched the number of PBs and won the backstroke, was second in the fly and sixth in freestyle. Joseph Parmenter set new PBs in the 100 and 50 freestyle events. Sophie Howard set new PBs and collected two medals in the 100 freestyle and 50 back.

Full meet results can be found here.

West Suffolk Open Meet
51 top 6 finishes, 30 of these in the top 3

The annual West Suffolk Open meet was a successful one for the contingent of Braintree swimmers who attended. The senior swimmers did particularly well, with Rachel Firth, Rachel Farley, Adam Byford & Josh Brand all picking up medals and good PBs. The Junior swimmers were not outshone. In total Braintree finished with a fantastic 51 top 6 finishes, 30 of these in the top 3. full results. Photo Gallery here.