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May 2005

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Story of The Month

Sharks and Starfish are recovering from a evening of celebration after receiving medals and certificates for their recent club gala and progress in class. Eating and disco dancing went on til late. Sunday session attendance was said to be down.

Story of The Month

Swimming and diving clubs warn they may quit town when the new £20million Eltham Centre opens in the Autumn of 2007.
Criticisms of the spec include:

Competitive users of the 25m pool argue for a flagship 50m pool for a 2012 Olympic host borough.

Sub-aqua groups say that the deepest water of 2 metres will be inadequate.

Teaching in the small training pool will be difficult with a beach style slope on one side.

Full story in The Mercury.

Story of The Month

Your reporter has discovered that some members of staff have recently been working for other less reputable organisations and seeing an opportunity to modernise our presentation evening have swapped the clubs entire collection of championship trophies. It will mean less polishing said one of the ringleaders from his grotto.

Story of The Month

Your reporter on hearing stories of the painfully large amounts of turkey, plum pudding, mincepies, sweets and alcohol consumed over the Christmas holidays invites you to investigate the best activity to set right your over indulgence and plan some Post-Christmas-Calorie-Burning
and fitness training.

Story of The Month

On Sat 14th Jan at The John Roan School we held our presentation evening. Trophies for the club championship events, held last November, were presented by the deputy mayor. There followed a swift eradication of an extensive buffet and we fastened our seat belts for the wall of sound from the disco. Club members danced a sort of group hug for most of the evening probably protecting each other from the bombarding decibels.
A fun evening.

Story of The Month

With a hosepipe ban in force and reservoirs at their lowest April level for 10 years it's a distressing time for the water enthusiast - swimmers love their water and don't like to be too far from it.... and so it was on Sunday 23rd April, when 30 club members and waterlogged parents got to satisfy their cravings and get an extra close view of the London Marathon as they manned the water station at the 6 mile marker outside Arches Leisure Centre from 7.30am til 11.30am.

Story of The Month

Last weekend saw some 80 eager club members casting their votes to elect team captains for the coming year. In unrivalled scenes of recent times returning officer Liz Pinney had her work cut out controlling scuffles to reach the ballot box in the voting lobby. At the count Alice Winter and Emma Preston emerged with most votes in a close fought contest. Well done to all candidates for putting themselves forward and making an exciting contest - Katie Oelman, Tom Hoctor, Anna Fitzsimmonds and Josh Newton.

Story of The Month

Last weekend quantities of organic burgers were consumed at the clubs annual BBQ. Football, tennis and rain threatened but hundreds of club members and their families enjoyed a relaxing Sunday afternoon in a secluded field. Live music from members included a Mexican quartet, underground rock, solos on trumpet,horn and penny whistle, and a flute duet. The 70 strong aquatic relay race, ran alongside fancy dress rabbits and fairies whilst luxury prizes were won in a fishy postcard competition and raffle.

Story of The Month

Some fantastic race performances from GSC swimmer Craig Jackson has been a just reward for all his hard work and dedicated training in the pool this year.
Craig came 3rd in the Junior Open Water International 3km race held at the Royal Albert Docks in June trailing the second swimmer by just two seconds.
Then during early August Craig achieved a 4th place in the 3km swim at the ASA Youth & National Championships at Sheffield. This placed him as top junior and best in his age group. Congratulations Craig.

Story of The Month

Drama at the Palace
On Thursday at Crystal Palace a Saxon Crown swimmer training with our swimmers, stopped suddenly in midpool.
“Swim” shouted Simon.
“Can’t” spake the boy unaware that Simon was in the army. “Swim or get out”, encouraged Simon jumping up and down on poolside. “My finger's stuck” the boy had managed to poke his finger into the lane rope whilst reaching out on front crawl!!
The lifeguard was called over. The offending finger was pushed, pulled, twisted and sworn at. The lifeguard got into the water! Swimmers were evacuated from the lane and the lane rope reeled in with the young boy still attached, aided and pushed by Anna.
Finding a sharp implement the lifeguard managed to cut the boy free fortunately not by amputation.
Simon’s only words were
“Now swim”

Story of The Month

Well done to all swimmers who came and made our club championships a successful and enjoyable day at Eltham Pool on Sunday 5thNov especially to those for whom this was their very first gala: we hope you’ve got the bug and felt the thrill of being in a swimming race! 20 officials guided 60 swimmers to compete in 70 events to win 54 trophies over 5 hours. Several longstanding championship records were broken and many personal best times improved. A very special thanks to Sue Winter, the club championships mastermind, for her meticulous planning, careful co-ordination, and breathtaking energy in bringing the event to life. Trophies will be awarded at the presentation evening in January.

Committee Farewells.
Jill Hangartner is leaving the committee after 8 years. She has been both treasurer and membership secretary and for a time both together! She is a regular gala announcer and again this year hosted our January presentation evening. In the difficult times when there was only one volunteer club coach Jill and the committee of that time kept the club running. Sue Williams for a long time was our only qualified Judge officiating at galas most weekends! She will still be seen in her whites at galas representing GSC. Retiring treasurer Mick Armson despite spending a relatively short time on the committee has overhauled the books and reorganised and simplified the treasurers job for the club.
Thank you all for your commitment and many hours of hard work for the club.

Regional Championships.
What a great weekend of swimming for our small club at The London Regional Youth Championships held at Crystal Palace over 5th May weekend when nine GSC swimmers qualified for entry. Notably Nicola Oelman(50 Fly), Dominic Norton(50 Back) and Craig Jackson(200 Fly) became Regional Champions.
Mark Preston became the clubs first 'home grown' National swimmer as he recorded a National qualifying time in the 50m freestyle.
Further good performances from Chris Oelman, Charlie Carter, Can Ozkutan and Joe Fitzsimmonds gave us an overall result of 4 swimmers on the podium at Regional level, 8 Finalist and 6 Club records.
Report

A fantastic turnout for the clubs youngest swimmers and their families at the Starfish and Sharks annual party. The evening began with presentation of the Sharks trophy cups and medals for 1st 3 finalists in the 2007 Sharks gala. All swimmers received a certificate with their swim times recorded. The younger Starfish looked on dreaming of their chance to win a cup in the future. Buffet and dancing continued deep into the evening.