News from Doncaster's Clubs, 2008

The Stories behind the Headlines (from Doncaster's Clubs)

World Transplant Games -- Australia 2009

21 Dec Ben Pacey, a swimmer taught at Edlington Swimming Club from the age of 5 years old has been invited to swim for the United Kingdom Transplant team in the World Transplant Games to be held in Australia 2009.

You are probably wondering what the World Transplant Games are. Well it's kind of like the Olympics for people that have had a transplant organ/bone marrow. In Ben's case it was a bone marrow transplant. He was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia when he was 17, he was told that without a bone marrow transplant he would possibly only have 5 years to live. Ben had the most rigorous of treatments, he had total body irradiation. This is a week of chemotherapy followed by a week of radiotherapy and then more chemotherapy followed by the bone marrow infusion, and finally 8 weeks in total isolation. If he had caught so much as a common cold during this treatment it would probably have killed him.

It is now 3 years since Ben had his transplant and he is doing well. On one of his check-ups with his Consultant he was asked to represent Sheffield at the Transplant Games held at Ponds Forge. He swum 50 metres Backstroke and won a gold medal and was only a couple of seconds off the world record for these games. He is now part of the United Kingdom Transplant team. However, he has to raise the funds to be able to compete. It is truly an honour to be able to raise awareness of organ donations and transplants in this way. Ben is living proof that transplants save lives, as are all the other competitors taking part in these games.

We would like to invite you to pledge a donation for Ben via Diane Jeavons Secretary to Edlington ASC, Telephone 01302 859967.

Earlier this month we sent Coach Wallace to interview Ben Pacey who was also a member of the GB Water Polo squad at the time he was diagnosed.

Mega Performance from RASCALS -- Really Raising the Roof

7 Dec Picture this for commitment: six o'clock in the morning - the morning after the Annual Presentation Evening - cold and tired. This is what our brave swimmers faced on Sunday 7th December - but they did not shirk their responsibilities, they did not let down the club and they did perform like stars.

The swimmers involved were from all age groups: Jason, Andy, Jacob, Joshua, Isaac and Adam represented the boys, with Shannon, Chelsea, Farrah, Sasha, Jessica Gillatt (Ros), Lauren Pendlebury, Rebecca and Katie representing the girls. This was a strong team and although nervous all have high hopes of more personal bests and maybe some medals.

Once everyone was settled down at the poolside it was apparent that the swimmers meant business and they went about the warm up with Andy, Jason and Becky leading the way - Sandra and I didn't have to do much apart admiring their technique.

The first race was a sight for sore eyes: Andy (having no recorded 200m IM time) was swimming alongside Joshua and Isaac (after much grumbling about the embarrassment and the rest of the team ribbing him that he was going to come second or third behind his team mates!) Obviously it was not that close but Andy did steam off like he had a point to prove and didn't want Joshua or Isaac to be in touching distance at the end of the first length.

The 200m IM times across the board were exceptional with up to 47 seconds being knocked off personal bests and four of our swimmers winning their age group (Joshua, Jacob, Adam and Sasha) - this was a sign of things to come.

For most swimmers this was their first all day event but they were not overawed by the experience and the training and commitment that they have shown this year came to the fore with personal bests being a regular occurence as well as positions on the 'podium'. The way that the event was laid out made it possible to swim many races whilst still turning out great swims - this comes down to the great organisation from DARTES and for this they should be commended.

The results of the events speak for themselves and I for one am proud of each and every one of the swimmers who got on with the job without batting an eyelid - once there was a realisation that some of them were in line for best boy / girl it seemed to spur them on to further success. It didn't come as a surprise that at the half way point Rossington Swimming Club were in second place overall and we were swimming against fifteen other clubs that included Rotherham Metro.

The morning session finished and it was time for lunch - what was great about this was the way that the kids stuck together, had a (moderately) sensible meal and joined up with Dartes star and Rossington team mate Heidi Smith (Ros) for team photographs. Heidi and parents Helen and Chris were doing a fine job of helping to run the event.

The afternoon started where the morning finished with the 200m IM, this time for the girls, and it seemed like we had taken over the event when we had a heat all to ourselves - Chelsea, Lauren and Sasha swimming together; the team and families must have been as exhausted as the swimmers at the end of the race, I for one was hoarse!

Time flew by and once Rebecca had finished her 100m Butterfly the troops wearily left poolside, amassing more cups than my mug tree can handle, picking up speeding tickets (a real treat showing you that you had moved up a grade) as well as collecting age group champion awards. The three age group winners were:

Sasha Gaskell	Girls 12 years
Adam Kendrick	Boys 14 years
	Girls 15+

I cannot finish this article without congratulating Andy Blacklock on achieving a personal best on his 100m Front Crawl. Along the way he picked up a speeding ticket! And as he turned at the last length (at 42 seconds) he looked set to break the one minute hoodoo which has haunted him for many a year. But alas it was not to be as an 18 second last length meant that he finished in 1:00.91 - one day Andy it will come, keep up the training :-)

All in all, this was a great event which was well run and our swimmers swam out of their skins - bring on the next event.

The tale of the tape was that Rossington Amateur Swimming Club came second overall behind Rotherham Metro with 274.5 points. There were 44 personal bests. We had three age group champions. We had nineteen first places. I don’t think in our wildest dreams we could have expected any more.

Report by Clive Greenhalgh.

Dearne Valley DSE Success

1 Dec Dearne Valley Swimming Squad were back in action this weekend at the Disability Sport Events (DSE) National Short Course Swimming Championships. Swimmers Andrew Gould, Chloe Selman, Natasha Oates, George Gray and Laurence Whiteley worked hard and achieved some great performances.

Andrew Gould came 3rd in the 50m Fly securing a Bronze; Natasha Oates also came 3rd in the 50m Breaststroke securing herself a well earned Bronze. Young Mencap G.B. swimmer Chloe Selman went up against some of GB's top swimmers securing a Bronze in the 100m Freestyle and Gold in the 200IM.

All 5 swimmers will also be representing Dearne Valley in the DSE National Junior Championships 2009 at Ponds forge in March. In addition, Chloe and Andrew have also qualified for the British International Disability Swimming Championships to be held in May 2009.

Pictured right: Chloe with good friend Elenor Simmonds, the youngest paralympian to win a Gold medal.

Report by Karen Selman, Dearne Valley Head Coach and Yorkshire Disability Team Manager.

Dinsdale Div 1: Spa vs Edlington

15 Nov Today's local Dinsdale League encounter saw Spa Askern play hosts to Edlington. This had been billed as the battle of the Dartes coaches (by Andy at least), but Kevin refused to be involved in such childish games, and Dave clearly let Andy win (it wouldn't do to beat your head coach afterall).

In the end though it was a convincing win for Spa Askern.
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Thorne at Special Olympics

15 Nov Six Mencap swimmers from Thorne Tigers travelled to Harrogate for the Humber and Yorkshire Mencap Swimming Champs. They came home with 4 medals and 7 speeding tickets.

• Richard Waterhouse - 1 Gold
• Debby Goldspink - 1 Gold, 1 Speeding Ticket
• Liza Harrison - 1 Silver, 1 Speeding Ticket
• Ciaran Longton - 1 Bronze, 1 Speeding Ticket
• Ian Coates - 2 Speeding Tickets
• Brent Fullerton - 2 Speeding Ticket

These swimmers are being coached by Mark & Anne Harrison at Thorne.
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Dinsdale Div 2: Thorne vs Rossington

15 Nov A long overdue dunking for Head Coach Mark Harrison, signalled a hard fought victory over Rossington.

The gala was hard fought with both teams at times taking the lead but the increased performances of Thorne swimmers eventually showed through with Thorne winning this Div 2 Dinsdale Gala. Thorne 233 points, Rossington 222 points.

Well done to both teams.
A very pleasant and friendly gala.

Report from Mark Harrison, head coach of Thorne Tigers
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Pocklington Div 1: The Clincher!

9 Nov The previous encounter in the Pocklington Times League div 1 saw a weak Spa team hold off what was probably also a weak Wakefield team. Today saw no such thing. Spa's Battle Squad was out in force, and Wakefield were determined to fight it out to the very last minutes.

The question was: could Armthorpe step up and cause an upset in the final gala of the series?

As with all the Pocklington fixtures in division 1 this year, it's been heartening to see swimmers from both of Doncaster's clubs mingling and chatting on poolside. A large proportion of both teams train at Dartes, and the friendly rivalry enjoyed between them while wearing their club colours is fantastic to see.

It's also good to see so many ex-dartes oldies being dragged along to compete in open teams or help out on poolside. A lesson, if one were needed, that swimming really is a life long sport, and that Doncaster's swimming community never really looses it's old star athletes.

There were plenty of stars-to-be competing today though. Despite a rookie error by Elliot Trofimowicz (Spa), almost earning his team a take-over DQ after winning by a country mile, Spa looked to be walking away with things early on. But Wakefield were never far behind and managed to keep the heat on.

Despite struggling to stay with the leading teams, Armthorpe battled hard against Kingston upon Hull in an attempt to avoid relegation. Sophie Taylor (Arm) gave her usual breastroke masterclass, and Danniel Warrener (Arm) demonstrated his Freestyle form by overhauling Niall Wainwright (Spa) in the final few metres.

But Armthorpe had another trick up their sleave too. Hiding away by Ennerdale's shallow pool was an ex-Dartes swimmer who took the US collegiate system by storm earlier this decade. Dave Holmes (Arm) was given the dubious honour of swimming the events Danny turned down, and gave a perfect demonstration of what spending a few years training for NCAAs does for your swimming. Or for those in the know, a perfect demonstration of the effect a lack of training since returning from the states can have on your winning margin!

Either way, it was only enough to overhaul Hull on the day, leaving them 2 league points adrift in 5th place with relegation heading their way. However, rumour has it that a team might be pulling out of the top division of the Pocklington Times League. Armthorpe might yet avoid the drop.

At the other end of the points table, Spa were still forging ahead. A big backstroke win by Shannon Dodson (Spa) and Butterfly victories by Katie Lindop (Spa) and Katie Johnson (Spa) helped earn the reigning champions a healthy buffer heading into their weaker freestyle teams. But with a rampaging Wakefield determined to catch up these were nervous times.

In the end though Spa needn't have worried, coming home a good 20 points clear. The shiny trophy is destined to spend another year on a mantelpiece near Askern.

By a weird quirk of fate, there's also a YouTube Channel entitled BigDaveHolmesSwim containing a few poor quality videos from the American NCAAs.
- BigDaveHolmesSwim YouTube Channel
It may or may not be the man himself, you decide.

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Top Club For Armthorpe

19 Oct It seems like an age ago today, but back in May, Armthorpe were the dominant club at the Dartes B grade and swum away with the top club prize.

Photographer to the stars, Jim Cook, had already snapped the Dartes squad earlier that morning and we kept him hanging around to record Armthorpe's long awaited presentation too.

The shield for the top club was presented to Armthorpe's Claire Angell by Tickhill and District Lions Welfare Club president Martin Harper, accompanied by chairman Roger Glanville.

Representing Dartes was club chairman Chris Hirst.

Congratulations Armthorpe, another shiny shield for your trophey cabinet.

Congratulations Spa Askern

I originally removed this article at the request of Spa Askern's coach Kevin Nicholas when it appeared that it had upset a lot of people. Kevin, I hasten to add, had absolutely nothing to do with writing it. Then a number of individuals who should know better, started making a song and dance about it, resulting in a highly insulting and abusive blog appearing aimed at the coaching staff of Dartes.

So rather than let the article get changed by various parties into something it wasn't, I've had to re-publish it here. I don't consider it to be remotely controversial or even worthy of a second read, but I'll let you make up your own minds.

Read on ...

Clarification on the Following Article

I accept that I might have abused the results from the Mets to send a personal message and I probably also abused my role as webmaster in publishing it. I would like to explain my reasons for doing so, and assure everyone that the article was not intended to cause offence to anyone.

My loyalties are directed purely towards developing a top class swim scheme throughout the Doncaster borough. If my comments seemed overly enthusiastic, it's almost certainly due to the frustration inherent in making that happen. Over the years I've been a member of the now defunct Doncaster ASC, in addition to Armthorpe ASC, Edlington ASC, and now finally Spa Askern. I honestly have no loyalty towards any individual club, and Spa's success this month, despite being a Spa member, actually means very little to me. The article was certainly not intended as a personal ego boost as I had absolutely nothing to do with Spa's success.

I wrote the article to highlight an important issue that I feel is pertinent to the future success of Doncaster Swimming as a whole.

I personally believe that Spa Askern is the only club promoting the pathway through to Dartes effectively (the numbers speak for themselves) while continuing to support their Dartes swimmers and include them in club activities throughout their career. The purpose of the article was to highlight this single aspect of that club's success, and also encourage the other clubs to more effectively promote those pathways within their own club programme (as Swim21 recommends) to the benefit of their own swimmers.

I strongly dislike the prominence of any one single club within Dartes. I consider it to be extremely unhealthy for competitive swimming in Doncaster. I would be delighted for 4 or 5 of Doncaster's clubs to match Spa's high membership level by developing those same pathways for themselves. I would be over the moon if that was accompanied by coaches from those clubs to help move Doncaster's training scheme forward. A Doncaster Scheme actively promoted by all of Doncaster's clubs for all of Doncaster's swimmers with the ambition to progress to that level. That afterall, is what Dartes is intended to be, and it's what everyone at Dartes wants it to be. No one at Dartes is here for an ego boost, all of us are here to promote top class swimming in Doncaster and provide bigger and better opportunities for the swimmers of this town.

In no way was the article intended as an advert for Spa Askern, nor did I intend to steal their moment of glory to heap praise on the Dartes scheme. I hadn't intended to offend anyone, and re-reading the article I see no reason why it should. It was merely intended as a gentle nudge in the ribs while congratulating Spa on their success.

However, I do need to point out that Dartes' Saturday morning development squad, which is now being run by Spa Head Coach Kevin Nicholas, was originally set up and run on behalf of the DMASA and Dartes by Jeff Buxton and Adwick's Head Coach Mick Nicholson. A big thank you to them both.

In regard to the speed in which the article appeared following the Mets, I have every intention of publishing with similar speed any article Doncaster's clubs wish to submit following success of their own. Subject of course to sensible rules as to their content.

Again, my apologies for any offence the article inadvertently caused and any trouble it might have caused for the officials at Spa Askern. Neither reaction was my intention.
Dave Cuthbert

The Article

19 Oct: The 2nd and final day of the DMASA 'MET' Championships sees Spa Askern crowned kings of Doncaster with 401 points. Doncaster's big clubs, Armthorpe and Adwick, take 2nd and 3rd with 392 points and 299 points respectively. The full official points table reads as follows:

• 401 Spa Askern
• 392 Armthorpe
• 299 Adwick
• 221 South Axholm
• 128 Thorne
• 81 Edlington
• 63 Rossington
• 37 Dearne Vall
• 26 Don Valley

Considering Spa are reigning champions of the Pocklington Times League, you could be forgiven for thinking this result was always the likely outcome. However, there's more to it than that, and it's about time that the rest of Doncaster Swimming started paying attention.

Not only have Spa come top at the METs, but with a membership only in the high 90s, they're also one of Doncaster's smaller clubs. Their victory here today wasn't based on picking up points for 4th, 5th, and 6th place finishes. It was all to do with challenging for medals, and in many cases winning races!

As the following table illustrates, the quality of the swimming from Spa was head and shoulders above everyone else. 10 more Gold medal performances than any other club, and more Silver medals than the Golds won by the 2nd placed club, Armthorpe. Note also, these championships are not scored in the manner of the medal table below, but on a decending points system. Winning Gold (6pts) earns the same as coming 4th (3pts), 5th (2pts), and 6th (1pt) combined. Thus, the scoring system favors bigger teams, another obstacle overcome by Spa Askern.

A dominant win for Spa and with a club membership of less than 100 - a monumental achievement!

Club	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
Spa Askern	32	19	11	16	7	8
Adwick	22	10	12	11	14	8
Armthorpe	12	23	21	25	16	14
South Axholm	4	12	15	11	17	10
Thorne	4	6	12	2	8	4
Rossington	4	6	3	3
Edlington	1	3	6	8	4	4
Don Valley	2	3	3	3
Dearne Vall	1	1	1	4	3	4

What follows should not take away from Spa's achievements here this afternoon. In fact, it speaks volumes for the club's philosophy and the dedicated, selfless attitude of their coaches and club officials in their relentless quest to get the best for their swimmers.

As a rough guide, around 20% of Spa's membership is also training at Dartes and competing in top class competition against the best in the country; no other club comes close to that figure! Over the past decade, Spa has contributed as much to the day to day coaching of the Dartes programme as all the other clubs combined. That is set to continue, with Spa coaches Dave Cuthbert (Age Group Squad coach) and Kevin Nicholas (Development Squad coach) working along side Head Coach Andrew Wallace to provide the very best opportunities for all of Doncaster's swimmers. Coaches from the other clubs are more than welcome, but in recent years, very few have come forward (a huge thank you to those few that have).

For those who aren't aware, it's probably worth mentioning that Dartes is not a separate club. We're not trying to steal swimmers from anyone. Every single swimmer training at Dartes is also a member of one of Doncaster's clubs. They compete for those clubs in local leagues, then compete for Dartes, representing the whole of Doncaster, at County level and above. We are the town's training scheme with a full-time professional coach and sports science graduate leading the way, and a part-time assistant coach thrown into the mix for good measure. Beyond that, all our resources are provided by the DMASA and Doncaster's clubs.

Dartes belongs to the DMASA and through that, to each and every one of the competing clubs here today. Spa Askern understand that association, and has been supporting the Dartes programme to the hilt for a number of years (we're very grateful to Kevin Nicholas, Mick Gartside and the rest of the Spa team for their support). Last year their commitment helped them win division 1 of the Pocklington Times League; no other Doncaster club was even in division 1! Today they've won the DMASA 'MET' Championships.

Here at Dartes we're proud to have Spa's head coach, Kevin Nicholas, heading up our new development squad. His proven track record of producing top swimming talent completes the Dartes programme by filling the missing link in the chain. It's now time for all of Doncaster's clubs to start putting their young athletes first and support the Dartes programme again. Not just paying lip service to it, but actually doing it!

By working together as Dartes, Doncaster Swimming can reclaim its place as a swimming powerhouse, not just in Yorkshire, but at National level too. We've done it before, Doncaster can do it again!

Dartes is, and can only ever be, as successful as Doncaster's clubs make it. Encourage your club to support Dartes in the same way that Spa Askern do, and see how big a difference it will make to all our fortunes.

Congratulations Spa Askern, all your swimmers, coaches, and club officials. A very well deserved victory, and just reward for all your hard work.

Dartes Stars Shine Brightly at Mets

05 Oct: Doncaster's finest were out in force and racing for their clubs this afternoon with the usual suspects demonstrating their class.

Fresh from her two 4th place finishes at Nationals at the end of last season, Sophie Taylor (Arm) swam a relatively easy pair of 100m Br to annihilate the opposition and break the championship record in the heat, and again in the final. It was a masterclass of powerful Br that Doncaster's young swimmers should look to emulate.

More dominating performances kept coming from the girls. Emma Humphreys (Ros) and Laura Hirst (Edl) got their season off to a flying start pushing each other to commanding leads in the 100 Fly and 100 IM. While the older girls Katie Lindop (Spa) and Cherelle McPherson (Adw) won in their age groups by a similar expanse of clear water.

Not to be out done by the girls, Max Litchfield (Spa) performed his trademark 15m starts to win the Bc by a mile and smash the championship record along the way. In the open age 200m IM, the top 3 boys finished almost a full 25m clear of the others. Dartes boys Daniel Warrener (Arm), Niall Wainwright (Spa), and former Dartes swimmer Chris Watson (SAS) taking the medals.

In an ominous sign of things to come, the young Dartes boys Joe Litchfield (Spa) and Jarvis Parkinson (Tho) took the honours in style, with Jarvis smashing the previous championship record in the 50m Fr.

But the hard work of those a little further down the swimming hierarchy is starting to show through too. Still inside his first full year in the Dartes programme, Martyn Rushton (Spa) continues to make massive improvements. Winning both his 100m IM and 100m Fly in convincing fashion and recording huge PBs along the way.

His sister Leah Rushton (Spa) also swam exceptionally well in the 100m Fly. Neck and neck with team mate (and reigning Yorkshire champion at 50m Bc) Shannon Dodson (Spa) until the last few metres. Leah recorded a huge PB and a well deserved Silver medal; Shannon took the Gold.

And then, almost at the end, Mr Inconsistency, the boy who's pacing is usually all over the place, hit an evenly split 100m Fly straight out of the text books. Jamie Clarke (Arm) swam a superbly paced race and suddenly found himself in the lead swimming into the final turn. The last 25m was strong enough to earn Gold by a convincing margin.

Overall, a strong performance by the Dartes athletes looking good in their clubs' caps for a change. A good warm up for the upcoming Yorkshire County Championships.

Spa vs Armthorpe; Round 2

27 Sep: Two weeks ago, reigning PL div 1 champs, Spa Askern, got their 2008 campaign off to a winning start. But that was without last year's runners up, KuHull. Hull narrowly won today, but Spa came a gallant 2nd. Our other team in Div 1, Armthorpe, also battled hard.
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Spa vs Armthorpe; Pocklington Showdown

12 Sep: Armthorpe's return to PL division 1 today saw them battling against Doncaster's reigning champions in this league, Spa Askern. With the absense of previous winners KuHull, Spa showed their class and a clean pair of heels to the opposition.
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