Articles by Dartes Swimmers Past and Present

Yorkshire Sprints and Team Championships, 2010

Introduction

It's been another excellent year at Yorkshires. The medal count continues to improve and the number of 4th places that need converting next year is sky high. Add to that the wonderful support of the Loud and Proud, all the new banners and organisation up on the balcony, how can we fail?

	2010	2009
Gold	19	18
Silver	17	16
Bronze	26	18
Total	62	52
Points	117	104

It's good to get the view of our parents once in a while though, and as Phil was clearly over the moon at his daughter's Yorkshire Gold medal who better to hand the short straw to.

It's a tough task this week as there was a lot of exciting action to report on, but we think he's done an outstanding job.

Date: 27 Mar 2010
Author: Philip Winter
Thanks to Pete Litchfield for the photos and Steve Dodson for the video.

View From a Very Noisy Balcony

Early starts for everyone and large queues at the door to Ponds Forge for this year's age group 50 metre sprints. After last year's performance there was an air of expectation, excitement and for the new swimmers, nervousness and trepidation. For the parents: 12 hours of finger biting was the order of the day in the normal 90 degree heat of Ponds Forge. Yet again the Loud and Proud put the other so called larger clubs to shame with their constant support of every DARTES swimmer to enter the arena.

First event was the 9 year old girls 50m Freestyle and the DARTES were well represented with 7 entrants: Tyler Dodson (Adw), Amber Hardy (Adw), Phoebe Winter (Adw), Laura Brookes (Edl), Lauren Heywood (Min), Ellisa Dawson (Drn), and the next member of the Litchfield clan Grace Litchfield (Min).

Everyone put in a great performance, some of the girls representing DARTES at a Meet for the first time, daunting at the best of times let alone the Yorkshires. Tyler, Amber and Phoebe all reached the final; first event and 3 red caps in the final - quality!

Next up the 10 year old girls. We had 4 in this one: Ashleigh Taylor (Adw), Finleigh Dukes (Tho), Chloe Bailey (Edl), and Olivia Fairhurst (Adw). Again, sterling performances against a great 10 year old field saw Ashleigh come in as first reserve for the final.

9 year old boys 50m Backstroke, or boy, as the sole swimmer was Callum Fielding (Arm) who put in a creditable swim to finish 14th. In the 10 year old boys we had 6 of our finest: Mark Beech (Spa), Joseph Gatus (Spa), Oswald Hood (Adw), Ben Long (Arm), Joshua Sellars (Ros), and Joshua Reasbeck (Edl). Mark and Joseph qualified with ease in 1st and 3rd respectively.

The 11 year old boys are always well represented and this year was no different with another 6. The usual suspects: Joe Litchfield (Spa) and Jarvis Parkinson (Tho), were well supported by Charlie Casson (Adw), Reece Fielding (Arm), Alex Pollard (Arm), and Owen Smith (Tho). Joe and Jarvis continued their great rivalry qualifying for the final supported by a great swim from Reece for another final containing 3 red caps.

Stronger than ever in the 11 year old girls with no fewer than 11 of our superstars. Chloe Hardy (Adw), Caragh Chambers-Hey (SAS), and Natasha Crow (SAS) all qualified for the final. Georgia Stephenson (Adw), Rebecca Jarvis (Spa), Niamh Cogley-Rock (Arm), Caitlin Fern (Ros), Lauren Pendlebury (Ros), Kathryn Shepherd (Adw), Morgan Macnulty (Arm), and Lauren Walker (Ros) also swam well in a huge field. 3 more red caps in a final.

Girls 12 year old back involved Shannon Dodson (Adw), Heidi Smith (Spa), Caitlin Dixon (Arm), and Jessica Gillat (SAS). All of whom qualified for the final which meant 4, yes 4, red caps in the final and a glimpse of what was to come in the teams. Those 4 were also supported by Bethany Reddy (Spa) and Emily Cartwright (Adw) swimming in her 1st Yorkshires, and both put in great performances.

There then followed a period of quiet tranquillity around the pool as we had 2 events with no DARTES swimmers. The peace and quiet was broken with the arrival of the 13 years boys Breaststroke contested by Oliver Richardson (Edl) and Luke Shpylka (SAS). Both swam well to finish 14th and 20th respectively. Up an age group were Elliot Trofimowicz (Spa) and Keegan Guest (Spa) with Elliot squeezing himself into the last spot for the final.

Girls 9 year old Breaststroke had the same girls as the 50 free but with 2 new girls swimming for DARTES for the first time: Chloe Key (Min) and Emily Morritt (Edl). Emily qualified for the final in 9th place with a great swim. Phoebe also qualified and claimed one of the centre lanes as 2nd fastest. 2 more in a final.

In the 10 year old version Ashleigh, Finleigh, Lilly Melcalf (Spa) and Kate Rhodes (Adw) all put in great swims but the 10 year old field was really strong.

In the boys 10 year old Butterfly Big Ben and Joseph both made the final leaving Josh as 2nd reserve. Oswald, Mark, and Jake Robinson (Tho) also put in strong swims but missed the final.

Our 11 year old super sprinters Joe and Jarvis were at it again, securing themselves adjacent lanes for the Fly final (fastest and 3rd). They were again supported by Charlie and Reece but this time Paul Hardy (Adw) and Alex Pollard (Arm) threw themselves into the mix as well.

11 year old girls were again strong with 8 representatives: Chloe, Natasha, Georgia, Morgan, Caragh, Morgan, Niamh, Rebecca, and Kathryn. The 12 year old DARTES girls swimming exhibition continued in the Fly. Jess, Caitlin and Shannon all reached the final with Heidi and Tonika Holdsworth (Spa) just missing out.

Again there was a brief intermission in the volume while the 2 events without DARTES swimmers took place. A chance for the coaching team to take a break.

The volume quickly shot back up again to help Luke secure 2nd place in the Boys 13 years Freestyle. Aaron Walker (Ros) continued his improvements with a pretty special 17th. Dale Marchbank (Arm), James Mullen (Arm), Stuart Wardle (Drn), and Oliver completing the effort. In the 14s Elliot came in 3rd with Keegan 14th.

So straight round into the finals.

The Girls 9 years Freestyle was something of a DARTES versus BoKirklees affair with both teams fielding 3 swimmers. They took the Gold, but Tyler was close behind for the Silver. Amber finished in 5th and Phoebe in 8th. All with cracking PBs.

Then came the much anticipated Boys 10 year Backstroke and the first Gold of the weekend for Dartes. Mark putting a fantastic swim together and Joseph collecting 7th. 11 year old Backstroke and the 2nd Gold courtesy of Joe. Both our 200m Backstroke Champions also taking the sprint. Reece and Jarvis finished 8th and 10th. Dartes were off and running!

The Girls 11 year old Back and 3 more Dartes on the blocks. Chloe grabbed 4th (one of many 4th places for DARTES this year) Caragh Chamers-Hey 8th, and Natasha Crow 10th.

In the 12 year old Back Dartes had 4 girls in the final. Shannon claimed the Silver with Heidi and Caitlin dead level in 4th, just 0.02sec behind the Bronze medal! Jessica came home 9th but her big moment was still to come. The pool was a blur of red. One small, black and red section of the balcony was awash with noise.

9yr old girls Breaststroke: Phoebe in 6th and Emily in 9th. Ben had a great race in the 10 years 50m Butterfly to finish 6th.

Then the return of our 11 year old double act in the Fly.
Gold to Joe.
Silver to Jarvis.
Jessica's moment arrived in the 12 years Girls Fly to grab the Silver with Caitlin the Bronze. Shannon supporting them with a 7th. Luke popped in with a silver in 13 years free.

The Dartes coaching staff looked the busiest on the poolside, what with pre-race briefings, post-race briefings, cool downs and warm ups. The last final of the morning arrived and Elliot capped it nicely with Silver in the Free.

The afternoon started as the morning had finished with all Dartes swimmers performing outstandingly. Too many to mention though, so we'll just talk about the finals. 9yr old girls Backstroke: Amber and Tyler 7th and 9th in the final. Ashleigh Taylor swam the race of her life in the 10 years, coming from behind to snatch Gold. Callum grabbing a 5th in Breaststroke while elder brother Reece claimed the Bronze with Joe right behind him in 4th. Rebecca kept up her Breaststroke Bronze medal streak - or so we thought. A disqualification to Harrogate's Rachael Ellis promoting her to Silver! Kelsey Wilson also benefitted by moving from 4th to claim the Bronze medal. Jamie and Elliot both finalled in Fly.

Phoebe (lane 4) won Gold in Fly in a cracking final that also included Tyler (lane 7) and Amber (lane 0).
Phil: If I have to say so myself I think her dad was quite pleased with it.
Ed: I believe his words on the balcony were: "That's made my week!". But that came after all the celebrating you can hear on the video below.

Ashleigh in the age group above, reached yet another final for the Fly. Mark and Oswald kept the red caps in the finals with an appearance in the 50m Free final.

Then up stepped the double act for one last exhibition of sprinting excellence from the centre lanes. Jarvis took full advantage of his lightening fast starts to surface half a body length in front of the field and never looked back. Joe swam shotgun keeping City of Leeds' Blake Bennett at bay to claim Silver.

Shannon, Caitlin and Heidi kept up the obligatory presence in the 12 years Freestyle claiming Bronze, 4th and 6th. Only CoLeeds and BoKirklees had more than one girl in that final, and both of their second representatives finished behind Heidi! An ominous sign for the Freestyle teams the next day, especially remembering that the 4th member of the team (Jess) finalled at the 100m last month!

The afternoon was brought to a close by Jamie and James, finishing 4th and 6th in Backstroke.

Sunday was the teams and the crowds were as lively as ever. Dartes were heavily represented with sometimes as many as 4 teams in an event. There was Silver for the Boys 9/10 team in Medley (unfortunately a DQ prevented them from challenging in the Freestyle team). The Girls 11/12 team won Gold in both races - hardly seems fair when you watch it on Dartes TV. A Bronze for the 9/10 Girls in Medley and 15/16 Boys in Freestyle which was followed up with a Silver in Medley.

And so the Yorkshires are over for another year. All in all a fantastic performance by every DARTES swimmer who all need to know that all the parents are so proud of them. What they do on a daily basis, be it in training or at galas, needs to be applauded. The dedication and discipline is astounding! I come from a Football background and Footballers could learn so much from swimmers. What I’d give for a team full of swimmers who could play Football.

There is only one direction that Dartes are going and that’s forward. When you see some of the youngstars coming through in JDS and the Age Group squad the future's bright!
The future's red (and black)!
GO DARTES!!!!