This January saw Wyre Forest Swimming Club (WFSC) hold their Annual Ball where the Swimmers were presented with trophies and medals won in WFSC Club Championships held mainly over a weekend in July 2019. There were many achievements to celebrate for the swimmers aged 8 years and under and upwards to celebrate across all the competitive squads in the club.  This year saw a new award the “Swimmers’ Swimmers Award” which was voted for by the swimmers themselves and congratulations went to 9 year old Fleur Higgs because she always has a smile on her face, a friend to all, determined, hardworking and has a great attitude.

For another swimmer who has been a member of Wyre Forest for eight years and has represented Worcester County at inter county and three county relays in previous years, there were two Special Awards.  Sam Osborne has had a fantastic season balancing both swimming and his final year of A Level’s was awarded the Founders Prize 2019 by the Chairman of Worcester County Swimming Association, Malcolm Ross. 

Sam Osborne was also presented a Special Achievement Award from WFSC in recognition of his continued support by swimming for the club at many league galas resulting in the club rising to the Arena Premier Division in 2018.

Sam has excellent behaviours around the pool and is a positive role model to all the younger swimmers, recently giving a motivational talk about his experiences this year to members of Wyre Forest.

During 2018/19, Sam was selection by British Swimming to Train in Tokyo with National Squad (Dec 2018), qualified for the British Championships (April 2019), was selected to represent GB at the Junior Europeans in Russia (July 2019) and won 1 Gold Medal and 1 Silver Medal at British National Summer Championships in Glasgow (July 2019). 

Sam was one of four swimmers selected by British Swimming who were given the opportunity to train in Japan and he trained alongside the other GB athletes as part of the Japanese National Team Camp and was also was part of the team who represented GB in Kazan, Russia for the European Junior Championships.

Following his return from Russia, Sam swam at the British National Championships in Glasgow and won a gold in 400 Free and silver in 200 free.

Click on the link below and take a look at the WFSC Summer Newsletter for the latest news and information…..

WFSC Newsletter – July 2019

There is a new timetable effective as of Monday 19th August, 2019 with the exception of Club who will be at KCS for the first two Monday’s, then they move to HTS at the same time and Silver & Bronze are together on a Monday night at WFLC.

Pool time Season 19-20

This year’s County Relay Swimming Championships were held on 30^th June at Wolverhampton Central Baths.  WFSC were very proud to see all our relay teams make it through to the finals in their age groups, with our teams going on to win 9 County medals and six 4^th place finishes; Our 11/12 yrs girls were crowned County Relay Champions in their age group in both the Freestyle and Medley relays. The Freestyle team was made up of Marieke Parker, Maya Winfield, Bella Hoare and Lillie Grover, while the Medley team saw Brecon Westwood and Lily Colley teaming up with Bella and Lillie to take the Gold in both events.

Our 15/16 yrs boys, Nathaniel Crowther, Daniel Hardiman, Charlie Brown and Robert Darbyshire took the Silver in both the Freestyle and Medley events with Rob recording a time of 23.92 on his freestyle length!  Our 11/12 yrs boys Freestyle team of Ryan Bloomer, Shay Parker, James Vaux and James Green won Silver.  Our 13/14 yrs girls Freestyle team of Tegan Hands, Alex Hayes, Alice Walker and Martha Stead took the Bronze, with Tegan, Alex and Martha teaming up with Jasmin Yates to take another Bronze in the Medley relay.   Our 13/14 yrs boys Freestyle team of Joel Hands, Tyler Elwell, Jeremy Summers and Owen Westwood also took the Bronze. In the girls open age group, the freestyle team of Lucy Nicholls, Alice Walker, Martha Stead and Abbie Rowley took the Bronze.

Head Coach Brian McGuinnes added, ‘All swimmers listened to advice given, applied it and the takeovers were brilliant. Very satisfied, big improvement on 2018 – well done all.’    

Wyre Forest Swimming Club attended the 2019 West Midland Regional Swimming Championships which were held for the final time at Coventry Sports and Leisure Centre over the weekends of 4/5/6th May and 11/12th May. A new £10.5m Olympic size pool being built at the Alan Higgs Centre in Coventry and expected to be opened some time later in 2019.

Wyre Forest Swimming Club saw their number of Regional Qualifiers jump from 12 in 2018 to 20 in 2019. Working hard throughout the year to qualify were:- Tegan Hands, Matilda Calder, Joel Hands, Nathanial Crowther, Adam Newey, Robert Darbyshire, Lillie Grover, Alice Walker, Jasmin Yates, Charles Brown, Martha Stead, Lucy Nicholls, Isabella Hoare, Mollie Kilgour, Jeremy Summers, Will Guest, Ryan Bloomer, Abbie Rowley, Lily Colley and Alex Hayes who unfortunately fractured her elbow days before the start and sadly was unable to compete.

Lillie Grover had an outstanding Championship winning Gold in the 11/12 yrs 50m back final to become Regional Champion in her age group. Lillie also picked up Silver medals in the 100m fly, 200m fly, 200m back and a Bronze in the 100m back. Joining her amongst the medallists were Nathaniel Crowther (16) who won Bronze in the 200m back and Jeremy Summers (15) who won Bronze in the 1500m freestyle distance event. Wyre Forest Swimming Cub also picked up medals in the relay events with the men’s 14/16 yrs 400m medley team of Nathaniel Crowther, Charlie Brown, Owen Westwood & Rob Darbyshire winning a Bronze; the men’s 14/16 800m freestyle team of Nathaniel Crowther, Charlie Brown, Jeremy Summers & Rob Darbyshire won Silver and the women’s 14/16 800m freestyle team of Lucy Nicholls, Tegan Hands, Jasmin Yates & Mollie Kilgour also won a Bronze.

From our 20 qualifiers, an amazing 15 of them made it through to one or more Regional Finals or placed in the top 8 at longer distance events which were heat declared wins. Our Finalists were:- Lillie Grover , Jasmin Yates, Nathaniel Crowther, Adam Newey, Alice Walker, Charles Brown, Martha Stead, Lucy Nicholls, Isabella Hoare, Matilda Calder, Joel Hands, Mollie Kilgour, William Guest, Jeremy Summers and Rob Darbyshire. Our number of top 8 placings/finalists more than doubled from 18 in 2018 to 41 in 2019!

Head Coach Brian McGuinness stated, ‘As Head Coach, it was heartening for me to have colleagues coming to me from Clubs far & wide in the Region, saying how impressed by the Club they have been. So well done to all of the swimmers, win or lose you have done Wyre Forest proud!’

ENTRIES NOW CLOSED

Programme, Entry Pack, Meet Pack & Accepted Entries below:

SS20_EntryData

Spring Splash 2020 Meet Pack

WFSC SS 20 Accepted Entries

Spring Splash Programme 14 + 15th March 2020

Wyre Forest Swimming Club celebrated yet another ‘Top Visiting Club’ award, this time at the Crystal Open Meet run by Stourbridge Swimming Club.  The team won an amazing 36 Gold, 22 Silver & 27 Bronze medals and are on top form ahead of a big couple of months in the swimming season which sees them travel to Sheffield, Cyprus and the Regional Championships in Coventry.

Lead Coach for the Meet Dylan Smith was extremely pleased with the attitude and focus of the swimmers who also achieved more regional qualifying times and set lots of new personal best times.

Medal winners were:- Isabella Hoare, Lillie Grover, Alexandra Hayes, Lily Colley, Matilda Calder, Lois Stevens, Ryan Bloomer, Joel Hands, Daniel Hardiman, Chloe Manning, Brecon Westwood, Lauren Stewart, Chloe Lawson, Owen Westwood, Marieke Parker, Mollie Kilgour, Eve Williams, Erin Freer, Charles Brown and Thomas Brown.

The Top Club award final points were:-

1^st Wyre Forest            504

2^nd Northgate               484

3^rd Redditch                 402

A big thank you to Dylan Smith, Rosie Lane and Donna Stevens for all their help and support at the Meet.

WFSC swimmers travelled to Wales over the weekend of 16/17th February for the Swansea Aquatics Spring Long Course Open Meet at the Wales National Pool.

For this meet all swimmers travelled together to Swansea without their parents, which was a new experience for many of our younger swimmers. There was a slight drama when one of the two mini buses carrying the swimmers broke down but again swimmers handled this with great humour and were a credit to the club.

The aim of this meet was not only to give swimmers the experience of swimming in a 50m pool but also to reinforce team spirit and give them a brief independence from their parents, encouraging them to think and plan for themselves in an environment where they could enjoy themselves but also gain valuable experience with their team mates.

Swimmers had the added bonus of watching Commonwealth 1500 medallist Dan JERVIS swim an impressive 3:52 400m freestyle on his own!

Medal winners at Swansea were Ryan Bloomer, Rob Darbyshire, Joel Hands, Lily Colley, Lillie Grover, Tegan Hands, James Green, Owen Westwood, Millie Gardner, Jasmin Yates, Lucy Nicholls, Matilda Calder, Lois Stevens, Brecon Westwood and Alexandra Hayes. Completing the team were: Jeremy Summers, Tyler Elwell, Marieke Parker, Will Guest, Isabella Hoare, Adam Newey, Lucy Connolly, Erin Freer, Lauren Stewart, Lucy Watkiss, Chloe Lawson, Abbie Rowley.

Head Coach Brian McGuinness stated, ‘Overall a great success, lots of experience gained and new friendships bonded. From 9 participating last year to 27 this year, with medals galore won and lots of long course experience gained it was another big success and shows that WFSC is continuing to go from strength to strength.’

Thank you also to Nigel Elwell, Becki Rowley and Donna Stevens for making this such a rewarding experience for our swimmers.

Fresh from receiving Wyre Forest’s Sports Award for Junior Team of the Year 2018, Wyre Forest swimmers were back in action at Wolverhampton pool this weekend at the Worcester County Distance Championships.

WF had five boys entered into the 1500m freestyle event and all five came away with medals in their age groups – Ryan Bloomer (13) Gold, Joel Hands (14) Silver, Jeremy Summers (15) Gold, Rob Darbyshire (16) Gold and Will Guest (17&O) Bronze.

Will Guest’s swim meant he finished 3rd fastest overall in the county in the Seniors and Jeremy Summers’ swim was the fastest overall in the Juniors, making him Junior County Champion.

The second session of the Distance Championships featured the 800m freestyle which saw WF win another 7 medals. Lillie Grover (12) won Gold and Mollie Kilgour (14) won Silver in their age groups, whilst Emily Watkiss & Isabella Hoare both swam personal best times. All five boys who had previously won medals in the 1500 came away with medals in the 800m – Ryan Bloomer (13) Silver, Joel Hands (14) Silver, Jeremy Summers (15) Gold, Rob Darbyshire (16) Gold and Will Guest (17&O) Bronze.

Rob Darbyshire’s swim meant he finished 3rd fastest overall in the county in the Seniors and Jeremy Summers’ swim was again the fastest overall in the Juniors, making him Junior County Champion in both the 800m and the 1500m events.

Congratulations to all our swimmers who have given us such a storming start to this year’s County Championships!

WF headed to Hereford for their Winter Open Meet on the 17/18^th November, hoping to defend their Top Visiting Club award won in 2017. WF fielded a large team of swimmers who won an amazing 125 medals across the two day meet – 59 Gold, 31 Silver and 35 Bronze.   Points were awarded for the top six finishes in each race, with the totals being added together at the end of the gala to give us the Top Visiting Club.  In what proved to be an extremely long meet, WFSC successfully defended their title, beating clubs like the City of Birmingham along the way.

Our medal winners were:-

Rob Darbyshire 12 Gold, 1 Silver; Charlie Brown 7 Gold, 2 Silver; Jeremy Summers 7 Gold, 1 Silver; Nathaniel Crowther 6 Gold, 3 Silver, 3 Bronze; Lillie Grover 6 Gold, 2 Bronze; Lucy Nicholls 5 Gold, 1 Silver; Jasmin Yates 2 Gold, 3 Silver, 3 Bronze; Joel Hands 2 Gold, 2 Silver; Lois Stevens 2 Gold, 1 Silver, 3 Bronze;  Ollie Dobbins 2 Gold, 1 Bronze;  Matilda Calder 1 Gold, 3 Silver, 1 Bronze;        Adam Newey 1 Gold, 2 Silver, 2 Bronze; Brecon Westwood 1 Gold, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze; Lily Colley       1 Gold, 1 Silver, 3 Bronze; Thomas Brown 1 Gold, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze; Alexandra Hayes 1 Gold, 1 Silver, 1 Bronze;  Mollie Kilgour 1 Gold, 1 Bronze;  Abbie Rowley 1 Gold, 1 Bronze; Ryan Bloomer     3 Silver, 3 Bronze;  Tegan Hands 1 Silver, 2 Bronze;  Emily Watkiss 1 Silver;  Erin Freer 1 Silver;   Millie Gardner 3 Bronze; Will Guest 2 Bronze; Shay Davies 1 Bronze.

Three of our boys also managed to win ‘Top Boy’ awards in their respective age groups – Jeremy Summers 13 yrs, Rob Darybshire 14 yrs and Nathaniel Crowther 15 yrs.

Completing our team and adding valuable points to our total were:- Sophie Allsop, Lucy Connolly, Iona Denton, Tyler Elwell, James Green, Colby Hands, Daniel Hardiman, Olivia Hill, Reegan Hill, Isabella Hoare, Chloe Lawson, Chloe Manning, Florence Meehan, Marieke Parker, Ella Rowley, Flyn Rushgrove, James Rushton, Holly Tandy-Smith, Eve Williams, James Vaux.

Congratulations everyone!