2010 has been a very good year for the young swimmers of Tenby Dolphins. During the course of the 2009-2010 season which ended in the summer, we enjoyed a great deal of success in the pool, and the 2010-2011 season has been shaping up well in the months leading up to Christmas. Regular readers of these reports will have been keeping track of events, but if you have missed anything, or want to double check how things went earlier in the year, don't forget you can read all the reports on the club website.

Our squad swimmers work very hard in training to try to produce their best at a number of target meets throughout the swimming year, and the first one of this cycle has recently taken place.

Open Competitions

The West Wales Sub-Regional meet took place at the Penlan Leisure Centre in Swansea over the weekend of December 4 and 5. We originally had a large entry to the event, but unfortunately a bout of illness afflicted several of the team, so we were eventually a little down in numbers.

The swimmers who did manage to attend were: Harrison Cole-Picton, Gareth Davie, Matt Davie, Emily Dilks, Hazel Fox, Billy Greenwood, George Greenwood, Arabella Haley, Kaitlyn Hicks, Talia Merriman, Amy Morgan, Charlotte O'Neill, Alanya Thomas, Lauren Watkins, Jemma Whalley and Ashleigh Willars.

Several of the swimmers were trying their hand at a competition of this scale for the first time. They did very well to overcome their nerves and concentrate on their swimming in front of a big audience, which must be very daunting if you are used to the confines of our pool at Tenby Leisure Centre.

Several of our more experienced swimmers had a good weekend. Our medallists were: Matt Davie, 1st 16&Over 50m Freestyle and 100m Freestyle, 3rd 200m IM, 200m Backstroke and 400m Freestyle; Hazel Fox, 1st 9-10yrs 400m IM & 400m Freestyle, 2nd 100m Breaststroke, 3rd 200m Breaststroke and 200m Backstroke; Talia Merriman, 1st 11-12yrs 100m, Butterfly, 2nd 200m IM and 200m Butterfly, 3rd 200m Backstroke, Ashleigh Willars, 1st 9-10 200m IM and 200 Butterfly, 2nd 100m Butterfly and 200m Freestyle, and 3rd 100m Backstroke.

Well done to all of you. We are pleased to see that our juniors are bringing home the bacon in a lot more endurance and stamina based events. All the effort you are putting in training is paying dividends.

One of our county swimmers, Hannah Saunders, also came along to have a go at the 1500m, an event in which she rarely competes. In fact, having not swum over the distance for almost two years, Hannah proved that her training is really going well at the moment by slicing a whopping six minutes off her entry time! Well done indeed.

We also entered relay teams at this competition, and just about all of them picked up a medal. Unfortunately, due to the illness mentioned earlier, we were unable to enter the full complement of teams, and regrettably some swimmers were left disappointed that they did not have the chance to race.

Just so everyone is clear on the procedure, if this crops up again, we always try to give everyone a chance to swim, but when there are more swimmers than places, we naturally try to pick teams with the fastest swimmers. Inevitably some will be left disappointed, but there is no other fair way of doing things.

Club Championships

The last competition of the year was the annual Club Championships held on December11 and 12.

This was a competition with the usual friendly rivalry as club mates, who train with each other all year long, battled it out to see who would come out on top.

Full results of this will be available on the website, but to summarise there were the usual crop of impressive swims. Well done to you all.

Forthcoming Events

January 7-9: Swim Wales Dragon Meet. WNP Swansea.

January 16: Pembrokeshire 800m and 1500m gala. Tenby. Make sure you all give at least one event a go!

January 29-30: URDD National Finals, Cardiff Int. Pool.

February 5-13: West Wales Regional Champs, Haverfordwest.

Club News

The annual club Christmas party was held at the Ex-Serviceman's Club in Tenby on Sunday, December 19. The swimmers all had a fun evening and enjoyed getting together to do something other than swimming for a change!

As well as fun, games, dancing and the Christmas raffle, we were very pleased to award trophies to the following swimmers for their efforts throughout the year. Caleb O'Neill - Most Improved Boy, Arabella Haley - Most Improved Girl, Luke Dedoncker - Most Improved Swimmer Overall and the Coaches Choice Award this year went to Ashleigh Willars for her continuing super attitude to training and great competition results. Very well done to all four of you!

The weather has been a real problem over the past few weeks, and Talia Merriman and Bethan Davie have both had Swim Wales training camps cancelled this week because of the snow. Never mind girls we hope they will rearrange things.

We are heading into the Christmas break when normal training will be suspended. There is a one-hour session for squad swimmers on December 30 for those who want to get back in the pool as soon as possible before the Dragon Meet. (Check with the coaches to confirm the time.)

Also coming up in January is the annual 800m and 1500m Pembrokeshire gala, which this time is being staged in Tenby. You really all should give this a go. 800m sounds a long way, but you do so much more than this every time you come training - you will find it a walk in the park!

To close, many thanks to the volunteers who have helped out over the course of the year. Your contribution really makes a difference. We hope everyone has a super Christmas and we look forward to seeing you back in the pool in January.