The Masters section of the Club is relatively new, having started taking memberships in March 2006.  Next competition is the Kent Masters, July 5 - only one or two going for that one - could it be because the Wet Muppet will be on holiday? Then the Medway Masters, October 19 - click here for the info East Invicta, April 2008, Kings School Pool, Canterbury We fielded a good size Men's team for this meet - Bryan 'Hairy' May, Ian Cockerell, Professor Phil Laflin, Darren Gambrill, Paul Highsted, Alan Wood (first appearance), with Dave 'DJB' Bennett, Simon Turner and Dave Jibb coming on for the relays and doubling up as our compulsory 2 volunteer officials.  For the Ladies, the team had Emma Warren, Claire Hunter, Liz Parfitt and Sue White - so spot the girlie relay team! Unfortunately, due to the high demand of hits looking for our Orange Adonis's, and threats to life on the Wet Muppet for the quality of the previous photo, here is one that has passed the BBC (Broadstairs Board of Censors): Edited highlights included scrambling a Mens relay team for an event we had not planned on (well done boys!), some VERY close relay finishes, plenty of PBs across the Men and Ladies of the team, and Bryan's stubble.  The Professor did extremely well, considering he was so pale he was practically see through by the time it got to the IM towards the end! A special mention to Mich Toptalo, a former Masters member, who has heard the calling back to her teenage years and now swims for Dover Lifeguards again.  She teamed up with Iain Hunter and achieved well.  If you're interested, Mich is swimming the Channel this year to raise money for the Pilgrims Hospice - check out her page on www.justgiving.com/michelletoptalo So here are the individual results: Emma Warren - gold 50m back, Liz Parfitt - silver 50m back, gold 50m fly, gold 50m breast, silver 50m free, silver 4 x 25 IM,   Sue White - 4th 50m back, 4th 4 x 25 IM Claire Hunter - close 4th 50m back, bronze 50m fly, bronze 50m breast, bronze 4 x 25 IM Paul Highsted - bronze 50m back, silver 50m breast, 5th 50m free   Darren Gambrill - silver 50m back, silver 100m free, silver 50m fly, gold 50m breast, silver 50m free, gold 4 x 25 IM  Alan Wood - 4th place back, 4th place 50m fly, 5th 50m free  Phil Laflin - gold 100m free, gold 50m breast, gold 50m free, silver 4 x 25 IM,   Ian Cockerell - bronze 100m free, bronze 50m fly, silver 50m breast, bronze 50m free Bryan May - bronze 100m free, bronze 50m free  Relays Mens 120y 4 x 50 free - GOLD!! (very tight finish!) Mens & Ladies 160y 4 x 50 medley - both 4th Mens 200y 4  50m free - 4th Mens & Ladies 160y 4 x 50 free - both 4th Mens 120y 4 x 25 medley - 2nd Click here for the East Invicta website. November 13 2007 - Medway Masters 11 November 2007, Black Lion Pool, Gillingham Our slightly larger than average team (numbers-wise, obviously) took our chances up the Thanet Way to have a go at this event.  There were 9 of us this time - newcomer Emma Warren (no stranger to competition), Claire Hunter, Mich Toptalo, Sue White (so no prizes for guessing what the women's relay selection looked like), Dave ‘DJB’ Bennett, Darren Gambrill, Ian Cockerell, Bryan ‘The Shark’ May and another newcomer to the club but not new to competition, Phil Laflin. It was another meet where the team had to be introduced to each other in reception, but it seems that we swim better that way!  After the warm-up, where a couple of our boys got chucked out for not being girls, and we had a team piccie, the events started and then we got rolling! First up were the backstroke events.  Mich opened the sheet with gold, just touching out her opposition.  The boy’s picked up the mood and pitched in with gold for Ian and a narrow silver position for Darren.  Events 3 and 4 were 50m breaststroke – not everyone’s favourite, especially if you get a side lane at that pool!  Claire came in with a PB and Sue struggled as always with this stroke, coming in 4th.  Luckily the boys made an impression with gold for Ian and Darren, silver for Phil and bronze for DJB, all of which were at least 2 seconds ahead of the next finisher.  This meant that when all the times were thrown in the air and stacked up, all 4 boys were in the top 10. Next were the 4 x 25m relays – always great fun and I’m sure we swim faster in these!  The ladies came 4th by just 1 second – don’t you hate it when that happens!  The boys did better, bagging a team silver. The 100m free saw Sue dip in again – she had the biggest age group and some fantastic swimmers to contend with.  She came in 6th with a close to PB time.  In the Men’s 100m free, Ian took a 4th place in his age group which doesn’t reflect his fast time of 1.14.40.  DJB and Phil lined up in the next age group, taking bronze and silver respectively.  Then came Darren and Bryan, who took gold and silver.  (I think the opposition were scared off by the shark in the pool).  This time all 5 men made the top 20 overall! Mich and Claire Hunter bit the bullet and did the 50m butterfly (they have to be mad) but it paid off – Mich picked up a bronze and Claire picked up yet another PB!  Ian followed in their bubbles, getting silver (which considering he’d never done fly before April this year …)  and DJB and Darren bagging golds. In the 50m freestyle, Mich took another silver, Sue battled on through to come 5th, and Claire swum another time close to PB.  Ian was battered into 4th place, Phil took a bronze in front of DJB, and Darren and Bryan again squeezed themselves into the top two in their age group.  It wasn't long before they were back in the water again for the 100m breaststroke.  Once again, Ian and Phil took second places (Phil's fast time of 1.23.84 helped) and Darren took 1st with 1.28.35 in their respective age groups.    We put in two relays teams towards the end, with the first team coming in 7th, and the second, younger team, hammered the opposition by over 5 seconds to take gold - the most productive team swim of the day for us!  Last event - the absolute killer - the 4x25 IM.  For the girls, Mich and Claire went in, with Mich bagging yet another silver and Claire nailing another PB, beating her new shiny one from only last month!  For the men, Darren brought back a silver.  In all, a very enjoyable day, with great team spirit and lots of smiley faces in our team and others.  In case you were wondering, Emma came along to take part in the relays without entering any individual events.  She watched the first race and said 'I wish I'd entered now!'.  Oh well, this time next year, Rodney ..... Here's the link to the overall results - http://www.medwayswimming.org/masters3.html - we came 7th!  Very pleased with that.  (Thanks to Graham Watson for letting us know that the expanded results were on the Medway ASA website) We'd like to thank our cheerleaders for coming along - Mich, Emma's daughter whose name I have forgotten again, Rosie, Matthew, Freda & Robert Toptalo, Ian's family Marie, Fin, Ruby and the other one, Phil's family and last but by absolutely no means least, Carolyn Bond.  She was invaluable on poolside, taking split times, giving feedback, just what we needed - thank you.  We hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did. The gala was well run (albeit with cards which makes it look a bit more complicated but saves a lot of water time if people haven't turned up), and the diving pit was availiable to swim down, which was a great improvement from the Kent Masters at the same venue.  Thanks to Medway ASA for organising it - count us in for next year!                                                                          A round up of PBs will follow, keep l@@king                               Are you interested in joining us as a Masters swimmer?  Contact us on broadstairsswim@tesco.net Kent Masters, July 2007, Black Lion Pool, Gillingham Again a very small but perfectly formed team of 3 took part in this competition - Dave Bennett (DJB) in his debut performance for the Club, Bryan May and Sue White.  One major difficulty with this competition is the long delay between the warm-up (women first, then men) and some events.  For instance, Sue had at least an hour between the two.  We weren't allowed to use the small pool to keep warm in, either :-(( Here's DJB's account of how it went: DJB - A day at the races As far as I can make out, we came 20th with 22 points!  Well done, let's build on that.             East Invicta Masters, 14 April 2007, Kings School, Canterbury The team made a strong showing here, comprising Michelle Toptalo, Sue White, Trish Kear, Claire Hunter, Liz Parfitt, Bryan May, Darren Gambrill, Ian Cockerell and Paul Highsted.  This gala saw the competitive debut of Trish Kear, and renewed the competitive edge for Mich Toptalo, Bryan May, Darren Gambrill and Ian Cockerell.  Sue White, Claire Hunter, Liz Parfitt and Paul Highsted all compete annually at national level for their employers. A very nervous team and supportive cheerleaders met in reception at the pool, with some of the swimmers meeting each other for the first time!  Introductions over with, the team made their way poolside to begin warm-up.  Once the events started, there was time for the less experienced people to watch how the gala works (very efficiently) and to see that the standard is across a wide spectrum of confidence and ability.  As always, peak time for nerves is waiting behind the block for your first race!  The team soon settled down and found their own ways of dealing with the nerves to the point where there were some very competitive and confident swims.  The Men found their rhythm together very quickly in the relays, at one point pushing a strong opposing team into 3rd place by a large margin - very exciting to watch!  The Ladies found it harder to make an impression in the relays, but nonetheless showing excellent team spirit, which is, after all, what Masters swimming is about. Three hours after the start, the very tired but high on adrenaline team packed up and headed home, with their bags carrying some extra weight! Individual achievements Claire Hunter - up against a very difficult group - 6th 50m butterfly, 4th breaststroke, 6th 4x25 IM, 9th 50m free Trish Kear - same group as Claire and strong oppostion - 5th 100m free, 5th backstroke, 5 4 x 25 IM (no reflection on the fast time swum), 5th 50m butterfly (also a fast time), 6th 50m free  Liz Parfitt - gold 50m backstroke, gold 50m butterfly, silver 50m breaststroke, silver 4x25 IM, bronze 50m free Mich Toptalo - silver 50m backstroke, silver 100m free, silver 50m butterfly, silver 4x25 IM, bronze 50m free Sue White - gold 50m backstroke, silver 100m free, silver 4x25 IM, bronze 50m free, bronze 50m breast  Ian Cockerell - silver, 50m breaststroke, silver 50m free, silver in the 120+ years 4 x50m medley team Darren Gambrill - silver 50m backstroke, silver 100m free (just touched out the opposition!), gold 50m breaststroke, bronze 50m free, gold 4x25m Individual Medley, silver in the 120+ years 4 x50m medley team Paul Highsted - silver in the 120+ years 4 x50m medley team Bryan May - silver 50m freestyle (just touched Darren out!), 5th 100m free, silver in the 120+ years 4 x50m medley team Relays Men - silver 120+ years 4 x 50m medley relay, 4th in 120+ years 4 x 50m free Women - 4th in 120+ years 4 x 50m medley relay, 4th 120+ years 4 x 50m free, 5th 160+ years 4 x 50m free Click here for the formal results Kent Masters, 8 July 2006, Black Lion Pool, Gillingham.  We fielded a very small but perfectly formed team of 3 - Sue White, Liz Parfitt and Maureen Seal - and came in 11th overall. Click here for the formal results