Duriing the Third weekend of the Kent County Championships there was an impressive total of 63 personal best times. The following swimmers achieved finalist places Sam Harvey, Christopher Miles, James Lawrence, Lily Snell, Amy Chick, Charlotte Smith, Georgia Harris, Sebastian Stewart, Michael Jacobs,Henry Choong, Oliver Coe, Katie Davis, Emily Coe, Jessica Frankland, Emily Davison, Antony Wilson, Lewis Groombridge, Charlotte Gregory and Joseph Gaster.

3rd places were gained by the following swimmers Chris Miles (2), Amy Chick, Lily Snell, Henry Choong and Charlotte Gregory.

2nd positions were achieved by Michael Jacobs (3), Oliver Coe (2), Henry Choong.

The following swimmers gained County titles – Katie Davis (15 yrs 100m freestyle, Oliver Coe (15 yrs 200m backstroke, in an event best performance time and a new Kent county u16 record), Oliver also won (15 yrs 100m breaststroke and the 15 yrs 200m breaststroke as well). Henry Choong at the end of the weekend won the 12 yrs 400m freestyle.

Well done to you all !

All of our Kent County 2010 Championship swimmers

The second weekend of this year’s County Championship was held at Tunbridge Wells pool. This weekend held the 1500m and 800m events and this year Orpington Ojays had an increased number of swimmers. These distance events provided some exciting swimming and further success for our swimmers, with nearly all swimmers posting large personal best times and all reaching top 6 positions.

In the 1500m event held on Saturday, Christopher Miles secured 1st place in the 16yrs age group, Emily Coe 2nd (17/18yrs) and Katie Coad 6th (13yrs).
On Sunday in the 800m Henry Choong gained 1st place in an event best performance time in the 12yrs age group, Oliver Coe 2nd (15yrs), Christopher Miles 2nd (16yrs) and Joseph Gaster 5th (12yrs).

Congratulations to everyone that swam with such success in these tough events!

THE first session of the Kent County Championships started off with a total of 15 pbs. First places were gained by Oli Coe (50m breast) Amy Chick came 2nd in the 400m free with a large pb. Third place was gained by Michael Jacobs (200m breast). There were also finalist positions gained by Georgia Harris, Henry Choong and Rebecca Harvey.

The second session of the weekend saw Jessica Frankland gain a first place in the 200m fly and Oli Coe 1st in the 100m back. Second positions were gained by Emily Coe (200m breast). Michael Jacobs came 2nd in the 50m free. Finalists were also the Mens Open 100m Medley, Chris Miles, Henry Choong, and Georgia Harris.

The third session started with a first place for Henry Choong in the 200 free, and a second place for both Amy Chick and Michael Jacobs in the 200m free. Finalists also were Emily Coe, Michael Jacobs, Matthew Brown, Charis Mills and Georgia Harris.

The final session included a third place for Henry Choong in 100m back and 3rd place in the 100 IM. Ollie Randall, Oli Coe and Emily Coe gained finalist places.

Overall, great performances culminating in a total of 43 pbs over the whole weekend. Some fantastic swims ! Congratulations to the 4 County Champions. Well done to everyone, particularly to all those in their first County Championships, let`s look forward to the 800m and 1500m events next weekend.

With the clash between the first White Horse League Gala and the Kent Schools Gala, we had several members of our team missing as they were swimming for their schools at Black Lion. However the team performed very well achieving first places in 15 events. These are the individual 1st places - Michael Jacobs (2), Holly Andrews, Henry Choong (2), Katie Davis, Sebastian Stewart, Holly Baronti (2),and Matt Steere. The 13u girls Medley and Freestyle relays came 1st as did the boys 13u Medley relay, and also the girls and boys 11u Medley relay. Pbs were as follows - Joseph Gaster, Sophie Livett, Holly Andrews, Charis Mills, Sebastion Stewart, Amy Chick and Henry Choong. From the beginning of the Gala we were positioned 2nd behind Beckenham and we slowly closed the points gap with the final score finding us in second position , five points behind Beckenham who were the winners on the night. Well done everybody.

"A fantastic evening was had last Friday at the Orpington Ojays SC presentation evening at the Alexandra Suite .Dervis Konuralp is pictured here with some of the Special trophy winners and Top swimmers in each age group. It was brilliant to have both Jemma and Dervis there, the swimmers really appreciated being able to speak to Dervis and see and hold his medals. Many of them would like to have been wearing his GB tracksuit ! ( including Simon and Matt). Thanks to Jemma and Dervis for also presenting the Swim 21 certificates to our Chairman Trevor Oliver. The evening has marked a fabulous year where Orpington Ojays have been very successful in many galas and Opens and been promoted to the first division of the Kent Junior League and also more recently promoted to the Premier division of the National Arena League . Well done to all our swimmers, parents, supporters and Coaches. Well done to everyone !

Orpington Ojays New 2010 Captains Chris Miles ,Rebecca Harvey, Clare Folkes and Vice Captain Oliver Coe collect the trophy from todays Beacon relay gala at Beckenham Spa. Well done everyone!

Hosting the final round of the National Arena Swimming League the ‘A’ team travelled to Maidstone with great expectations. Positioned in joint first going in to the final gala, meant that a first or second place on the night would guarantee promotion to the premier division. However it would be tough against Sevenoaks, Chelmsford, Dover Lifeguards, Epsom District and East Grinstead. Five out of the six clubs competing had already won at least one of their previous rounds. After an inspiring team talk no one on the team disappointed with the first eleven events seeing best times being achieved. As the evening progressed every swimmer gave one hundred percent in the pool and supporting on the poolside
Overall there were 13 individual personal best times for Emily Coe, Christopher Miles, Georgia Harris, Katie Coad, George Walker, Saffron Salih(2), Henry Choong(2), Sebastian Stewart, Joseph Gaster, James May & Oliver Coe. Also all except 2 relays achieved best times.
Nine first places went to George Walker, Oliver Coe, Michael Jacobs, Katie Davis and Emily Coe. The boys 13U and 15U also won both their freestyle and medley relays.
All through the evening each race was closely fought between all clubs with the lead changing hands on a number of times, including Orpington Ojays.
Eventually by the end Sevenoaks managed to secure the overall win on the night with Orpington Ojays in a comfortable second.
1st Sevenoaks -208
2nd Orpington Ojays – 190
3rd Chelmsford – 170.5
4th Dover – 162
5th Epsom – 157
6th East Grinstead – 155
These results ensured that the overall league positions after three galas were 1st – Sevenoaks, 2nd – Orpington Ojays and 3rd Chelmsford.
Therefore we have achieved promotion to the premier divison for the first time in over a decade.
A fantastic achievement to everyone involved with the Club!!!

The Final round of the National Arena Gala at Trinity Pool on 12/12/09 proved to be a great success, rounding off a successful year for Orpington OjaysSwimming Club.

Orpington Ojays B Team provided an outstanding performance to be placed second at the end on the day, beating several club’s A teams from across the region

This was the third meet in 2 months with 13 personal best times from 34 individual events including Louis Goff, Ben Garwood and Jack Dickerson gaining best times in 2 events.

First places were achieved by:-
Rachel Dickerson, Tom Blundell, Nicole Cheetham, Jessica Page, Jessica Frankland, Sophie Blundell, Chloe Ashley, Ben Garwood and Esme Swaffield.

There were personal best swims by:-
Rachel Dickerson, Louis Goff, Ben Garwood, Jack Dickerson, Jake Potter, Jessica Frankland, Sophie Blundell, Jack Quinn, Chloe Ashley, Esme Swaffield.

Congratulations to all of those who took part and the support throughout the competition.

Well done to all swimmers who took part in the successful Kent Junior League this year. After finishing 3rd last year a 2nd place this year was the target. After the first round had finished it all looked like it could be a very close affair with Orpington coming away with an 11 point lead from 2nd placed Dover and a 12 point lead from 3rd placed GBM. Some fine performances in the second round all but secured Orpington’s rise back to the top Division running away with a 35 point lead, 17 first places and 28 PB’s all that was needed in the last round was a 3rd placed finish. Obviously the only place we were aiming for was a first and a clean sweep in all 3 rounds.

The travelling parents were not disappointed. With a varied team this round due to illnesses and absences predictions were hard to make. Some truly brilliant swims from all of our swimmers ensured we got off to a flying start. After the first points total was read out Orpington had started as they were going to continue. Finishing the gala with another 17 first places and another 28 PB’s equalling the record set in the previous round Orpington came away with a 25.5-point lead from our closest rivals, amazing stats considering the two rounds are only 4 weeks apart.

With 2nd placed Dover finishing the league on 607 points the brilliant Orpington beat their nearest rivals by 78.5 points. Well done to everyone involved in the club whether it be a competitor, training buddy or parent, you should all be very proud. We are now promoted to the top Division somewhere we haven’t been for 11 years.

The hard work now begins to stay in the top Division for years to come.

Well Done ?

Orpington Ojays had a large representation and numerous personal best times achieved at this years Maidstone Open meet held at Mote Park (29th Nov 09).
This well organised and enjoyable event proved very successful for Ojays with the following swimmers wining medals for top six places; Rebecca Harvey, Louis Goff, Sebastian Stewart, Oliver Randall, George Walker, Jessica Page, Elizabeth Bennett, Sophie Livett, James May, Oliver Coe, Esme Swaffield, Ellie Miller, Emily Davison, James Lawrence, Rachel Dickerson, Michael Jacobs, Lewis Groombridge, Sophie Blundell, Jack Dickerson, Charis Mills, Holly Baronti, Jessica Farrow, Emily Coe, Jack Quinn, Rebecca Shipley.
Of these swimmers first places were achieved by Oliver Coe (4), Emily Davison(2), Michael Jacobs(2+2speeding tickets!), George Walker, Jessica Farrow, Emily Coe(2)
To everybody that swam, well done.

This year 8 of our more senior swimmers represented Orpington Ojays at the London Winter Champs which were held at Barnet on 7th/8th November. This was the week following the Palma training camp so everyone was still recovering from heavy training. Competition is particularly fierce as there are only Open and Junior categories. Chris Miles, Emily Coe, Emily Davison, James Lawrence, Katie Davis, Oliver Coe, Rachel Dickerson and Rebecca Harvey between them all competed in numerous events (28). Everybody performed well, with a silver medal for Oliver in the Junior 200m backstroke ( he also made the Open final for this event).

We boarded the coach to Horsham with anticipation as we were all aware that to compete in the Top gala in the next and final round of the Arena League we would have to finish as one of the top 3 winning teams that evening. The evening turned out to be more than we expected , it was one of the most nail biting and exhilarating galas we have all witnessed. Spirits were high despite several key swimmers being unavailable. Emily Coe started off on fine form and with a pb performance and won the first event. This was the first of 11 first places throughout the evening. The following swimmers achieved these further 1st positions, Michael Jacobs (2), George Walker, Katie Davis (2), Oliver Coe, Katie Coad and the boys13u medley relay, boys 15u medley relay and the Ladies Open freestyle relay. Individual pbs were achieved bu Katie Coad (2), George Walker (2), Joseph Gaster (2), Rebecca Noakes, Sebastian Stewart, James May and Oliver Coe. Eleven of the sixteen relay teams improved their times compared to the previous round. Throughout the gala the top 3 teams jostled for the top position. With 2 races to go Dover and Orpington Ojays were equal on points. The noise levels soared and cheering was unbelievable, we knew we had to get at least one more point than Dover in the final 2 races. Our winning position was secured with a first and second place in the final 2 races. We now look forward to battling again with Dover and Chelmsford who are all equal with us in 1st position in the league (but we have the highest gala points). The final round we will host on Dec 12th at Maidstone. If the last round was anything to go by then we are in for a thrilling gala.

Well done to all swimmers who took part in the successful Kent Junior League this year. After finishing 3rd last year a 2nd place this year was the target. After the first round had finished it all looked like it could be a very close affair with Orpington coming away with an 11 point lead from 2nd placed Dover and a 12 point lead from 3rd placed GBM. Some fine performances in the second round all but secured Orpington’s rise back to the top Division running away with a 35 point lead, 17 first places and 28 PB’s all that was needed in the last round was a 3rd placed finish. Obviously the only place we were aiming for was a first and a clean sweep in all 3 rounds.

The travelling parents were not disappointed. With a varied team this round due to illnesses and absences predictions were hard to make. Some truly brilliant swims from all of our swimmers ensured we got off to a flying start. After the first points total was read out Orpington had started as they were going to continue. Finishing the gala with another 17 first places and another 28 PB’s equalling the record set in the previous round Orpington came away with a 25.5-point lead from our closest rivals. If it wasn’t for a slightly dubious decision on a DQ we would have improved on that record with an extra first place and an extra PB, amazing stats considering the two rounds are only 4 weeks apart.

With 2nd placed Dover finishing the league on 607 points the brilliant Orpington beat their nearest rivals by 78.5 points. Well done to everyone involved in the club whether it be a competitor, training buddy or parent, you should all be very proud. We are now promoted to the top Division somewhere we haven’t been for 11 years.

The hard work now begins to stay in the top Division for years to come.

I am pleased to say that Jemma Konuralp ( Swim 21 Co-ordinator for London Region) has just contacted me and said that at the National Swim 21 panel yesterday (18/11/09) Orpington Ojays have been accredited at 3 levels, Teaching, Skill development and Masters. Our previous accreditation was for Skill development only. You will all be able to meet Jemma and her husband Dervis at the presentation evening in Jan. They are both para-olympian swimmers. Dervis achieved selection for the Bejiing Olympics and managed 7th, 9th and 11th placings even though his best event is 50m fly which is not an olympic event ( he holds british,european and world records for 50 fly). They have kindly accepted the invitation to attend the evening.
Sarah C.

Orpington Ojays A team have moved to the top of division 1 in the speedo league following the second round at the weekend. This means the A team will be placed in the top gala for the final round on the 12th of December. Orpington Ojays A team are now ranked 1st with aims to beat Dover or Chelmsford to earn promotion to the premier division.

Orpington Ojays are one of the clubs able to field two teams in the leagues , the B team are currently placed 16th in division 2. For both teams these positions mean that there is much at stake and everything to swim for in what are sure to be exciting and tough third round galas.

Congratulations and well done to all the swimmers and coaches which make up both our teams and good luck to you all for the 12th of December.

Orpington Ojays back from a fantastic trainnig camp in Sunny Palma Mallorca

Congratulations to all who swam at Beckenham last Saturday. Everyone swam well and supported each other fantastically. Special congratulations to Charlotte Gregory, Sophie Blundell & Jessica Page for their 1st place positions as well as the girls 13u medley and freestyle relay teams. There were 14 pb times for Rachel Dickerson, Jack Quinn, Charlotte Gregory(2), David Johansen (2), Tom Blundell, Alexis Skitini, Louis Goff, Jessica Page, Ben Garwood (2) and Jack Herbert. Overall position bettered last years first round. A really good night and an excellent 4th place. WELL DONE

The A team travelled to Haywards Heath for the first round of the National Arena Swimming League, where they managed to achieve a fantastic 2nd position ! (only 1.5 points behind the winning team). There were 12 first places for George Walker, Oliver Coe, Matthew Brown. Joseph Gaster, Katie Davis , Emily Coe, Saffron Salih, boys 13u Medley relay, Ladies Open Medley relay, girls 13u freestyle relay, boys 13u freestyle relay and the boys 15u medley relay. Pb times were achieved by George Walker, Michael Jacobs, Saffron Salih (2), Rebekah Noakes, Joseph Gaster, Chris Miles and James May. Brilliant result for the first round ! Well done!

The first gala of the season began with the penultimate round of the White Horse League held at Crook Log pool Bexleyheath and after the disappointment of the cancellation of the previous round, everybody was hoping that this gala would be more successful. There had to be some last minute team alterations (due to swimmers’ unavailability and injuries) however yet again everyone delivered a very fine performance on the night against strong opposition.
We achieved 8 first places; Georgia Harris(2), Oliver Coe (2), Henry Choong, Michael Jacobs, Joseph Choong and Boys15U Freestyle relay
12 Personal best times were gained by Oliver Randall, Alex Miller, Oliver Coe(2), Georgia Harris, Michael Jacobs (2), Sophie Livett (2), Sam Ahrvey, Joseph Gaster, Christopher Miles, Isabelle Minter-Paye & Henry Choong.
Throughout the evening the lead changed but Orpington Ojays finaly came out on top by four points.
Well done to everyone and thank you to Joseph Choong and Clare Folkes for stepping in at the last minute!

The ASA National Championships were held at Ponds Forge. This years Nationals were very exciting as we had two Age group swimmers attending. Oli Coe qualified for the 100m back and 200m back and Henry Choong had qualified for the 200m back ( this was Henrys first National qualification).

The Nationals are a very high profile event and are the culmination of a swimmers whole seasons training, where they compete against the best swimmers in their age groups in the country. The atmosphere is brilliant , competitors photos are put up on the electronic scoreboard. This year Sarah Price ( ex – Olympic swimmer) was doing the race commentary

Both Oli and Henry have worked very hard all season in order to qualify for these events. Oli has been hampered by a shoulder injury which at one point had indicated he wouldn`t be able to take part. Thankfully though it improved enough for him to swim.

The first day started very early with a 7.15am warm up and then one of the first events was the 100m back and in a very close race Oli qualified for the final with a pb. The finals start later in the day . Oli swam a very determined race in the final and came a very creditable 10th . It was fantastic to have support there from “The Choong family” who managed to get to Sheffield in time for the final.

The 200m backstroke race was held on the Friday and Henry and Oli were both up early for the warm-up. Simon was very nervous on poolside ! Henry swam first and swam a very controlled race! Simons advice was to do the first 100m in a 1.15. Henry hit the wall in a 1.15.00 dead! Henry performed really well in his first Nationals and even managed a large pb to finish in the 200m in 15th place in his age group. Oliver managed to swim far better than expected to gain a pb. He did however leave it really late to sprint the final 50m ! ( gaining 5 places in the final length) He managed to finish finally in 17th place overall in his age group.

Well done Henry and Oli – Everyone at Orpington Ojays are all very proud of your performances. Well done to Simon for your coaching and continual support which has enabled Henry and Oli to achieve their goals! It is due to this that we are able to say we have 2 swimmers in the top 20 in the country .

The second weekend of the London Regional BAGCAT Championships was again successful for Orpington Ojays swimmers. Five swimmers competed in individual events and four relay teams at Crystal Palace. Everyone competed well with many long course PBs for Michael Jacobs, James May, Georgia Harris, Henry Choong, Oliver Coe.
Finalist places were achieved for James (200m FC,100m BS), Henry(200mFC, 400m FC) and Oliver(100m BC, 100m BS, 200m FC). Oliver outperformed the previous weekend by winning a gold medal in the 100m backstroke and bronze medals in the 100m breaststroke and 200m freestyle. This enabled him to collect enough BAGCAT points to achieve overall 2nd in his age group for the Championships. Henry Choong finished 3rd overall in his age group and both received an award.
Relay teams also competed well against very strong opposition. The girls 10-12yrs 200m medley team of Shauna Hancock, Jessica Page, Georgia Harris and Sophie Blundell fought hard swimming at PB pace and placing 11th. So to the girls 10-12yrs freestyle team with Shauna, Jessica & Georgia being joined by Holly Baronti, placing 13th. The boys 10-12yrs team of Henry Choong, Lewis Groombridge, Joseph Gaster and Ben Garwood achieved even higher placings with a 7th in the medley and 8th in the freestyle relays!
Well done to everyone that competed at this year’s London Regional Championships for some exciting swimming and successful results.

Race Night!

Platinum Juniors went bowling and on to Pizza Hut as part of Charlotte Smiths Jack Petchey Award.
A good night was had by all with Holly B being pipped at the post for highest score by Holly A.
Stunt of the night was Ed Gaster launching himself down the alley instead of the ball!

Thank you Charlotte for sharing your award with everyone.

Thanks to Steve Bennett for the photo of the Trophy winning team at Maidstone (Oliver May Trophy Gala) on May 23rd. Our second Trophy Gala win of the year so far !
Well done to the whole team. Thank you to everyone who swam and especially to all those who were asked at the last minute and made such an effort to attend. Simon

The first weekend of the London Regional BAGCAT Championships was successful for Orpington Ojays swimmers. Seven swimmers competed in individual events and three relay teams at Crystal Palace. Everyone competed well with many long course PBs for Michael Jacobs, James May, Georgia Harris, Henry Choong, Sam Harvey, Oliver Coe and Joseph Gaster.
Finalist places were achieved for James (100m FC), Georgia (100mBF), Henry(200mBC, 100m FC) and Oliver(200m BC, 200m IM). Oliver won a silver medal in the 200m backstroke while Henry a bronze. Henry also qualified for his first national event during the heats.
Relay teams also did better than expected . The girls 10-13yrs medley team of Shauna Hancock, Sophie Livett, Jessica Frankland and Sophie Blundell fought hard swimming at PB pace. So to the girls 10-13yrs freestyle team with Shauna & Sophie L being joined by Holly Baronti and Charlotte Smith.
In the final event of the weekend the boys 10-14yrs 4 x 200m team of Sam Harvey, Matt Brown, James May and Oliver Coe exceeded all expectations to secure a thrilling bronze medal.
Well done to everyone and let's look forward to next weekend!

Our first B grade gala of the year, and the team performed with style. With a run of 17 PB’s, we couldn’t have started off much better!

It was close contest all through the evening . In the end we came away with 9 1st places – well done Jessica Sellar, Lewis Groombridge x 2, Jack Herbert, Ellie Miller, Charlotte Cooper and Jack Quinn plus our mixed 13/u freestyle and mixed 11/u freestyle relay teams.

My thanks to all the swimmers, helpers and parents who made the night so good.

Final Positions:
Orpington Ojays - 189 pts
White-oak - 178pts
Olympos Marlins - 177pts
Maidstone - 151pts
Larkfield - 147pts
Dartford District - 136pts

Sunday 17th May was a windy, rainy and cold day, but a ray of sunshine hung over the Orpington Ojays swimmers who had qualified for the National Biathlon Championships. In total we had ten competitors and one team.

Seven finished in the top 10 individually within their age groups, achieving numerous PB’s along the way, with our only team placing 2nd overall.

Highest placing were Mathew Brown and Henry Choong, both finishing in second place overall. Matthew managed to equal the eventual winners total points but lost out on events won. He finished second in the swim and third in the run. Henry performed very well in the running discipline and then sealed second place with a PB in his swim, winning the individual discipline.

Our youngest finalist was Oliver Randall who had an excellent day in finishing 8th overall. He certainly gave 110%, gaining a PB in both the run and swim disciplines. Saffron Salih was in a very competitive age group and fought hard to achieve a 5th place overall. Sam Harvey finished in 13th position in his age group gaining a PB in the 1000m running event in a very tough heat and consolidating his position with an excellent swim on the day.

Oliver Coe finished 7th overall managing an amazing PB in his 200m swim of 4 seconds and following this up with a twenty second PB in the run. Christopher Miles finished 8th overall after a very courageous run to try and close the gap on Oliver.

Finally, the girls team consisting of Emily Coe, Rebecca Harvey and Rachel Dickerson, all busy studying for GCSEs and AS Levels, and after a very promising start in the swimming stepped onto the track for their dreaded 3000 metre track run. They brought the sun with them and showed courage and determination all gaining PBs of at least 30 seconds. This was enough to gain them 2nd place overall in the team event. Individually Emily finished a top notch 7th, Rebecca 12th and Rachel 13th.

All who competed had a great time, although a little tired on the way home, and looking forward to next years event! Keep an eye on the website for information for any further Biathlon events.

On Friday evening at Bromley Civic Centre awards were presentedto students at Bromley Secondary Schools who have achieved excellence in their sport - a number of Orpington Ojays swimmers were awarded with Medals, from the guest speaker Montell Douglas - British Female 100m Record Holder and Olympic 4 x 100m Finalist. The Ojays medal recipients were : Holly Baronti, Ben Garwood, James Lawrence, Rebecca Harvey and Emily Davidson.
During the evening, which was attended by the Mayor of Bromley and Gillian Pearson, Director of Childrens services, the award winners were treated to an inspirational speech from Montell Douglas and her aspirations for 2012.
Well done to all those from Orpington Ojays SCwho received medals - a great achievement.
Report by Mandy Baronti

On the 2nd and 3rd of May, twelve swimmers represented Orpington Ojays at this years London Regional Championships, which were held at a slowly refurbishing Crystal Palace. It was a very successful weekend with numerous pb performances and an overall amazing 13 finalist positions from those who attended , they were Chris Miles, James Lawrence, Mike Bond, Emily Coe, Katherine Nye, Rachel Dickerson, Rebecca Harvey, Katie Davis and Nicole Cheetham. Jack Quinn, Oliver Coe and Angelo Mitakos joined them for the relay events. Everybody gave 100%, particularly Chris Miles who managed 5 pbs (not to mention 3 finalist places). James Lawrence came 7th in both his events (400m & 800m) , Katherine Nye came 8th in 200 back, Mike Bond and Emily Coe managed to go one step further and both achieved 3 final and 2 medal positions. Mike Bond came 3rd (50m back) 2nd (100m back), Emily came 3rd (100m breast) and 1st (200m breast) and took the title of Regional Champion for this event!

Congratulations to Joseph Choong and Saffron Salih who competed in this event at Crystal Palace last weekend. A tetrathlon comprises of fencing, shooting, swimming and running. Both performed brilliantly with Joseph reaching overall 3rd and Saffron 5th in their age groups!

It was another successful night for Orpington Ojays in the second round of the White Horse League held at Crook Log.
Throughout the whole evening we battled for first place with an improved Beckenham team. Everyone swam well resulting in 19 first place positions (Georgia Harris (2), Katie Davis (2), Oliver Coe (2), Saffron Salih (2), Mike Bond, Katie Coad, Emily Coe, Matt Steere, Boys 15/u freestyle, Mens open medley and freestyle, Girls 13/u freestyle, 15/u medley, ladies open freestyle, Mixed squadron Relays).
There were also 11pbs achieved (Oliver Randall, Lewis Groombridge, Oliver Coe, Katie Davis, Rebekah Noakes, Michael Jacobs, Katie Coad, James May, Isabelle Minter-Paye, Henry Choong, Emily Davison).
With the lead swapping on several occasions our final run of 1st places in the last three events sealed our win.
The final points were,

1st Orpington Ojays – 329
2nd Beckenham – 322
3rd Saxon Crown – 230
4th Bromley – 225
5th Erith – 219
6th White oak – 172
7th Eltham Stingrays – 137
8th GBM - 113

On Sunday 29th March a number of swimmers from Orpington Ojays decided to take on the challenge of a Biathlon. This events is made up of a swim and a run of varying distances dependent on age. We had 12 competitors in total which also meant we had 3 teams.

When we decided to enter the competition it was to have a bit of fun, after a gruelling but successful Kent Championships. However the club members competitive spirit was very evident from the moment the first Orpington Ojay entered the pool.

The day started with the swimming discipline. First off the blocks were our youngest competitors Oliver Randall and Jake Potter in the Youth E category. They had to swim 50m in the morning and then run 1000m in the afternoon. They certainly showed the rest how to do it by finishing 3rd and 8th respectively, with Oliver qualifying for the National Finals.

Next up was Benjamin Coe who swam a PB in the 100m and gave a solid run in the 1000m, finishing a creditable 23rd.

Then we moved on to the older club members who were feeling the strain of losing an hour of sleep! The Youth C team consisting of Matthew Brown, Sam Harvey and Jack Dickerson put themselves in 1st place in the team event after the 200m swimming element. Amazingly they found they could run pretty quickly as well and held their overall position to claim the title. Individually they finish 2nd, 3rd and 18th and are looking forward to the National event in May.

Next up was the Youth B Team. As well we know the team consisted of three accomplished swimmers having all had success at the Kents. After the 200m swim they were standing in 1st place. However, dispite a valiant run over 2000m they could not hold onto the top spot and finished 3rd. However, individually, Chris Miles finished 4th, Oliver Coe 7th and James Lawrence 11th. This meant that both Chris and Oliver gained a place as individuals in the National Finals.

The team that had the toughest time was the Youth A Girls Team. The team consisted of Emily Coe, Rebecca Harvey and Racheal Dickerson. The girls had to swim 200m and found themselves in 1st place going into the run. The mood turned serious just before the run as the thought of running 3000m suddenly became a reality. To their credit they stuck to the task well and all completed the course, and qualified in second place for the National finals as a team. Their individual places were a very creditable 7th, 10th and 11th respectively.

Therefore a huge congratulations should be given to all who took part and good luck to all who have made the finals in Macclesfield in May.

Well done to all those that swam in the Race Night held at Eltham College. It was great to see so many entries (the most in a long time) especially from the under 9 year age groups. It is extremely encouraging to see so many enthusiastic young swimmers and parents together at event. Special congratulations need to go to Michael Jacobs who achieved 2 club records.
Thanks to all those that helped; parents, senior swimmers and coaches.

Simon Coe (Head Coach)

A big congratulations to all the swimmers who have trained consistently hard and as a result have swam the club into the top 6 rankings in Kent. I am in no doubt that every club member in or out of the water is extremely proud and looking forward to future achievements.

This article will be updated shortly with a full report. The results are already on-line under the Results/2009 menu and the full size photo is in the photo gallery.

The third weekend of the 2009 Championships has started off wonderfully, with the News that we currently were placed as the 6th best club in Kent (Boys & Girls). Over the 2 days we had a total of 70 swims from all our swimmers. Yet again, everyone performed to their best ability. Congratulations to you all.

First positions were achieved by the following swimmers:-

Oliver Coe (3) – 50m and 200m back and 100m breast
Henry Choong (1) – 400m free
Katie Davis (100 back)
Georgia Harris (50 fly)

Second places were gained by the following swimmers:-
James Lawrence , Henry Choong (2), Katie Davis , Matthew Brown , Emily Coe ,
Oliver Coe , Georgia Harris

Third places were achieved by:-
Oliver Coe, Michael Jacobs, Emily Coe ,

Finalist places were as follows :-

Chris Miles, Michael Jacobs, Emily Coe (2), James Lawrence (2), Mike Bond (2), Sam Harvey, Oliver Coe, Katie Davis, Rachel Dickerson (2), Matthew Brown, James May (2), Georgia Harris,

Special mention must go to Oliver Coe for accumulating 5 County titles so far, and also achieving his 200m backstroke National entry time. Henry Choong for accumulating 4 titles so far , Katie Davis for 2 titles so far and also to Georgia Harris for winning a title in her first Kent Championships.

There were 44 pbs overall, Well done to all of you, Good luck for the final weekend!
Simon.

We had another successful weekend at the County Championships in the 800m and 1500m events. On saturday evening,Crook Log was the venue for the 800m. James Lawrence and Christopher Miles competed in this event. James Lawrence had a very successful swim and achieved 3rd position in his 15 yr age group with a 12 second pb (bettering his own club record).

The following day at Black Lion Christopher Miles and Emily Coe competed in the 1500m event. Chris swam faster in the first 800m of the 1500m than he had swum the night before and went on to take a 2nd position in his age group in a 19 sec pb (and a new club record time). Emily Coe went one step further and manged to gain 1st place in her age group in a pb of 26 secs (and a new club record).

James, Chris and Emily also received 2 finalist medals each for positions in the Junior and Open Categories. Well done to them all !

The first weekend of the 2009 Championships has started off fantastically. Over the 2 days we had a total of 88 swims from 28 swimmers. We also witnessed the Mens and Womens Open Freestyle and Medley relays. (Both Medley relays and the Womens freestyle relay came 4th and the Mens freestyle picked up 3rd medals).Everyone has performed to to their best ability and due to the number of entries, it is very difficult to mention everyone who took part. Congratulations to you all.

First positions were achieved by the following swimmers:-

Henry Choong (200 br), (200 free), (100 IM)
Oliver Coe (50 br) (100 back)
Katie Davis (50 back) (in a new club record time)
Bryonnie Newing (100 fly)

Second places were gained by the following swimmers:-
Oliver Coe (3) (200m br was a new club record time) , Emily Coe (2), Matthew Brown (4), Henry Choong

Third places were achieved by
Oliver Coe , Rebecca Harvey, Katherine Nye (2), Mike Bond (2) (50m br was in a new club record time), Bryonnie Newing (2), Emily Coe

Finalist places were as follows :-

James Lawrence (4), Emily Davison, Nicole Cheetham, James Briggs, Mike Bond (4),
Georgia Harris, James May (2), Matthew Brown, Oliver Coe, Emily Coe (3), Katie Davis (3), Holly Lumm.

Special mention must go to Henry Choong for 3 County Championship titles, and also Oliver Coe for 2 Titles ( and one event best performance - 100 IM).

There were pbs too numerous to mention, but Well done to Michael Jacobs (2 pbs and 7th place), Georgia Harris (5th place and pb), Kaya Salih (pb) and Charlotte Smith for competing in their first Championships. Full results to follow. Apologies if any results are incorrect as there are a vast number to collate. Well done for competing in such difficult conditions while Black Lion is re-furbished. The girls have already accumulated more points in one weekend than in the whole championships last year! The Boys are also very close! Congratulations to all of you.
Simon.

Congratulations to all the swimmers from all the clubs who took part in the Novices gala, a gala with the specific aim of giving the up-and-coming younger swimmers valuable experience of an open meet style event. The day passed extremely smoothly with the only real problem arising at the end with some families finding out their cars had been locked into the Walnuts Shopping Centre car park for the night. Thank you to Karen for bringing this to our attention and steps will be taken to give ample warning about this next year.

Orpington Ojays came away with 17 medals with the girls total of 9 and the boys 4. Holly Baronti took all three colours with gold in the backstroke, silver in the freestyle and bronze in the breastroke. Jessica Frankland also had the taste of gold in fly. Isabelle Minter-paye took home two with silver in the fly and bronze in the freestyle. Kate Ridley finishes the girls up with her bronze in the backstroke.

Three boys shared the 4 medals. Kaya Salih took two bronzes in the freestyle and the butterfly while two silvers went to David Johansen for the breaststroke and Oliver Randall for the backstroke.

In the relays the club took a gold in the mixed 10 years freestyle. We also had three silvers, two for the girls 9 years in the freestyle and medley and one for the mixed 11 years freestyle. The mixed 10 years medley team and the mixed 11 years freestyle team finished the day with bronzes.

Many thanks to all the swimmers from all the clubs for entering and taking part, all the parents and officials who ran the day and all the spectators for their support.

Click here for full results

Thank you to Beverley Choong and to Ian Milne for organising a super Novices Gala today. Well done to all the swimmers, parents, Officials and all the helpers (too numerous to mention) It was fantastic to see all the Top squad swimmers and older swimmers helping out , WELL DONE EVERYONE!!
This also gives me an opportunity to introduce our new Captains and Vice Captains, for this year. Pictured here are James Lawrence and Emily Coe (Captains) and Clare Folkes, Rebecca Harvey and Alexis Skitini (Vice- Captains) as they award the medals at the Novices.

A great night was had by all who attended a `sold out` presentation night, held at the Alexandra suite in Swanley. Special guests included Jane Evans (from the Jack Petchey Foundation) and Eve Powis, who both presented awards. Congratulations to all award winners and Thank you to everyone who supported the evening.
Simon

A thrilling afternoon was experienced by swimmers and spectators attending the Beacon Relay Gala held at Beckenham Spa. Five clubs competed with Orpington Ojays; Croydon Amphibians (last year’s winners), Leander, White Oak, Bromley and Sevenoaks. Throughout the gala all teams competed in an exciting environment however quickly it became apparent that two clubs were dominating most of the races. Orpington and Croydon! Between them they won 30 of the 32 events.
In the end Croydon proved the stronger of the two, reclaiming the trophy and medals but we pushed them close throughout.
The final postions were;
1st Croydon Amphibians – 174 pts
2nd Orpington Ojays – 160 pts
3rd Sevenoaks – 121pts
4th White Oak – 92pts
5th Bromley – 81pts
6th Leander – 41pts

Well done to all those who swam and helped to provide an exciting afternoon of swimming

We travelled to Crook Log on Saturday 17th January for the first round of the White Horse League this year. Hopes were high , as we had been the winners of the League trophy last year.

There was new competition this year as Saxon Crown have joined the League. We needn`t have worried, as between them, the OOSC team managed a phenomenal 20 first places. (Girls 13u Medley and freestyle relays, Boys 13u Medley relay, Boys 15u Medley relay, Ladies Open Medley relay, Mens Open Medley and freestyle relays,Georgia Harris 11u 50 back and fly, Katie Davis 15u 100 back, Oliver Coe 15u 100 back and breast, Henry Choong 13 u 100 back and free, Matthew Brown 15u 100 free, Saffron Salih 13u 100 free, Emily Coe Ladies Open 100 breast, Bryonnie Newing Ladies Open 100 free, Matt Perkins Mens Open 100 free and Joe Heaney Mens Open 100m Backstroke.

There were 10 pbs from Michael Jacobs, Katie Coad (2), Joseph Gaster (2), Matt Brown, Georgia Harris (2), Oliver Randall and Joe Heaney

We finished the evening in 1st place, with Beckenham B in 2nd and White Oak in 3rd. Well done to everybody for their hard work and lets look forward to the next round!

13 OOSC swimmers attended the Canterbury Icebreaker Open Meet on the 10th/ 11th Jan . The Icebreaker is a Meet which has high entry times and to be accepted is an achievement in itself. It was a long weekend with finals taking place in the evening session on both days.

We had a fantastic weekend of swimming and between them 13 swimmers managed to achieve 44 pbs! There were 5 first places (Emily Coe, Henry Choong (3),Katherine Nye) . A further 16 final places were achieved, and it was exciting to have our swimmers in so many final events. Emily Coe, James Lawrence, Oliver Coe, Nicole Cheetham, Rebecca Harvey, Henry Choong , Katherine Nye, Katie Davis all took part in at least one final, if not more.

All swimmers gained at least one pb over the weekend.

Well done to all of you who swam they were as follows:-
Chris Miles, Emily Coe, Emily Davison ,Henry Choong, James Briggs, James Lawrence, James May ,Katherine Nye, Katie Davis, Nicole Cheetham, Oliver Coe, Rebecca Harvey, Sam Harvey and Saffron Salih.
Special mention must go to Henry Choong who achieved 9 pbs, 3 final places and came 1st or 2nd in all the events he entered.

A Big well done to all of you! Thank you to all of our supporters.

The third round of the National Swimming League saw the B team at the Beckenham Spa again, but missing quite a few swimmers due to several last minute withdrawals. This unfortunately meant we lost our boys 9-11yrs relay team, leaving us with 0 points for two events. Overall our round 3 team did better than the previous rounds, well done everyone!

In our relays, our girls 11/u team swam the fastest in both the freestyle (2nd) and medley (1st) than the previous two rounds, as did both our ladies (1st) and men’s (4th) open medley relays. Our boy’s 13/u freestyle (3rd) also swam the fastest so congratulations go to all of those teams from round 3. We also had 10 PB’s – Jack Quinn, Michael Jacobs, Sophie Blundell, Tom Blundell (2), Nick Blackler, Alexis Skitini, Henry Matthews, Shauna Hancock, James Briggs and Jessica Page. Excellent work, well done, particularly to Oliver Randall for swimming in his first individual race!

We had some fantastic swims, congratulations go the following swimmers on a first place: Georgia Harris (2), Nicole Cheetham, Rachel Dickerson (2), Sophie Blundell, Elizabeth Bennett and of course our ladies open medley team and girls 11/u medley team. There were a whopping 25 top 3 finishes, our highest number yet, beating round 1 (10 top 4) and round 2 (9 top 4), and only 1 disqualification, or should I call that falling in at the start???

The final results were:

Eltham Stingrays 221.5pts
Sutton Atlantis 185.5pts
Orpington Ojays B 160pts
Erith and District B 160pts
Edenbridge Piranhas 136.5pts
Folkestone 0pts

This left us overall in the league in 18th place out of 20 teams. Well done to everyone who swam in any of the 3rds and see you all next year for a better finish! Thankyou to the parents, helpers, organisers, committee and anyone I’ve missed off for the National Swimming League B team.

Congratulations to Georgia Harris and Henry Choong, who have both been selected to attend the Kent County Development Camp in February ! To have two younger swimmers there is a fantastic achievement. The development Camp runs alongside the Kent Camp for County swimmers and Congratulations also to Matt Brown ,Bryonnie Newing and Oliver Coe for their selection to this Camp. Well done!

Orpington Ojays yet again exceeded expectations in the final round of the National Swimming League held at Maidstone. With a number of swimmers still recovering from illness and some key swimmers unavailable, confidence was still high from previous rounds as we faced the following swimming clubs; Chelmsford, Black Lion, Hasting Seagulls, Woking & Croydon. Emily Coe got us off to a brilliant start with a win in the first race, things continued well and the first points update had us in 3rd position! Further inspiration came from nine 1st places; Emily Coe(2), Henry Choong (2), Emily Davison, Bryonnie Newing, Mike Bond, Matt Perkins, Mens Open FC relay. It also came from 11 individual PB’s from Emily Coe, Holly Baronti(2), Emily Davison, Ellie Miller, James Lawrence, Mike Bond, Matt Brown, Henry Choong, Saffron Salih & Chris Miles . These coupled with good strong swims from all of the team including the exciting win in the final event, ensured that a comfortable 3rd position was secured at the end of the night.

1st Croydon Amphibians – 218
2nd Black Lion - 217
3rd Orpington Ojays- 175
4th Chelmsford - 155
5th= Hastings - 142
5th= Woking - 142

This has left the club in overall 4th position in the Division 1 League 4 places higher than last year!
Well done to all swimmers that have competed in the Speedo League this year – you have done the club proud. Thanks also to all those that have supported the club throughout; on poolside, in the organisation and in the gallery – a great team performance!

Unfortunately Platinum junior and senior training has had to be cancelled tonight . There will be no training at Sevenoaks. Training as normal tomorrow (Friday).

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Conrgatulatoins to Saffron Salih (Top Squad) who came 2nd in the Schools biathlon last Sunday. She also won her age group at the National Schools cross country the previous weekend. She also has her trophy from her first place when she represented GB in the Pentathlon in Portugal earlier in the year. Well done!

The second round of the National Swimming League saw the B team at the Beckenham Spa again, but missing quite a few swimmers due to several last minute withdrawals, and a panicking coach as so many people turned up late. This unfortunately meant lots of swimmers having to swim up an age group and some having to swim several individual events. Therefore special mention must go to Jessica Page simply for being the only one in her age group and to Holly Andrews for swimming the 100m BS up a group. Sadly we had no one to swim the 100m BF in that age group.

In our relays, we had stronger 11/u girls team, but with so many of them swimming double the number of relays, expectations were low. However out of 16 relays, 4 of our teams managed to go faster than last time – Well Done! We also had 13 PB’s – Angelo Mitakos, Michael Jacobs, Holly Andrews, Tom Blundell (2), Ashton Rowntree, Alexis Skitini, Joseph Milward, Jack Herbert, David Johansen, Jessica Page, Shane Lavender and Emma Blundell. Excellent work,well done.

We had some fantastic swims, congratulations go the following swimmers on a top 4 finish: Rachel Dickerson (3rd) 100m I.M and (2nd) 100m BC; Ladies Open 200m Medley relay (2nd); Michael Jacobs (3rd) 50m BF; Holly Lumm (1st) 100m BF and (4th) 100m BS, Emma Blundell (3rd) 100m BS, James Briggs (4th) 100m FC and the Ladies Open 6 x 50m FC relay (2nd).

The final results were:

356pts - Beckenham ‘B’
306pts - White Oak
226pts - Black Lions B
218pts - Sevenoaks ‘B’
188pts - Barracuda
179pts - Croydon Amphibians B
173pts - Eltham Stingrays
126pts - Orpington Ojays B

Many thanks to the Parent helpers, particularly Debbie May for stepping in to be timekeeper literally at the last minute.

Click here for the results

This event is specifically designed for younger swimmers (10-12yrs) that haven’t competed previously in County Championships but would like to gain experience swimming against others swimmers across the county.

Only eight swimmers (Shauna Hancock, Georgia Harris, Jessica Frankland, Holly Baronti, Elizabeth Bennett, Benjamin Coe, Alex Miller & Joseph Gaster) represented the swimming club this year but all competed with a very positive attitude and each achieved at least one personal best time.

Three swimmers also gained medals for top 3 placings in their age groups; Georgia Harris 1st 50m Butterfly, Joseph Gaster 2nd 50m Butterfly & Alex Miller 3rd 50m Breaststroke.

Well done to all of you !

Lifted by the excellent result in round 1 we travelled to Bexleyheath for the next round with a positive frame of mind. We were due to compete against the following clubs; Croydon Amphibians, East Grinstead, Braintree And Bocking, 1066 and Bromley.
Emily Coe set the ball rolling with a win in the first event in a personal best time and from then on the rest of the team never looked back! A further 14 first place positions were achieved (Emily Coe(2), Henry Choong(2), Emily Davison, Oliver Coe (2), Matthew Brown(2), James Lawrence, Bryonnie Newing, Boys 15U FC and Med relays, Ladies Open Med relay, Mens Open Med relay). There were also 17 personal best times (Emily Coe (2), Henry Choong(2), James May, Katie Davis, Oliver Coe(2), Jessica Frankland, Joseph Gaster, Sam Harvey, Mike Bond, Saffron Salih(2), Matthew Brown, James Lawrence, Holly Baronti). Twelve relays also swam faster than the previous round!
All these fantastic swims resulted on a very impressive result on the night ensuring a top six position for the final round.
Final Points;
1st Croydon 245
2nd Orpington Ojays 212
3rd East Grinstead 170
4th Braintree & Bocking 144.5
5th Bromley 140
6th 1066 138.5

Well done to all that swam – a fantastic achievement overall

Congratulations to all OOJSC swimmers who took part in the Bromley Swimming Championships on Sunday 26th October at Beckenham Spa. At a particularly strong gala including swimmers from Beckenham and Bromley some great results were achieved, notably-

Girls 10 years
Georgia Harris - one 1st place and two 3rds
Girls 11/12 years
Sophie Livett - one 2nd and one 3rd
Holly Barontii - one 2nd place
Boys 11/12 years
Henry Choong - three 2nd places
Joseph Gaster - one 2nd and one 3rd place
Boys 13/14 years
Shane Lavender - one 1st and three 2nd places
Boys 15 and over
Jack Quinn one 1st, one 2nd and one 3rd

Well done guys and thanks to all the parents who helped on the day.

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Well done to Alison Nye who took part in the Medway ASA Masters’ at Black Lion Leisure Centre on Sunday 19th October 2008. Alison Nye came 1st in the 50m Freestyle time 31.00, 1st in the 50m Breastroke time 38.5, 1st in the 50m Butterfly time 34.1, 1st in the 4 x 1 Medley time 1.20.00 and 2nd in the 100m Breastroke time 1.29.00.

Also good luck to Alison who will also be taking part in the ASA National Masters & Senior Age Groups Championships in Sheffield this weekend.

Nick
Masters Coach

Just in the nick of time ,with barely any time to spare we arrived at Elmbridge Excel Leisure centre. Due to accidents on the M25 and long diversions, we only managed a short warm-up, as we arrived so late.

We had a tough draw for this first round, we were competing against Black Lion A , Croydon A, Elmbridge, Dover Lifeguards and Epsom district. We had to bring in some replacement swimmers at the last minute, due to sickness. As the night progressed we began to put all these things behind us and we managed to surpass last years result in the first round.

We managed to gain 12 personal best times for the following swimmers, Emily Coe, Emily Davison (2), Katie Davis, Oliver Coe (2), Joseph Gaster, Mike Bond, Saffron Salih (2), Henry Choong and James May. There were also 7 first places for the following, Henry Choong (2), Katie Davis, Matt Perkins, Mike Bond, James Lawrence and Oliver Coe. We were unlucky to be placed 2nd in another 11 events but there is a good chance we can convert these to more first places in the next round.

Overall the team performed beyond expectation and we are continuing to show signs of steady improvement. Big thanks to David Johansen for stepping in at the last minute (literally!).
Final placings and points were
1st Black Lion A 224
2nd Croydon A 207.5
3rd Orpington Ojays A 179.5
4th Elmbridge 148
5th Dover 147
6th Epsom 143
Well Done Everyone !
Next round November 8th Crook Log , Bexleyheath, warm –up 6.45pm

For the first time in a few years, we entered a ‘B’ team for the Speedo League, and not without incident. Not only was the coach late to the Spa (tut tut), but the parents helping out had a bit of shock when they were told the team should have been at Trinity pool!

In the first of 3 rounds we were drawn at the Beckenham Spa against 7 other teams, 5 of them were A teams. The competition was tough for our swimmers, but they all battled extremely well throughout the evening. Straight away Beckenham got off to a flying start and won nearly all the races. From the start we were in 7th place, ahead of Edenbridge Piranha’s ‘A’ team where we stayed all the way through. The team spirit was fantastic with everyone cheering everyone else on.

We had some fantastic swims, congratulations go the following swimmers on a top 4 finish: Rachel Dickerson (4th) 100m I.M + 100m BC; Ladies Open 200m Medley relay (4th); Georgia Harris (3rd) 50m BC; Alexis Skitini (4th) 100m BC; Holly Lumm (2nd) 100m BF; Sophie Blundell (4th) 50m BS; Nicole Cheetham (4th) 100m BS; Sarah May (3rd) 100m FC and Ladies Open 200m freestyle relay (4th)

Congratulations to the following swimmers for their PB’s (some of them were huge!) - Rachel Dickerson, James Briggs, Georgia Harris, Shauna Hancock, Tom Blundell, Ellen Cheetham (2), Jessica Page, Lewis Groombridge, Emma Blundell, Nick Blackler, Sophie Blundell, Lara Ashley, Shane Lavender, Chloe Ashley, Michael Jacobs, Ben Garwood, Jack Herbert.

The final results were:

348pts - Beckenham ‘B’
288pts - Hythe Aqua
251pts - Maidstone
250pts - Sevenoaks ‘B’
204pts - Larkfield
189pts - Barracuda
133pts - Orpington Ojays ‘B’
123pts - Edenbridge Piranha’s

Many thanks to the parents for helping out, finding missing swimmers, organising the warm-up and generally doing a bit more than they bargained for. Bring on round 2 (the coach will be on time this time....). Well Done

Orpington Ojays sealed an overall League win with a emphatic win in the final round of the White Horse League which the club hosted at Crook Log. The team achieved 40 first or second places out of 49 events! This resulted in a 74 point lead at the end of the evening. Nine swimmers gained 11 individual p.b`s; they were Holly Baronti, James May (2) , Oliver Coe (2), Jessica Frankland, Joseph Gaster, Saffron Salih, Clare Folkes, Joe Heaney and Emily Coe. There were 18 first places for the following swimmers ; Holly Baronti, Henry Choong (2), Oliver Coe (2), Matt Perkins, Saffron Salih (2), Katherine Nye, Emily Morgan, Alex Miller, Emily Coe and James May.

Everyone swam well throughout each round. On the announcement of us picking up the League Trophy the whole team celebrated by jumping into the pool ,with the Trophy !

Congratulations to everyone who took part in the galas – You all deserved the win !
Well Done I am very proud of you all .
Simon

After gaining 4th place in the first round of this competition hopes were high for a repeat performance. However, with 2 swimmers not turning up concerns quickly crept in. Swimming got underway and after the first set of results were read out we were in 4th place. Considering we had to withdraw from 2 events due to lack of swimmers things looked very encouraging. 12 events later we were up to 3rd place through some very strong swims and big PB’s by many swimmers. Against all odds 3rd was where we stayed for the remainder of the gala which was a fantastic achievement. As a club we improved 33 of our times out of 49 events. Special thanks must go to Joseph Gaster and Henry Choong who between them swam in 9 events each. Also thank you to Holly Andrews and Tom Blundell who stepped in last minute. Next round is hosted by us on 15th November please make sure everyone is available, team sheet will follow shortly.

Over eighty swimmers across the club attended this year's Captain's Gala. One team was alloted to each of the (5) club captains and vice-captains.
They were; Lightning Legget's, Team Briggs, Oli's Olympians, Emily & Co. and Sarah's Superstars. Swimmers swam across 3 age groups 10& under, 14& under and Open. Throughout the afternoon the each team competed valiantly with the lead changing hands on a number of times between most of the teams. 65 personal best times were achieved in an exciting afternoon and all enjoyed the Captain's challenging the parents and coaches to a relay race in which they were victorious. At the end of the day Emily & Co. won by a narrow points margin.
Well done to all those that competed; swimmers, coaches and parents as well as all those who helped to make an exciting and fun afternoon!

The first gala of the season began with the penultimate round of the White Horse League held at Crook Log pool Bexleyheath. We still needed a strong performance to maintain our overall lead in the league. There had to be some last minute team alterations (due to swimmers unavailability) however yet again everyone delivered a very fine performance on the night against strong opposition especially from a rejuvenated Beckenham team.

We achieved 12 first places; Henry Choong (2), Katie Davis, Oliver Coe (2), Joseph Gaster, Mike Bond , James Lawrence, Emily Coe, Mens Open Medley & Free relay and Ladies Open Medley Relay.
8 Personal best times were gained by James May (2), Joseph Gaster, Sam Harvey (2), Holly Baronti, Henry Choong and Charlotte Smith.

Throughout the evening Orpington and Beckenham were out in front, tussling to gain the lead resulting in the final positions.
1st Beckenham - 263.5
2nd Orpington Ojays - 251
3rd Greenwich Borough Mariners - 208
4th Erith - 200.5
5th Bromley - 187
6th White Oak - 167
7th Eltham – 84
Gravesend & Northfleet DNS

Well done to everyone and thank you to Jessica Frankland and Holly Andrews for stepping in at the last minute!

Oliver Coe qualified for his first National championships in two events (100m & 200m Backstroke). These events would take place over two days. Expectations were to gain personal best times and invaluable experience competing at this level. Being ranked 12th and 14th in his age group would mean qualifying for the finals would be difficult.
On the Friday morning Oliver surprised everyone by swimming the 100m heat in a really impressive time of 1.05.88 (a two second PB!) and qualified sixth fastest for the final during which he came a creditable 8th place. The following day the he swam in the heats for the 200m Backstroke again achieving a personal best time of 2.24.44. This however didn’t prove fast enough to make the final but an excellent swim nonetheless.
Overall the weekend proved a big success with fantastic results.
Well done Oliver your commitment and hard work over the past few months have really paid off!

We entered a ‘B’ Team for this gala hosted by Dartford Swimming Club. This gala gave swimmers who don’t normally swim in `A` team galas a chance to compete, and it also gave the `A` team selected swimmers chances to compete in alternative events.
Unfortunately due to the time of year, the original team had to be re-selected several times as some swimmers were unavailable. However the final team did brilliantly. In all we won 15 events, and achieved 29 personal best times. As the final points were read out we were surprised to hear that we were only in 3rd position.

First place positions were achieved by Sam Harvey, Katie Davis (2), Georgia Harris (2), Jack Dickerson, James Lawrence, James May (2), Joe Heaney (2), Holly Andrews, Rachel Dickerson, Oliver Coe and the 16/u Mixed Medley Relay.
Personal best times were achieved by Sam Harvey, Katie Davis (2), Michael Jacobs (2), Georgia Harris (2), Jack Dickerson (2), Ashton Rowntree (2), Ellie Miller (2), Joseph Gaster , Jessica Frankland (2), Joe Heaney (2), James May, Henry Matthews, Holly Andrews (2), Lewis Groombridge, Shauna Hancock, Oliver Coe, Rachel Dickerson, Sophie Blundell, Jack Herbert and Lara Ashley.

The final points were
1st Dartford Blue 230
2nd White Oak 219
3rd Orpington Ojays 215
4th Edenbridge Piranhas 126
5th Dartford White 118

Well Done to everyone who competed!

A big Thank you to Sarah and Nick Davis for organising the barbecue and to Nick Harvey and Steve (the Chefs of the club) for cooking such tasty burgers, and so many of them as well! A brilliant afternoon was had by all who attended. One popular activity was the throw and catch the eggs relay! (eggs donated by Club Captain Oli Bates), followed by a much more sedate skipping relay and rounders.

With swimmers withdrawing at the last minute, and others on holiday , I was unsure of the possible outcome of this 4th round of the White Horse League. However with the participation of a couple of dedicated swimmers who can always be relied upon to swim with 24 hrs notice when others drop out, we managed to achieve one of our best performances and wins in this League. It was phenomenal!

There were 14 first places, Mens Open Medley and Freestyle relay. Girls 11u Medley relay, boys 15u Medley relay, Katie Davis (2), Oli Coe (2), Henry Choong, Emily Morgan, Emily Coe, Holly Baronti, and Joseph Gaster, There were 14 pbs for the following swimmers Katie Davis (3), Holly Baronti (2), Jack Dickerson (2), Alise Cotton, Emily Morgan, Joe Heaney, Emily Coe, Joseph Gaster, Saffron Salih and Oli Coe.

Final position
1st Orpington Ojays 310 points
2nd Beckenham B 282
3rd Bromley 261
4th Erith 251
5th Greenwich Borough Mariners
6th White Oak 206
7th Eltham Stingrays 181
Gravesend and Northfleet DNS

This result enables us to extend our lead in the league.

Special thanks to Georgia Harris and Ashton Rowntree for stepping in at very short notice. If you hadn`t swum we definitely wouldn`t have had such a comfortable win . Thank you and well done to everybody for great individual and team performances (including the hoarse parents/supporters in the gallery).

Click here for full results.

Saturday 14th June saw us return to Crook Log for the 3rd round of the White Horse League. With a few absentees we had hoped to gain a minimum of third place to put us in good stead for the final points where we were currently placed 1st.

We had a solid start to the gala with team spirit playing a large part along with some great performances from swimmers who don't usually get to compete in individual events.

It took 25 events to secure a first place with Louise Davison and only three others followed with Joe Heaney in the 15/u 100m Freestyle and a PB, Emily Coe in the ladies open 100m Breaststroke and the girls 11/u medley relay team.

As the points were read out we were placed in 2nd position which really shows how much depth we now have in the club and how well everyone is working and pulling together. There were many pb's achieved these include- Katie Coad (2), Louise Davison (2), Joe Heaney (2), Holly Baronti (2), Sophie Livett, Sam Harvey (2), Joseph Gaster, Lara Ashley.

The London Regional Championships are held each year from early May to early June. These Regional Championships are a step up from the Kent County Championships. Qualification times are tough and swimmers entering the London Regional Champs are aiming to achieve National entry times, in order to compete in the Nationals in Sheffield in July. The competition this year was held in Gurnell pool , Ealing and is always divided into 2 age groups; Youths (Girls 14yrs +, Boys 15yrs +) and BAGCATs (Girls 9-13yrs, Boys 9-14yrs). Considering the location of the pool and the fact that each day started with an 8am warm-up, meaning a 6.30am departure, it was good to see so many dedicated swimmers attending. This year 18 swimmers competed in 64 events. These 18 swimmers achieved 19 finalist placings, there were a number of exceptional swims. The finalists were Emily Coe ( 16yrs+ 50m breast, 100m breast, 200m breast), Rebecca Harvey,(14/15yrs 200m fly) Holly Lumm(16yrs+200m fly), Henry Choong (11yrs 200 back, 400 free, 100 back, 200 free), James Lawrence (14 yrs 200 IM, 800m free) , Oliver Coe (13 yrs 200 back,200 IM, 100 fly, 200 breast,100 breast, 100 back, 200 free) and Katie Davis (100 back).
Medals were presented to swimmers who came 1st, 2nd or 3rd in their age groups.

Oliver Coe exceeded all expectations by achieving a finalist place for every event he entered. He received 4 medals for the following, 1st place for 200 IM, 1st for 100m backstroke, 2nd for 200 back and 100 breast. (100m and 200m back were National qualifying times).

We also entered relay teams in the 14 – 17 ladies age group in which the 4 x 200m freestyle relay team of Gemma Leggett, Rebecca Harvey, Katherine Nye and Emily Coe came 4th.

At the end of the Championships (Bagcats), awards are made to swimmers who accumulate the highest number of points over the whole championship. Points are allocated to each swimmer for each swim. There are four categories (Sprint which is 100m swims, Form is 200m swims, IM is for medley swims and free is 200 free and above). A swimmer is automatically allocated points for each swim and their best results in each of the four categories are used towards their points total.

This year three swimmers received awards, James Lawrence in the 14yrs came 8th. Henry Choong came 5th in the 11years age group. Oliver Coe came second in the 13yrs age group (narrowly missing first position).
Well done to everyone who braved the early mornings and long days!

James, Angelo and Katie were at Gurnell pool in Ealing representing Bromley in the London Youth Games yesterday (21st June). There were strong swims from both the boys and girls but the girls went on to win the championship! Well done!

Congratulations to Martha and Robert on the arrival of Albert John Dean. He arrived this morning (17th June) 8lb 1oz. Congratulations from everyone at Orpington Ojays x

Swimmers who attended the Regional Champs at Gurnell Pool Ealing

Katherine Nye on her Masters debut came 1st in her age group in 5 events, and won outright the 50m and 100m. backstroke, and swum a PB in the 50m. breaststroke.
1st 50m. breaststroke,50m. butterfly,50m backstroke,100m. backstroke, 100m.IM.

Gina Charlton won a bronze in the 100m. freestyle and swum a PB in the 100m Breaststroke.

Alison Nye swam in 4 events and won 3 golds and a silver.

Well Done Ladies!

Well done to all those that competed at Race Night. A record turnout of over fifty swimmers attended an enjoyable afternoon at Eltham College. There were excellent swims across all age groups and strokes. Thank you to everyone that organised the afternoon and those that volunteered on the day. Results will be posted on the notice board and website soon. (Don’t forget to compare your times with the ASA badge scheme to see if you are eligible for a new badge!)

Well done Alexis for winning the Jack Petchey award for April for your 5km Butterfly swim for Charity and also for your performance in recent Open events.

Congratulations Oliver who secured his 100m Backstroke national qualification time of 1.06.21 at the black lion open !
Well Done!!!!

Sevenoaks was the venue for the Edenbridge Trophy Gala. I wasn`t sure what to expect in terms of results for this gala as we had a team which comprised of largely inexperienced younger swimmers and we lacked some of our older experienced swimmers. However I was pleasantly surprised to see the number of pbs and first places we managed. There were 17 personal best times and these were achieved by the following swimmers, Sophie Livett (2), Joseph Gaster, Georgia Harris (3), Benjamin Coe (2), Ben Garwood (2), Lydia Goundry, Michael Jacobs (2), Katie Coad, Oliver Coe and Katie Davis. There were 19 first places achieved by Katherine Nye, Emily Davison, Oli Coe (2), Holy Lumm, Mike Bond, Emily Coe, Katie Davis (2), Gemma Leggett, Matt Steere, Georgia Harris and Michael Jacobs. The following relay teams came first, Breaststroke squadron, Open girls medley, Open boys Medley, Open boys freestyle, 14u boys freestyle and the12u girls freestyle. Normally these performances would have guaranteed us an overall win, but we were pipped at the post by Redhill and Reigate who beat us by 7 points. The final points score was as follows:
1st Redhill and Reigate 230
2nd Orpington Ojays 223
3rd Dartford 200
4th Edenbridge `A` 162
5th Sevenoaks 159
6th Edenbridge `B` 58
A special Thankyou and Congratulations to the following swimmers who swam for the first time in an away team gala – Kate Ridley, Lydia Goundry, Georgia Harris, Charlotte Gregory (whose birthday it was on the night!), Harry Harbard, David Johansen, Benjamin Coe, Michael Jacobs and James Adams. Well done everybody!

Top squad had a fantastic time paintballing! Thanks to Oli B for organising it!

We are introducing Competitive Swimming Performance Awards for Gold, Silver and Bronze squads. These awards have been developed by the Amateur Swimming Association and are to encourage swimmers to strive and improve their swimming times.

Click here for more information (Adobe pdf format)

Eve Powis, 70, has been awarded the Jack Petchey leader award for outstanding work with young people.

Eve has been actively involved in swimming in Orpington since 1982. She started coaching with what was then Orpington Swimming Club taking a width's squad. Two years later with just 19 swimmers she started a new club called Ojays, which stood for Orpington Juniors. She built this into a highly successful swimming club. One of her swimmers, Joanne Mullins, took the Gold medals in the Nationals in the 100m and 200m breaststroke at the age of 12. Under Eve's coaching she went on to compete at the Olympic Games and the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

Eve's qualifications for teaching and coaching include ASA Preliminary Teacher, Teacher, Advanced Teacher, Assistant Club Coach and Coach and in 1997 Eve was awarded by Bromley Council the Coach of the Year award.

With two big clubs in the Orpington area, Orpington Swimming Club and Ojays Swimming club decided to merge to form Orpington Ojays Swimming Club. Eve took the position of head coach of the new club and continued to enjoy great success.

At the age of 65 she was going to retire from coaching but instead agreed to coach Gold squad instead who train four times a week.

Congratulations Eve on all you have achieved and a big thank you from all the youngsters who have benefitted from your continual hard work and unswerving dedication.

This story is also available on the News Shopper website.

Another successful night for the team at the second round of the White Horse league (Crook Log – Bexleyheath).It was very difficult to pick out individual swimmers as everybody swam so well. 18 individual personal best times were achieved; Henry Choong (2), James May (2), Oli Coe (2), Rebecca Harvey, Mike Bond, Holly Baronti (2),, Sam Harvey (2), Alise Cotton, James Lawrence, Emily Morgan, Alex Miller, Katie Coad and Joseph Gaster. We achieved 16 first places which helped us on our way to a staggering 320 point victory (56 points ahead of the team in 2nd place). The following swimmers managed first places Henry Choong (2),Emily Davison, Oli Coe (2), Mike Bond (2), James Lawrence, Emily Morgan and Alex Miller. Well done to Joseph Millward on swimming his first gala for Orpington Ojays , and Henry Choong for swimming up two age groups in the boys u15 medley relay ,which achieved a first place.

On Saturday 19th of April, Alexis Skitini and Jack Quinn both swam 5k of butterfly. That is a whopping 152 lengths of The Walnuts pool. The swim was part of the annual swimathon in aid of Marie Cure Cancer Care and between them they raised £700.

Congratulations to you both; on the determination to swim it all butterfly and for raising a magnificent amount for charity.

http://www.swimathon.org

Congratulations to Jessica Page from Gold squad who received the Jack Petchey award for the Month of March, she was awarded this for her performance in recentOpen events, including the Orpington Open and Race night. Well done Jessica!

A fantastic weekend was had by Simon, Sarah, Emily,Oli, Benji and James at the World Championships. Highlights included watching the british team and others break so many records ( especially Liam Tancock), and also seeing Ellen Gandy swim in the final of the womens 100m fly.

As you can see the spring training camp is in full swing and everyone is working hard and enjoying themselves!

Orpington Ojays Swimming Club continued to perform at a high level last Sunday when they held their annual Open Meet at the Black Lion Leisure Centre in Gillingham. There was a fantastic atmosphere and more than 30 clubs attended with a total of more individual entries than last year.

Orpington Ojays won the Trophy for Top performing club. Points for the Top five clubs were as follows;

Orpington 191 points,
Hastings 168.5
Croydon Amphibians 153.5
Canterbury 149
Herne Bay 74.5

This was a fantastic achievement as OOSC were competing against many of the larger swimming clubs in Kent. James Briggs and Emily Coe (Vice-Captains) received the Top Club Trophy from Kent County ASA President (Jennifer Verherevoort).

There were a record number of personal best times and too many finalists too mention. However the following swimmers performed outstandingly well and picked up first medals in their age groups. Henry Choong (3), Oliver Coe (2) Matt Steere, James Lawrence, Mike Bond and Katie Coad. There were a huge amount of medals won by swimmers who achieved 2nd to 6th places. It was good to see a large number of younger swimmers, many of whom were attending an Open event for the first time.

Well done to everyone!

This Months Award was presented to Lara Ashley by Club Captain Oli Bates.

Well done to all swimmers that attended Race Night at Eltham College yesterday.
Swimmers from Tadpoles, Bronze, Silver & Gold competed well and gained valuable experience in an exciting afternoon. It was great to see so many younger swimmers doing so well.
Thanks to coaches Alison and Matt, senior swimmers Oli, Katherine, Emily, James, Katie, Oliver, Gemma, Ellie, Angelo & Clare for their marshalling help. Thanks also to volunteers who helped with the timekeeping, officiating and organizing the afternoon. Eveyone who attended seemed to have an exciting afternoon.
Times from this event will be posted on the noticeboard soon and ribbons will be handed out for the top 6 competitors in each age group on a club night.
Simon

The final weekend of the Kent County Championships at Black Lion started with a victory for Katherine Nye, She came first in her age group in the 400 IM . Alise Cotton came 9th in the 200 metres freestyle in a pb time; Katie Davis came 8th in the same event in a pb time.Nicole Cheetham came 8th in the 50m breaststroke. Emily Coe came 3rd in the 50m breaststroke in a pb time; Clare Folkes came 12th and Rachel Dickerson 13th. Orpington Ojays had three entrants in the 200m backstroke they were Henry Choong, James Lawrence and Oliver Coe. James Lawrence came 5th with a Pb. Two more wins followed for Henry and Oliver, both with pb times.

The afternoon session started with swimmers in the 100m breaststroke, James Lawrence, James May and Oliver Coe swam pb times and Oliver once again came first, James Lawrence (5th) and James May (4th). Four girls swam in the 100m breaststroke, Emily Coe achieved 3rd position, Nicole Cheetham came 8th, Clare came 8th and Rachel Dickerson came 12th. Henry Choong, Oli Coe and James Lawrence swam in 400m freestyle all achieving pbs, gaining 3rd, 5th, and 6th position respectively.

The final morning on Sunday commenced with James Lawrence (3rd) in the 400 IM with a pb. In the 50m backstroke Oliver Bates swam a pb and came 6th, Joe Heaney came 8th in his age group. Two swimmers competed in the girls 200m freestyle, Emily Coe and Gemma Leggett. (Emily in a pb time)

The afternoon started with boys 200m IM, with Henry Choong, Oliver Coe and James Lawrence taking part. They all achieved pbs and all came 4th in their age groups. The Mens 100m freestyle meant Oli Bates and Angelo Mitakos got pbs as did Emily Coe and Rachel Dickerson in the Ladies 50m freestyle Also swimming in that event were Gemma Leggett, Sarah May and Clare Folkes. We had. Henry Choong, James Lawrence and Oli Coe finishing their Championships with swims in the 50m butterfly. James and Henry came 6th and Oli came 7th. James and Oliver managed pb times. The last swimmer of the Championships for 2008 was Katie Davis in the 200m back stroke and she came 6th in a pb time.

Henrys performance throughout these championships earned him the highest bagcat points in his age group and he was presented with a trophy by Jennifer Verhorevoort (ASA President)

Orpington Ojays have achieved fabulous results over the past month. We have seen the dedication and training and commitment of all our swimmers pay off with so many pbs, finals, and first places.

Outstanding performances of the Championships include 6 first places for Oliver Coe and 3 first places for Henry Choong. Katherine Nye won 3 events. Emily Coe and Mike Bond also managed to come away as county champions, meaning we have 14 County Championship titles in total. A fantastic achievement! James Lawrence and Emily Coe came away with 14 and 13 finalist medals respectively. It is noticeable, looking back through the programme that we have an increased number of swimmers in all events. We also had swimmers who hadn’t qualified in previous years, winning medals. (Katie Davis & Emily Morgan). Team support throughout the Championships was phenomenal, this obviously contributed to our success as a club. At midway through Sunday’s session, the Top Teams list was updated and Orpington Ojays girl’s team were in 9th position, the boy’s team were in 8th position. I am fairly confident that is going to be an indication of the final result. Well done to everyone and thanks to Gina and Matt for their poolside support throughout.
Simon

Saturday 1st March
Today we were at Black Lion for the relay events (normally held at Crystal Palace) :-
We had relay teams entered for all events which is in itself a great achievement. All teams performed to their best ability and team spirit again was brilliant. We had six teams who made the finals and unluckily another 8 were either 1st or 2nd reserves ! The results are as follows:_
Women’s Open 400m freestyle team 9th
16u Boys 4 x50 Medley 6th
13/14 Girls 200m Freestyle 15th
13/14 Boys 200m freestyle team 10th
15/16 Girls 200m freestyle team 7th
12u Boys 200m freestyle team 8th
15/16 Boys 4 x 50m Medley 7th
12u Girls 4 x 50m Medley 17th
Girls junior 200m freestyle team 8th
Boys 16u 4 x 50 free 7th
Mens Open 400m Medley team 4th
Ladies Open 400m Medley team 7th
Girls 13/14 200m freestyle 16th
Boys 13/14 200m Medley team 6th
Girls 15/16 200m Medley team 6th
Girls 12u 200m freestyle team 19th
Boys 12u 200m Medley team 7th
Mens Open 400m freestyle team 3rd
Boys 15/16 freestyle 6th
Girls 16u 4 x 50medley 5th
It was fantastic to have so many Orpington Ojays swimmers taking part in the relays. Well done to everyone! Particularly to the Mens Open team ,Mike Bond gave us a nail biting finish to Saturdays last race!

Sunday 2nd March
Again Black Lion hosted the next two sessions, and our success continued . Henry Choong and Oliver Coe both achieved first places in the 50m backstroke. James Lawrence achieved a 4th place in the 200m fly. Oliver Coe also achieved a 5th place in the 200 fly. Emily Coe came 6th in the 200 IM. Katherine Nye was placed 3rd in the 100 back. Mike Bond came first in both the 50m breast and 50m fly. Katie Davis came 2nd in 50m free and 3rd in 100m free.

15 personal bests were achieved by the following swimmers – Henry Choong, James Lawrence (3), Oliver Coe (3), Emily Coe, Mike Bond, Katie Davis (2), Alise Cotton ,Emily Davison, James May and Angelo Mitakos.

There are so many achievements covering the whole weekend, they are difficult to list here, but everybody deserves a big pat on the back! Well done to everyone who took part!

About 20 swimmers from Bronze, Silver & Gold squads took part in this special clinic to improve their starts and turns. Everyone worked hard all afternoon and great improvements were noted by coaches and parents. Thanks to Matt, Sarah & Sarah for organising and delivering the clinic and to Alise, Rebecca, Oli, Katie & Emily from top squad that helped with demonstrations.
Great work.
Simon

Orpington Ojays had two swimmers in this event which was held at Crook Log pool, Bexleyheath. Both James Lawrence and Emily Coe had never competed in this distance previously but they exceeded everyones expectations by both attaining pbs and medal positions.

James came 3rd in his age group and also picked up a 5th medal in the junior age group and a 6th medal in the Open age group. His time was 17.37.27 (a pb of over 60 secs).

Emily came second in her age groupwith a 15 sec pb in a time of 18.56.93.

A huge achievement for both James and Emily in such a tough event. Thank you to all the supporters.

The second session of the Championships was a great success for the club with excellent swims all round, resulting in 25 personal best times.

Saturday16th Feb

Saturday morning got off to a winning start for Orpington Ojays with Oliver Coe gaining a first place in the 200m breast stroke. Third positions were gained by Mike Bond (50m breast) and Henry Choong (200m breast), a 4th position (100m backstroke) for Katie Davis and 5th for James May and James Lawrence (200m breaststroke).
In the afternoon another first place was gained by Emily Coe (200m breaststroke), 4th for Henry Choong (50m freestyle), 6th for Oliver Bates (100m back), 6th for James Lawrence (100m butterfly).
There were in total 14 personal best times during Saturday.

Sunday 17th Feb

Sunday morning proved as successful as Saturday with first places for Katherine Nye (50m backstroke) and Oliver Coe (50m breaststroke). Other finalists included James Lawrence (2nd in 50m breastroke), Emily Davison (3rd in 50m breaststroke),Henry Choong (3rd in 200m freestyle), Emily Coe (5th in 400m freestyle) and Emily Morgan (5th in 50m breaststroke). Sunday afternoon again saw Katherine Nye first in 200m backstroke . Oliver Coe first in 100m backstroke, and first for Henry Choong in 100m IM. Other finalists included Oliver Coe (3rd in 100 IM), Rebecca Harvey (5th in 50m butterfly), Gemma Leggett (6th in 50m butterfly), Mike Bond (6th 50m freestyle) and Emily Coe (6th 200m backstroke). In total on Sunday swimmers managed 12 personal best times. In all, a thoroughly successful weekend which was well deserved by everyone. A full list of results will follow on the noticeboard and website soon.

Congratulations Rachel Dickerson on winning this Months award for her hard work in training and recent personal best performance times.

Orpington Ojays swimmers

Well done to all those swimmers who competed in the gala yesterday. It was great to see so many younger Orpington Ojays swimmers swimming really well and winning medals. This shows the club developing new and exciting talent. Fantastic!!!
Thanks to all those who helped throughout the day.

The first day of the 2008 Championships began with the 800m event. Three Orpington Ojays swimmers competed in this event, they were Alise Cotton, Oliver Coe and James Lawrence.
Although very nervous beforehand ,all three swimmers delivered performances to be proud of and all three returned with personal best times and medals.
Alise came 5th in her age group with a time of 10.01.32, Oliver was 3rd in a time of 9.37.51 and James came 2nd with a time of 9.09.05. ( this would be a national qualifying time if it had been swum in a 50m pool!)
What a great start to this years championships, lets hope this is the start of further success.

Well done to Oli Bates who represented Judd School. Their Medley relay team came 4th!

Over 280 people, celebrated swimmers successes from 2007, they and their families had an excellent evening at the Alexandra suite in Swanley. Club Championship trophies were presented by special guest and former coach Martha Feeley, followed by special trophies and the announcement of the 2008 Captains and Vice-Captains by Chairman Trevor Oliver. This was followed by the disco. Thank you to Sarah Davis for organising the evening and to Linda Baverstock for organising all the awards.More photos to follow.

This year the White Horse League included two new competitors, so we travelled to Crook Log pool looking forward to competing against all the league clubs including the two new ones. This year’s teams are, Beckenham B, Bromley, Eltham Stingrays, Erith, Gravesend and Northfleet, Greenwich Borough Mariners, Orpington Ojays and White Oak.
Our performance on the night was the most exciting and strongest I have seen as Orpington Ojays Head Coach. As team performers we were outstanding.

This was helped by 19 personal best performances from ; Emily Morgan (2), Henry Choong, Emily Davison (2), James May (2), Katie Davis, Oliver Coe, Holly Baronti, Sam Harvey (2), Mike Bond, Katie Coad (2), James Lawrence, Emily Coe, Joseph Gastor and Clare Folkes. These and other great swims ensured 16 1st places including; Henry Choong, Emily Davison, Oliver Coe (2), Matt Perkins, Mike Bond, Emily Morgan, James Lawrence, Emily Coe ,Matt Steere Boys 15U FS relay, Boys 15U Medley relay, Mens Open FS relay, Mens Open Medley relay, Girls 11U Medley and Mixed Squadron Relays. The final points provided us with a convincing victory:-
1st - Orpington Ojays 304
2nd - Bromley 267
3rd - Erith 248
4th - White Oak 247
5th - Beckenham B 205
6th – GBM 191
7th – Gravesend and Northfleet 167
8th - Eltham Stingrays 115
BRILLIANT!

Eleven Top Squad swimmers competed in 41 races at this years Grade 1 Licensed Open Meet held at the Kingsmead Leisure Centre, Canterbury. This popular and highly competitive meet, spread over 3 days, gives swimmers the chance to get an early taste of what they can and would like to achieve in 2008. Due to its close proximity to Christmas break personal best times are often quite difficult achieve, however throughout the weekend Orpington Ojays swimmers performed strongly with 15 personal best times were gained for James Lawrence, Rachel Dickerson (3), Nicole Cheetham, Emily Coe (2), Sam Harvey (2) and Oliver Coe (an outstanding 6!).
As well as numerous PB’s a number of finalist trophies were awarded to the following; Emily Coe (1st 100m Breatstroke, 2nd 200m Breaststroke, 6th 200m Ind. Medley & 100m Freestyle), Gemma Leggett (6th 100m Butterfly & 200m Freestyle), Katherine Nye (3rd 200m Backstroke) and Oliver Coe (1st 100m Backstroke & 100m Breaststroke, 2nd 200m Backstroke & Breaststroke, 3rd 50m Freestyle & 5th 100m Freestyle).
Everyone that competed did the club proud and I look forward to seeing more swimmers (especially some a bit younger) competing in this event next year.

Christmas fun night is on Monday 17th Dec at 6.30pm. Ther is no Top squad land training that night but normal Top squad training will follow fun night. All squads attend normal training times.

Orpington Ojays yet again exceeded expectations whilst hosting the final round of the Speedo League at Beckenham Spa. With a number of swimmers still recovering from illness and some key swimmers unavailable, confidence was still high from previous rounds as we faced the following swimming clubs; Erith, Southend on Sea, 1066, Alantis and Croydon. Getting off to a shaky start, the first points update had us in 4th position, just! However inspiration came from twelve 1st places; Matt Steere (2), Holly Lumm, Matt Perkins, Oliver Coe, Katherine Nye, Emily Coe (2), Mike Bond, Alise Cotton and both Men’s relays. It also came from 7 individual PB’s from Matt Steere (2), Rebecca Harvey, Joe Heaney, Holly Lumm, Oliver Coe, Katherine Nye and Sophie Livett. Four teams also delivered best times (Men’s Open medley, Girls 9-11 medley, Girls 13U freestyle & Boys 15U medley). These coupled with good strong swims from all of the team ensured that a comfortable 2nd position was secured at the end of the night.

1st Croydon Amphibians – 228
2nd Orpington Ojays – 181
3rd = Erith – 166
3rd = Southend on Sea -166
5th 1066 Swimmers - 164
6th Atlantis – 144

This has left the club in overall 8th position in the Division 1 League 5 places higher than last year!
Well done to all swimmers that have competed in the Speedo League this year – you have done the club proud. Thanks also to all those that have supported the club throughout; on poolside, in the organisation and in the gallery – a great team performance!

After winning the previous round by one point expectations were high for this gala with everyone knowing winning this round would give us promotion. After the first 10 races we were 5.5 points ahead. Then after that we pulled away and never looked back. Some incredible swims and great team spirit pulled us a further 15 points ahead of our nearest rivals after 20 events. In the end we ran out clear winners with a huge 36.5 point advantage on 2nd placed GBM. Well done to all swimmers who took part. Many coming for just the one race which all counted in this great result. Special thanks must go to Henry Choong, Sam Harvey, Katie Coad and James May who all swam in excess of 5 races. Also thank you to the Top squad girls of Gemma Leggett, Katherine Nye, Emily Coe and Rebecca Harvey for their combined team managing skills. Most importantly thank you to all the parents who gave their support throughout the whole 3 rounds without your support we would not have been in this situation.

Well done everyone a fantastic team performance. Look out Division 2.

Final Points-

1st Orpington Ojays 216.5
2nd GBM 180
3rd Ashford 170.5
4th Eltham 142
5th Maidstone 138
6th Edenbridge 127

Junior squad members of the club produced a most memorable evening when they produced a very exciting and convincing win in the final round of the North West Kent Junior League on Saturday evening. The gala held at Maidstone was going to be tight as points after round 2 saw Orpington Ojays and Greenwich Borough Mariners level in the lead. However no swimmer disappointed to deliver a great win on the night. This meant that the club won the Division 3 trophy and gained promotion to Division 2 next season.

Well Done!
(Matt's full report to follow)

Four Orpington Ojays swimmers had a very successful weekend at Ponds Forge, Sheffield (16 - 18 November)

Firstly ,Matt Steere competing for Imperial University swimming in 3 events; 1500m freestyle, 200m freestyle and 400m individual medley. In all three events he swam impressively and produced good personal best times of 17.09.02 (10th), 2.00.51 (20th), 4.58.96 (16th) respectively. This is especially impressive considering the distances of the events involved!

Hazel Colbourne represented Loughborough University in the 200m backstroke event and although one of the younger entrants she performed strongly to reach the final. Hazel then delivered another impressive swim in the final which resulted in a well deserved 5th place with a time of 2.32.62.

Ian Colbourne also had a busy weekend swimming well in three events the 200, 400 and 800 freestyle events with times of 2.06.30, 4.30.43 (11th) and 9.33.64 (19th). Ian competed for Bristol University.

Dimitris Mitakos also competing for Imperial University swam strongly in the 50m back stroke event with a time of 31.77. He later teamed up with Matt for all the relay events.

Well done to them all!

After 20 years of swimming for Orpington and Orpington Ojays, Simon Mullinger has reluctantly left the club due to issues with Masters squad having their training moved from a Wednesday to a Thursday evening whilst Crystal Palace is shut. He was hoping for a reduction in fees for this period as he could no longer make one of the two training sessions. This was denied as he was offered a place training with top squad on Wednesday. Unfortunately at 36 years of age he felt he would not be up to the session and would ultimately prove a disruption to the younger swimmers. Simon therefore felt he was left with no other option but to resign.

Simon joined Orpington from Bromley SC at the age of sixteen and has devoteed an incredible amount of time to training with and representing the club at all levels of competition. For years he was voted club captain and eventually had to remove himself from the position to let others have a chance. As he got older he started the Masters squad we have today which has gone from strength to strength and actually married one of his fellow swimmers this year, Helen Anderson. Not only did Simon devote his swimming abilities to Orpington but both his parents spent many many Satuday evenings on poolside as extremely well respected qualified officals and Simon himself also became a qualified timekeeper.

At present Simon is deciding whether or not to call it a day with swimming as he is also now a keen climber or whether to look for another club to swim for. Whatever he decides we all wish him luck for the future.

Well done!!

CONGRATULATIONS to all swimmers on winning this years Kent Junior League and subsequent promotion to Division 2. Well done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With our spirits lifted by a fine result in round 1, there was an anticipation that again we could achieve something special. Opposition was going to be tough; Dover, Erith Southend and Sevenoaks whilst some key swimmers were unavailable.
Hazel Colbourne (on leave from Loughborough Uni) and Matt Steere started proceedings with strong swims in the 200m IM (Matt with a 3sec PB!) and from then on Orpington Ojays never looked back!
9 First places were achieved; Henry Choong(2), Oli Coe, Matt Perkins, Emily Coe (2),Hazel Colbourne, Matt Steere and the Ladies Open Medley Relay.
13 Personal best times; Matt Steere (2), Sophie Livett, Henry Choong (2), Katie Coad, Ben Garwood, Katherine Nye, Sam Harvey, Blake Lewis, James May, Emily Coe (2).
10 out of 16 relay times also were improved on the previous round.
With a faulty PA system the only points update took place half way through the evening placed just in 2nd position. Could we hold on?!?!
All swimmers swam fast, cheered loudly and waited to the end of the gala with excitement and anticipation for the final score;
1st Sevenoaks – 183
2nd Orpington Ojays – 157
3rd = Erith & Southend on Sea – 141.5
5th Dover Lifeguards - 123
This sent the whole team into waves of joy. Parents were asking each other if anyone could remember coming 2nd (in the first 2 rounds) of the Speedo League before and other team coaches were complimenting our performance and overall team cohesiveness!
What a result, what a night, what a team!!!!!
To all that swam feel proud of the best club result for years. Yaour hard work and commitment has paid off.
Congratulations!

Well done to all the masters who took part in the ASA National Masters & Senior Age Group Championships in Sheffield on 26-28th October to represent Orpington Ojays Masters. Very good results and quite a few medals.

Well done to Alison Nye who came 1st in the Women's Open 50m Butterfly, 1st in the Women's Open 50m Breastroke, 2nd in the Women s Open 100m Breastroke and 3rd in the Women's Open 100 IM, and Women's Open 50m Freestyle and 10th Women's Open 100m Freestyle for her age group.

Emma Hulls 1st in the Women's Open 50m Butterfly, 4th in the Women's Open 100m Freestyle and Women's Open 100m Freestyle for her age group. Mark Hawkins 9th in the Men's Open 50m Butterfly for his age group and Hazel Colbourne 5th in the Women's Open 100m Freestyle, 8th in the Women's Open 200m Backstroke and Women's Open 200m Freestyle for her age group.

Well done to you all. The next big event for the Masters is the London & SE Regions LC Masters on 2 & 3rd of February 2008 in Crawley, West Sussex. Let's try to get a few mixed teams together for the relays.

Tonights gala is at Sevenoaks Leisure Centre not Sevenoaks school pool
address is
Buckhurst Lane
Sevenoaks
TN13 1LN

Only six of our senior swimmers out of the group of those who had achieved qualifying times (Matt Steere, James Briggs, Katherine Nye, Holly Lumm, Rebecca Harvey & Emily Coe) travelled to north west London to compete in the Regional Championships. The timing of these champs in the middle of a training cycle meant that the personal best times would be difficult to achieve however everyone was going to give their best. The larger north London teams dominated the events whilst the South London clubs were more sparsely represented in the open age group only events.
Saturday got off to a early, rather chilly start with good swims from Matt Steere and James Briggs in the 50m freestyle just short of their PB’s. (Matt finishing 16th out of 96 entries!). Holly and Katherine swam well in the 200m IM event however couldn’t better their previous best times. In the afternoon they were joined by Rebecca Harvey who was accompanied by Holly in the 100m butterfly both finishing narrowly outside the top 20 placings. Matt Steere and James Briggs swam in the 100m freestyle (Matt placed 18th). Matt also completed a busy freestyle day with 12th position in the 400m improving on his seeded position. Katherine Nye however put in the performance of the day with a 6 second personal best time in the 200m backstroke and claim 20th position (10 placings higher than originally seeded!)
Four girls arrived on Sunday to compete and proceedings were started off by Rebecca Harvey with a 2 second PB swim in the 200m freestyle increasing her position by over 40 places over her original seeding! Taking her lead Emily Coe followed with a 2 second PB in the 200m breaststroke booking herself a place in the final. Rebecca again was in fine form to gain yet another PB time in the 50m freestyle whilst Katherine Nye summoned a huge effort to reach 10th position with a six second PB! Emily Coe then found the energy to deliver 3rd place in the final of the 200m breaststroke bettering her PB set earlier that morning! After the excitement of the morning three tired swimmers (Emily, Katherine, Holly) competed valiantly in the final session. Katherine swam the 400m freestyle whilst Emily and Holly the 100m breaststroke. Emily again improved upon her seeding and swam well to gain a place in the final where she found something extra just missing out another medal by 0.4 seconds, finishing 5th.
Well done to all that got up early and braved a cold poolside to do so well!

Our first open gala of the season and a chance to set the scene for the year. We had 24 swimmers swimming 81 events and a few who had never been to an open meet before. Our younger swimmers had the tough task of trying to get into the finals from the heats – well done to Jack Dickerson for making 3/4 finals and Henry Matthews for reaching both finals in his first open. They went on to swim brilliantly, beating PB’s they had set in the heats. Also congratulations go to Elizabeth Bennett and Jessica Page, also at their first open meet and swam fantastically setting huge PB’s.
From our older swimmers we had some huge PB’s (check the results sheet), there were 38 PB’s across the club, and lot’s of top 3 places, with endless amounts of cheering. PB’s were achieved by: Alise Cotton; Andrew Watson (4), Ben Garwood (2), Elizabeth Bennett, Emily Coe, Helena Oakes (2), Henry Matthews (2), Jack Dickerson (3), James Lawrence (3), James May, Jessica Page (3), Katie Davis (4), Katherine Nye, Molly Matthews, Oliver Coe, Phoebe Cashman (5), Rachel Dickerson (2), Sarah May.
When it came to the medal presentations, it seemed as though everyone came away with something as anyone finishing in the top 6 got a medal and the top 3 got a glass ornament. Congratulations go the following for 1st places: Emily Coe 100m BS, Holly Lumm 100m BS, Jack Dickerson 50m FC, Nicole Cheetham 100m BF and Oliver Coe 100m BS, 100m FC, 100m BC.
Congratulations to the following for 2nd and 3rd places: Andrew Watson 100m BS, Emily Coe 200m FC, 100m FC, Jack Dickerson 50m BS, James Lawrence 100m BS, 100m BC, Katherine Nye 200m BC, 100m BC, Rachel Dickerson 100m FC, 100m BS, Rebecca Harvey 100m BF; Henry Matthews 50m BS, Jack Dickerson 50m BC, James May 100m BS, 100m FC, Katherine Nye 200m IM, Rebecca Harvey 100m BC, Sam Harvey 200m BC

Once again, well done to the swimmers, parents and coaches.

Congratulations to Oliver Coe who gained his County Colours when selected to swim for Kent in the above event. He swam in the individual 100m breastroke event (setting a PB time and 10th position) and in the breastroke leg of the medley relay (10th position). Kent team achieved an overall 10th place ensuring they remain in the 1st division!
Well Done!

We have all arrived back tired but safely from another successful training camp to Spain. Well done to all those that attended and thank you to Matt, Lisa & Sarah for your help and organisation.
Training camp captains report to follow soon.

We had been given a tough draw for the first round competing with Chelmsford, Olympos Marlins, Croydon Amphibians A, Epsom and Southend on Sea. Four of these teams had finished above us in the league last year and historically we had come in 6th position in the round 1 for the past 3 years- it would need special swims from everyone to do well!
And what a performance! 12 personal best performances from Emily Brown, Sophie Livett, Emily Davison, Rebecca Harvey, Oli Bates, James Lawrence, Katherine Nye, Ben Garwood, Katie Davis, Mike Bond, James May & Matt Steere.
There were first places for Oliver Coe (100m Breast), Holly Lumm (100m Fly), Katherine Nye (100m Back) & Emily Coe (100m Breast).
Everyones’ swimming and extraordinary team spirit delivered the best performance for the club in this round for 4 years, pushing Croydon close for 3rd! You all deserve a big pat on the back – Well done!
Final Position; 1st Chelmsford, 2nd Olympos Marlins, 3rd Croydon Amphibians, 4th Orpington Ojays, 5th Southend on Sea, 6th Epsom

We hosted the final round of the league with ourselves as one of3 teams in a position to clinch the overall league title. It would be tough, though.
On the night all swimmers performed beyond expectation achieveing 15 first places; Henry Choong (2), Oli Coe (3), Matt Perkins, Mike Bond, Oli Bates, Emily Coe, Boys 15U Free and Medley, Ladies Open Medley, Girls 15U Medley, Mens Open Free & Squadron relays. There were also 10 personal best times achieved from Emily Davison, Katie Coad, Henry Choong, Blake Lewis, Mike Bond (2), Clare Folkes, Oli Coe, James Lawrence & Alison Nye.
In all the team performance resulted in a gala win on the night and 2nd overall in the league (not bad for our 1st year)!
Well done to all swimmers (you have been fantastic) and thanks to all those that helped at the gala.

There will be a short training camp meeting for Parents and swimmers at 7.45pm Monday 8th October, Parents will need to sign a code of conduct and fill in a medical form. Could you all also email me your passport numbers, date of birth, names exactly as they appear on your passports and nationalities as I need this information for the insurance. (sorry I know some of this information has been given before) I will also need final numbers, sizes and payment in full for the sweatshirts. (16.50) Thank you Sarah

We are hosting this Saturdays Gala at Downham. Does anyone have any raffle prizes to donate? Apologies if Sarah has already asked you this week. Please pass them to Simon or Sarah tonight or tomorrow at sat am training please thanks

Congratulations to Simon Mullinger from Masters squad and Helen (ex-Masters squad) who got married at High Rocks, Tunbridge Wells at the weekend. Simon meet Helen many years ago when Helen joined the club and they got together at the nationals in Sheffield shortly afterwards.

I'm sure everyone at the club wishes you all the happiness for your future together.

We started this gala with a depleted team due to illness broken bones and other commitments. However, what was to follow was a great show of individual grit and determination along with a high level of team spirit. With half the team producing pb’s we were on for a very exciting final scoreline. With only a point in it with a few races to go our relay teams pulled through with our final squadron improving their time on last rounds performance by 6 seconds. Finishing in second place secured a 1 point lead for the Orpington Ojays and a very exciting prospect for the final round where we have a great chance of promotion.
A huge thanks must go to all our officials including Nick Harvey our timekeeper and Sarah Davis our team manager along with the announcers, scorers and starters who all gave up their evening to watch a very successful evening. Thanks must also go to the parents who were very vocal and certainly pulled all of our swimmers along.
Here’s to the next one……..

Orpington Ojays showed an improved team performance (upon the previous round) in the first gala of the season held at the brand new Downham Pool, hosted by Eltham Swimming Club. There were a number of excellent swims including 9 personal best times from Oliver Bates, Henry Choong, Blake Lewis, Ben Garwood, Sam Harvey (2), Mike Bond, Katie Coad, James Lawrence. There were also 12 first places for Henry Choong (2), Oliver Coe (2), Hazel Colbourne (2), Oliver Bates, Alise Cotton, Emily Coe, Boys 15U Freestyle relay, Girls 15U Medley relay & Squadron relay. Thanks to Louise Davison for standing in with 2 minutes to spare!

The gala ended with Orpington Ojays position 2nd, only 6 points behind 1st place Beckenham. Well done everyone!

(The results sheet is under the Results/2007/White Horse League menu)

A fun day was had by all that came to the club barbeque.
We all got wet from the numerous water guns.
We all made fools of ourselves in the sack and wheel-barrow races and the boys only just beat the girls in the rounders.
The weather was fine and the burgers were tasty.

Thanks to Sarah Davis and her family for organising the day & Steve May and Nick Harvey for cooking.

(Photos are on-line under the Photo Gallery menu)

Just a reminder to everyone booked on the trip to Barcelona that the final payment of £200 is now due. Could you all bring this along to either Simon or myself asap please. I also need all passport numbers and names exactly as they appear on your passports please. We will be having a short meeting for parents and swimmers on Monday 10th Sept at 7.45pm in the small pool area at walnuts. Thank you

For the second year in a row Hazel Colbourne represented Orpington Ojays at the National Championships, held at the Ponds Forge pool, Sheffield. Hazel had achieved two qualification times for the event and had opted to compete in the 200m freestyle.
The competition was stiff and there were many well known swimmers (eg. Melanie Marshall and Caitlin McClatchey )competing in the event. The atmosphere was exciting and Hazel competed well in her heat. Her time recorded was 2.11.17 which is the second best time she's achieved in a long course pool and resulting in 94th (out of 170) position.
Well done, a great way to finish the 2006/7 season.

Congratulations to Lisa and Matt who had a baby boy in the early hours of this morning (Sat) . He weighed 7lb 15. Well done!

Orpington Ojays hosted the final trophy gala of the season, held at Whitgift School. Teams were provided by WhiteDarts, Leander, Redhill and Reigate and Edenbridge Piranha’s (who withdrew at the last minute). Orpington Ojays supplied two teams; team black and team purple.

The evening saw many fine performances from swimmers of all ages culminating in 39 personal best times across both teams!!! (Jack Dickerson 2, Ellie Miller 2, Rebecca Harvey, James Lawrence 2 ,James May 2, Rachel Dickerson 2, Mike Bond, Katie Coad, Katie Davis, Emily Coe, Sophie Livett, Pheobe Cashman, Hazel Colbourne, Henry Matthews, Lotty Matthews 2, Nicole Cheetham, Matt Steere, Chloe Ashley, Joseph Gaster 2, Clare Folkes 2, Blake Lewis, Gina Charleton, James Briggs 2, Shanrui Lee, Jack Herbert 2, Joe Heaney, Elizabeth Bennet, Charlotte Harris, Jack Quinn.)

Achieving 19 first placings (for Oliver Coe 2, Rebecca Harvey, Hazel Colbourne 2, Matt Perkins 2, Katie Coad, James May 2, Oli Bates, Emily Coe 2 , Sophie Livett, James Lawrence, 15/under Girls Medley, Open Ladies Medley, 15/under mixed frontcrawl, Mens frontcrawl ) Orpington Ojays Black team secured a 19point victory by the end of the evening. A great way to finish of the 2006/07 swimming season with a second piece of silver wear to add to our trophy cabinet this year!

Well done to all swimmers in both teams that showed fantastic team spirit and enthusiasm throughout the evening. (some of those swimmers pictured below)

There will be a fun night on Monday 30th July from 6.30pm - 8pm at Walnuts. This replaces all normal training. Bronze, Silver,Gold, Platinum Senior and Junior, Black & purple and Top squad are invited to attend. Masters training is at the usual time .

Harvey Perkins from Masters squad travelled to France on the 15 of this month to compete in the Triathlon Long Distance World Championships. This event consists of a 3km open water swim followed by a 80km bike ride (London to Brighton distance) and finishes with a 20km run (half marathon).

Harvey finished an excellent 44th out of 70 starters in his age group, the 10th Brit out of 20) in a total time of 4 hours 52 mins!!!

Harvey said "I love the swim start of a triathlon, we all lined up in deep water holding onto a pontoon, I started in the middle. My age group started with the 45-49 age group so there were about 150 at the start. I got away fast but because the standard is very high at the worlds the first lap (1500m) was rougth and I had to fight every inch of the way. At the end of the first lap we had to run up a ramp and then back onto the pontoon and dive in for second lap (so Helen all those dive starts came in handy after all). I finished the swim in just under 50 mins in 26th place, then a run to transition, and because transition was about 500m long it took me another 3 mins to get to my bike strip the wetsuit off grab bike and gear and run to start of bike.

"I had a fast first 40km bike in 1 hour 5 mins but then had a mishap when starting the 2nd 40km lap - basically I dropped my 2nd carb/electrolite drink - so I had to go 20km without liquid before picking up an emergency water bottle. I finished the bike in 2 hours 12 mins now in 33rd place.

"I grabbed another carb drink and started the 1/2 marathon run. My target time was 1 hour 30 mins (7 min per mile pace at 145 heart rate) but I knew I was in trouble straight away as my heart rate would not come down from 150 so I had to slow to a 8 min mile pace. It was hot and humid! It was annoying as others were passing me (especially if they were french or american) and there was nothing I could do about it. I finished the run in 1 hour 43 mins. Boy was I glad to see the finish line.

"I had a great time, the atmosphere was superb, and I certainly learnt a lot about racing at longer distances for next time. I'm already looking forward to potentially doing my first ironman next summer..........

"My next major race is the sprint worlds in Hamburg end of Aug."

The pool may have been an odd shape, the sound system a poor quality and the other coach a bit late, but the evening couldn’t really have gone much better. A chance for our lesser known swimmers to show us who they are, and boy did they do it in style with 34 PB’s out of 38 events and a big thank you to Oli Coe, Alex Miller and Charlotte Harris for stepping in at the last minute (perfect backstroke!)

PB’s – Blake Lewis, Rachel Dickerson, Ben Garwood, Holly Baronti, Jack Dickerson, Emily Davison, Oli Coe, Clare Folkes (2), Grace Williams, Henry Matthews (2), Elli Miller, Oli Bates (3), Helena Oakes, James May (2), Ellie Miller, Ben Garwood, Louise Davison, Sarah May, Sam Harvey, Charlotte Harris, James Lawrence, Nicole Cheetham (2), Shauna Hancock, Lotty Matthews, Nick Blackler

Congratulations to the following for well-deserved 1st places - Rachel Dickerson, Emily Davison, Clare Folkes, James Lawrence, Oli Bates (2) and Nicole Cheetham. Also to our 14/u mixed medley team for 1st place

But it’s not just about the swimming – Having to confirm that 100m was in fact 4 lengths of the pool to one swimmer, whilst another asking about I.M. turns and giving Gina a rather odd look for her arm waving in response. Also someone disappearing immediately before the penultimate relay events…

Now let’s see more of the same at the Ojay’s gala this weekend…

Final Results
Dartford Blue (216)
Whiteoak (204)
Orpington Ojays (193)
Gravesend & Northfleet (167)
Rochester (127)
Dartford White (79)

Orpington Masters made their way to Black Lion's home pool in Gillingham to compete in the Masters Kents competition on Saturday 7th July. Once again the team came away with a haul of medals made up of 11 golds, 3 silvers and 3 bronzes.

Alison Nye was once again on form collecting 5 of the 11 golds. Mark Hawkins and Richard Smith picked up two golds each and Gina Charleton and David Bagge both got 1 each.

Thanks to Steve Morris coming in for the relays the boys managed to pick up a bronze in the 120yrs 100 Medley relay but missed out on a bronze by 2/100's of a second in the 120yrs 100m Freestyle relay.

The results are under the menu on the left (Results/2007/Kent Masters) or on the link below.

Orpington Ojays Kent Masters Results

Congratulations to Rebecca Harvey, James Briggs, Michael Bond and Oli Bates on helping Bromley win the London Youth games at Crystal Palace last weekend. Bromley (1064 pts) just pipped Havering (1058 pts) to win for the first time in 16 years.

All team members and their parents are invited to attend a celebratory reception at Ravensbourne School on Wednesday 18th July.

(If anyone has a picture for this article please email it to webmaster@orpingtonojays.com)

Olympic distance - 1500m swim; 40km bike; 10k run.

Harvey Perkins, from Masters Squad, entered the Europeam Triathlon at the weekend at swam then 1500m in 22mins, 17secs which includes the short run to transition. Harvey started in the middle of the front row as this is the shortest point to first buoy at 300m. He got away fast and out of trouble before the 1st buoy. His wave start was 40-49 year old men which is approximately 80 competitors. At half way he had settled in nicely behind another competitor and pulled past him in the last 100 metres.

Harvey was 9th after the swim, 12th after the bike ride and 19th after the run. His total time for the triathlon was 2 hours 16 minutes. His 10km run time was 43 minutes. In Harvey's age group 32 competitors finished, 10 of whom were GBR.

Well done Harvey and good luck in France next weekend.

With a few key swimmers unavailable, Orpington Ojays competed in the 4th round of the White Horse League at Beckenham Spa. Despite this however there was still a strong team performance all round.
10 first places overall; Hazel Colbourne (2), Oliver Coe (2), Phil Kent, Katie Coad, Emily Coe, Mens Open Freestyle relay, Boys 15/U F/S relay & Ladies Open Medley relay team.
Personal best times were achieved by; Joe Heaney, BenGarwood(2), Oliver Coe (3), Mike Bond (2), Blake Lewis, Phil Kent, Katie Davis, James Lawrence, Holly Lumm, Sophie Livett and Joseph Gaster.
The evenings swimming culminated in a 3rd placing overall (just missing out on second place by 2 points!)
Thanks to the swimmers who swam at short notice and parents that helped
Well done to everyone!

Congratulations to Sam Harvey for winning this months Jack Petchey award, for dedication and his efforts in Galas. Sam is also a keen runner and cricketer. Sam is in Platinum squad, cross training with Top squad. he has also this year qualified andtaken part in the National Schools Biathlon. Well done Sam!

On Saturday our younger swimmers turned up to The Beckenham Spa with a weakened team due to illness and other competition commitments. After starting half an hour late Orpington swimmers stepped up to the challenge and produced some unbelievable results. Even without the required number of swimmers in some events, resulting in no swimmers, Orpington managed to gain second place in a very exciting evening of racing. Our swimmers managed to gain twelve 1st places these included Girls and Boys 13/u Freestyle Relay teams, Katie Coad, James May, Oliver Coe (2), Sam Harvey, Alise Cotton, Louise Davison, Katie Davis, Girls 11/u Freestyle Relay and Boys 13/u Medley Relay. Along with these first places we managed to gain 14 Pb’s. Along with 9 new times a fantastic achievement considering there were only 32 individual events. A big thank you must go out to all swimmers called up at the last minute, your commitment to the club is very much appreciated. See you all next time ?

Gala Results
1st- GBM 208
2nd- OOJS 175
3rd- Edenbridge 173
4th- Ashford 161
5th- Maidstone 148
6th- Eltham Stingrays 122

An exciting evening of racing was experienced as Orpington Ojays met up again with Bromley, Beckenham B, Erith, Eltham Stingrays and Whitedarts at Crook Log Pool for the 3rd round of the White Horse League.
After a good result in the previous round hopes were high and again no-one disappointed with some fantastic swims all round.
These included thirteen 1st places for Henry Choong (2), Oliver Coe (2), Oli Bates (2), Matt Perkins, Hazel Colbourne (2), Katie Coad and Emily Coe. 1st place relays included the Girls 15U Freestyle (Emily Coe, Sarah May, Rachel Dickerson & Rebecca Harvey), Boys 15U Freestyle (James Lawrence, Oliver Coe, Angelo Mitakos & Oli Bates), Ladies Open Medley (Hazel Colbourne, Emily Coe, Holly Lumm & Rebecca Harvey).
Personal best times were achieved by Georgia Croft, Emily Davison, Oliver Coe, Henry Choong, Rebecca Harvey, James Lawrence, Callum Stoodley & Mike Bond. These perfomances culminated in gaining second place behind Beckenham. (with an improved points total)
Well done to everyone!
1st Beckeham B – 231
2nd Orpington Ojays – 206
3rd Erith – 179
4th Whitedarts – 169
5th Eltham - 63

Sat 9th June
Three swimmers represented Orpington Ojays on the final weekend of the championships. Henry Choong swam first on sat in 100m breaststroke (17th), followed by Oliver Coe and James Lawrence in the same event. James came 12th and Oliver qualified for the final (12 yrs). He repeated his previous success of the 200m breaststroke and finished first by an increased margin. The afternoon started with both girls and boys relay teams (10 -12 yrs), Katie Davis, Jessica Thomson, Lotty Matthews and Ellie Miller swam really well to come 12th in the 4 x 50 free relay and 13th in the. 4 x 50 medley relay. The boys team of Sam Harvey, Henry Choong, James May and Oliver Coe came 7th in both the freestyle and medley relays.

Sun 10th June
Again Henry, Oliver and James competed on the final day. All 3 competed in 100 back and 200 free. In the 100 back Oliver and James reached the finals , Henry was unlucky and was first reserve. James managed a 6th position and Oliver was 2nd. Next came the 200m free, they all swam well, James reached 14th, Oliver reached 9th (pb time) while Henry reached the final and came 2nd in a pb time. Olivers freestyle swim meant he picked up a trophy for 6th place in the overall Bagcats points.
Well done to everyone who competed over both weekends, and let's look forward to more entries next year.

Congratulations to James Lawrence from Top Squad for being the third winner of the Jack Petchey Award.

Jack Petchey Award Page

A new feature has been developed for the Orpington Ojays website to provide driving instructions for your house to the pools that we go to for galas and training.

Follow the link below, choose the pool you are interested in and then enter your post code and click the show route button. A map will be shown with the route highlighted and below the map will be driving instructions.

The mapping technology is provided by Microsoft Virtual Earth.

Click here for the new Home to Pool Directions page.

After success in the regional youth championships we were looking forward to our younger swimmers performing on the same stage.

Saturday
James Lawrence began his very busy weekend with a fine swim in the 100m freestyle, gaining 11th position. James was joined in the 200m backstroke event by Oliver Coe, both swimmers performed well and qualified for the final in their respective age groups. They both went one step further to both win bronze medals in the finals. At lunchtime the boys 4 x 100 medley relay (Blake Lewis, Angelo Mitakos, James Lawrence and Oli Coe) gained 7th position ,while the girls 4 x 100 freestyle team (Emily Davison, Adele Bolan, Katie Davis and Jessica Thomson) swam hard to achieve 15th position. Oliver Coe was the remaining swimmer to compete in the evening session, reaching the final of the 200m IM, where he swam a pb time and just missed out on a medal by coming 4th.

Sunday
Once again James Lawrence started the day well with a pb swim in the 100m butterfly (11th). At lunchtime the boys 4 x 100m freestyle team (Blake , Angelo, James and Joe Heaney) swam well achieving 8th position, and the same team managed to surpass this with a 5th position in the 4 x 200m freestyle relay. The girls team of Emily, Katie, Jessica and Ellie Miller managed an 11th position in the 4 x 100m medley relay.

To complete the first weekend of these championships, Oli and James competed in the 200m breaststroke event. James finished in a credible 11th (although exhausted) place while Oliver qualified for the final , leaving his best performance to last. In a nail biting final he won the 200m breaststroke by 0.12 seconds. This is his most successful achievement in his swimming career so far, and Orpington Ojays first win in the combined London championships this year. Well done to all who competed.

A somewhat depleted group of OOSC swimmers arrived at the Kingsmead Leisure Centre in Canterbury for the temporary home of this annual fixture. Good news for future entrants to the Margate Open - the pool in Margate was unavailable today because of the installation of an air conditioning system!

Anyway, in swimming terms, quality more than made up for the lack of quantity, with pb's from every swimmer involved and finalists in several races and some near misses in many others. Holly Baronti must have qualified as the OOSC swimmer of the day, with two fine performances in the morning events of Backstroke and Freestyle, earning her 8th place out of 27 and 10th place out of 30 respectively, both in pb times. She then followed this up with a first reserve spot for the final of the 50m Breaststroke, having swum a massive 8 second pb to get there.

James May swam consistently well to make the final of the Breaststroke in the morning,gaining 6th place and a further final in the afternoon (freestyle), this time taking 5th place. Jack Dickerson swam a pb in every race he entered and was rewarded with a 1st reserve spot for the 50m Free and a 2nd reserve for the Breaststroke. Probably his greatest reward, however, was reducing his time in the 50m Free from 46.65 to 34.28! A truly memorable performance.

Clare Folkes won a place in the final of the 50m Free and Fly, coming 6th and 5th respectively and gained 1st reserve places in the Back and Breaststroke events. Also pleasing for Clare was the fact that she too finally broke the 33sec barrier in 50m Free where she has been stuck for so long now!

Phoebe Cashman finished off a very consistent day's swimming with a good 2 sec pb in her 50m Free event, rounding off a really satisfactory day's swimming from all those who were there. It was a long day and the younger swimmers in particular did well to stay focused and turn in such good performances throughout. This was a good learning curve and I would urge younger swimmers to get involved in this gala next year - assuming it doesn't clash with the London's again!!

Sunday afternoon and the competitive masters who weren’t working, on holiday or “retired” from competition came back with 6 gold’s, 7 silver’s, 1 bronze and 3pb’s! Oh and there were only 3 of them.

Richard kicked off the afternoon with a superb swim in the 100m fly, followed by silver in the 50m FC, gold in the 100m FC and silver in the 50m fly. Gina was up next in the 50m BC with a silver + pb, a bronze in the I.M, then a long awaited 2sec pb in the 100m FC to bring home a gold medal. Oh and there was a silver in the 100m BC + another pb. Our resident British Record Holder Alison had some superb swims herself to bring home her usual high tally of metal - 4 gold’s and 1 silver. Although we were disappointed she didn’t go all out for a European record in the 50m BS, maybe at the Kent’s next month.

The low point of the day was having entered a relay team for a medley and a free relay, we had only 3 swimmers turn up, despite interest from Mr Morris. After numerous minutes spent grovelling to old clubmates, we gained an extra and rearranged our order, sadly we only managed 5th place. After more grovelling and begging, we upgraded to a much younger extra member for the free relay and came in 2nd!

Congratulations to everyone, see you + some more masters at the Kent’s next month.

Orpington Ojays travelled to Maidstone as current holders of the Oliver May Trophy so our expectations were high. Could we achieve consecutive year on year victories? Other clubs competing were Maidstone, Eltham Stingrays, Hythe Aqua and Larkfield. The Gala got off to a flying start for us with a win in the 1st event which was the breaststroke squadron relay, we won this event by 4 seconds. This was the beginning of many wins in total (20 events out of 51) in individual a relay events. Individual wins were achieved by the following;
Gemma Leggett, Emily Davison, James Lawrence (2), Holly Lumm, Blake Lewis, Mike Bond, Emily Coe(2), Oliver Coe and Hazel Colbourne (2).
However the first points summary showed that the early competition was close. Everyone combined throughout the evening to create a very impressive team result and personal best times were achieved in 16 individual events; Katie Coad, Oliver Coe, Mike Bond, Emily Coe, Lotty Matthews, Rachel Dickerson, Jack Dickerson, Emily Davison (2), Clare Folkes (2), James May, James Lawrence and Gemma Leggett. (Special thanks to Henry Matthews and Benjamin Coe for changing into their costumes and swimming for the team with approx. 30sec notice!). Final points reflected this performance and overall 23 point victory.
1st Orpington Ojays 109
2nd Eltham Stingrays 132
3rd Maidstone 135
4th Hythe Aqua 167
5th Larkfield 223

Congratulations to Joe Heaney on winning April's Jack Petchy award.

For details and a photograph please click here.

The Championships took place at Crystal Palace this weekend. We took 14 swimmers who swam in 34 events in total. The competition was intense as all of the large top London clubs attended the event, although it was disappointing not to see many entries from relatively smaller clubs such as ourselves. We achieved very good and promising results and all swimmers competed well in all the events entered. The event was held over three days and the finalists results are as follows.
Day 1 saw Oliver Bates gain a pb in the 50m bc and an 8th position (32.58). Katherine Nye gained a 4th position in the 50m bc (34.06). Emily Coe received a bronze medal for her performance in the 200m bs in a pb of 2.51.11.
Day 2 and finalists included Emily Coe 3rd in the 100m bs (1.20.64), Rebecca Harvey 6th in the 50m bf in a pb of 32.69, Gemma Leggett 7th in a pb of 33.22 in the 50m bf. Holly Lumm achieved a 7th in the 100m bs (1.24.08 ) and an 8th position in the 50m bf in a pb of 32.50. Hazel Colbourne came 2nd in the 400 IM in a time of 5.09.96 to pick up a silver medal.
On the third and final day Katherine Nye came 4th in the 400m fc (4.51.06), and 7th in the 50m bs (39.29). James Briggs came 8th in the 50m bs (36.93), Emily Coe came 4th in the 50m bs (37.18)and 6th in the 400m fc ( 4.50.60). Hazel Colbourne came 4th in the 100m fc.

Well done to all those mentioned above and all those who competed (Alise Cotton, Clare Folkes, Mike Bond, Laura O'Connell) but particularly to Katherine Nye, Gemma Leggett and Emily Coe who all competed in a number of events every day as well as relay events. These achieved 8th (4X100m FC), 7th (4X100m Medlay) and 6th (4X200m FC)

We competed for the first time in the White Horse League at Trinity. The League is made up of six clubs, Bromley, Erith, Eltham, Beckenham (B) and Whitedarts. The recent vacant position for the sixth club was offered to Orpington Ojays but unfortunately this was to late to compete in round 1 . However we made up for it on Saturday evening, with a fantastic and unexpected second place. First places were gained by Henry Choong, Hazel Colbourne (2), Mike Bond, Oliver Coe , Katherine Nye, Oliver Bates, Georgia Croft, Alise Cotton, Emily Coe and there were three relay teams which gained first places, they were the boys 15u freestyle relay, ladies open freestyle relay and the mixed squadron. Seventeen pbs were achieved by the following swimmers, Sophie Livett, Emily Davison, Oli Coe, Hazel Colbourne, Mike Bond (2), Katie Coad, Henry Choong, Alise Cotton, James Lawrence, Katherine Nye, Ben Garwood, Katie Davis, Sam Harvey (2), Georgia Croft and James Briggs. Special thanks go to three swimmers for standing in at short notice, Joe Heaney, Louise Davison and Benjamin Coe (our 2 youngest swimmers) Overall great individual and team performances!! Round 3 is on 16th June. Let`s look forward to another success.

A very successful day was had by many swimmers from a number of clubs from many counties. Orpington Ojays had a total of 30 swimmers, across all age-groups, entered on the day. There were a number of positive performances and a large number of younger swimmers gained experience of an Open event, pb`s were plentiful. 15 swimmers gained one or more finalist places these included Nicole Cheetham, Katie Coad, Emily Coe, Alise Cotton, Katie Davis, Rebecca Harvey, Holly Lumm, Grace Williams, Oli Bates, Oli Coe, Sam Harvey, Joe Heaney, Phil Kent , James Lawrence and Simon Mullinger. Of the above the following gained first places Rebecca Harvey, Oliver Bates, Oli Coe (2) , Phil Kent (2) and James Lawrence . The results culminated in Orpington Ojays attaining second best club performance overall. A great day was had by all, with exciting swimming and fine weather to sit outside for lunch. Well done everybody and let’s look forward to next years Open.

Congratulations to Emily Coe for winning the Jack Petchey Award for March. More information can be found on the new pages of this site.

Click here to take a look.

10 swimmers represented Orpington Ojays over the weekend. The first day swimmers had to brave illness and freezing cold conditions to compete. However all swimmers put in 100%. Medallists from the weekend included Hazel Colbourne (2nd 200m FC) and Oliver Coe (1st 100m BC, 3rd 200m BS & 100m BS). Hazel’s swim time was about 2 seconds inside the national qualification standard enabling her to compete in this year’s National Swimming Championships – Well done Hazel.
Rachel Dickerson and Katie Coad achieved personal best times in their events. Invaluable experience of “Long Course” (50m pool) competition was gained by all. Some of these swimmers had never competed in a 50m pool previously!
Well done to the following who competed; Emily Coe, Hazel Colbourne, Jack Quinn, James Briggs, Katie Coad, Nicholas Blackler, Nicole Cheetham, Oliver Coe, Rachel Dickerson and Rebecca Harvey.

The Masters squad were out in force at the K2 South East Region Championships this weekend. A haul of medals ensued but the weekend honours go to Alison Nye for smashing the British Long Course Record for 50M Breaststroke, in her age group, by over a second. Alison is now setting her sights on the European and even World Record for the same event this year. This Gold was one of two individual Golds picked up by Alison whilst a total of five individual Golds were won by the squad overall.

Karen showed that all that Fly training has reaped rewards with individual Golds in the 100 and 200 whilst also picking up a Bronze in the 50 Fly. Richard continued that vein of Masters Fly form with a Gold in the 100 and Mark (who doesn't like to compete at more than a length) won Gold in the 50 Fly for his age group. Mark and Richard also took Silver and Bronze respectively in the 100 Free.

Gina, who swam the most events of the weekend (and aggregated the distance covered in a small training session) won Bronze in the 100 Backstroke and had two well deserved 4th places in the 100 Free and 100 Breaststroke. Alison (in addition to her two individual Golds) won a Silver in the 100 Free and 2 Bronze medals in the 100 Breaststroke and 50 Fly. Dave Bagge, who has recently joined Ojays from Spencer opened his account with a Bronze in the 50m Backstroke. If individual performances were not enough to boast about, the mixed relay team won Silver in the Free and Medley 4 X 50's.

All in all, a pretty successful visit to Crawley and congratulations once again to Alison on her British Record. Next week Europe, next month the World................

The final weekend of the Kent County Championships at Black Lion started with yet another victory for Hazel Colbourne. Hazel came first in her age group in the 400 IM (with an event best time). Alise Cotton came 3rd in the 200 metres freestyle in a pb time. Nicole Cheetham came 4th in the 50m breaststroke (15 yr s). Emily Coe came 5th in the 50m breaststroke (14yrs).

Orpington Ojays had several entrants in the 200m backstroke they were Henry Choong, Sam Harvey , James Lawrence and Oliver Coe. James Lawrence came 5th with a 4 sec pb. Two more wins followed for Henry and Oliver. Henry Choong set the event best time for 9 yr olds. Oliver came 1st with a 15 second pb time.

The afternoon session started with swimmers in the 100m breaststroke, James Lawrence and Oliver Coe swam pb times and Oliver once again came first. Emily Coe swam in 100m breaststroke and achieved 5th position. Matt Steere and James Lawrence swam in 400m freestyle both achieving large pbs, Matt gaining 3rd position.

The final sessions on Sunday commenced with Matt Steere achieving 2nd position in the 200m butterfly, with a pb. Katie Coad swam well and also achieved a 5 sec pb (200m breaststroke). In the 50m backstroke Oliver Bates swam a pb and came 6th, Mike Bond and Phil Kent also managed pbs, whilst Phil achieved a 3rd place in his age group. Three swimmers competed in the girls 200m freestyle, Emily Coe and Gemma Leggett achieving pbs, Hazel Colbourne winning her age group in an event best performance time.

The afternoon started with Hazel continuing with her success, with another first position in an event best performance time in the 200m butterfly. This was followed by the boys 200m IM, with Henry Choong, Oliver Coe and James Lawrence taking part. Henry achieved another 1st place with another event best performance time, Oliver came 6th with a pb, James also swam a pb time. The Mens 100m freestyle meant Oli Bates and Mike Bond got pbs as did Gemma Leggett in the Ladies 50m freestyle. Hazel Colbourne also achieved a second place in the 50m freestyle. Henry Choong finished his Kents with one more pb and 6th position in the 50m butterfly.

Henrys performance throughout these championships earned him the highest bagcat points in his age group and he was presented with a trophy by Jean Scott (ASA President)

Orpington Ojays have achieved fabulous results over the past month. We have seen the dedication and training commitment of all our swimmers pay off with so many pbs, finals, event best times, and first places. There have been three outstanding swimmers throughout the championships Henry Choong, Oliver Coe and Hazel Colbourne. These three have consistently continued to win multiple events over each weekend of the championships. The biggest achievement however is the performance of Orpington Ojays as a team. The support given to all your peers was phenomenal, this obviously contributed to our success as a club. At midway through Sunday’s session, the Top Teams list was updated and Orpington Ojays girl’s team were in 8th position, the boy’s team were in 9th position. I am fairly confident that is going to be an indication of the final result. Well done to everyone, I am proud to now say we are one of the top ten teams in Kent!

Day 1
This weekend we were at Crystal Palace for the relay team events ,1500m and 800m. To kick off, the 800m was the first event, with an excellent swim by Alise Cotton, she achieved a 3rd place in the 12u age group. The heats for the relays that morning resulted in Orpington Ojays making the finals in the following events:
Women’s Open 400m freestyle team 3rd
13/14 Boys 200m freestyle team 6th
15/16 Girls 200m freestyle team 7th
12u Boys 200m freestyle team 5th
Girls junior 200m freestyle team 7th
Mens Open 400m Medley team 7th

The afternoon began with 1500m. Matt Steere achieved 2nd in 17/18 year age group.
Afternoon heats resulted in final places for the following teams:
Ladies Open 400m Medley team 4th
Girls 13/14 200m freestyle 7th
Boys 13/14 200m Medley team 6th
Girls 15/16 200m Medley team 8th
Girls 12u 200m freestyle team 7th
Boys 12u 200m Medley team 5th
Mens Open 400m freestyle team 8th

We entered a total of 18 relay events and of these 13 qualified and swam in finals. The team spirit was fantastic and everybody swam to their best ability. It was a great achievement to have so many Orpington Ojays swimmers taking part in the relays, let alone making the finals. Well done to everyone!
Day 2
Tunbridge Wells hosted the next two sessions, and our success continued. Henry Choong continued his phenomenal recent successes, with yet another first place and an event best performance in the 50m backstroke. The morning also saw final placings for Hazel Colbourne placed first in the 17/18 100m backstroke. Oliver Coe 2nd in the 12yrs 50m backstroke and Alise Cotton took 4th in the 12years 100m freestyle. Phil Kent was 6th in the 17/18 years 50m butterfly. Pb`s were achieved by the following swimmers Henry Choong, Oliver Coe, Emily Coe and Rebecca Harvey.

The pm session started with Hazel Colbourne again victorious in the 17/18 100m freestyle and the 200 IM. Other finalists included Alise Cotton 3rd in the 12 years 50m freestyle and Oliver Bates achieved 4th in the 15 years 200m backstroke. P.b`s were achieved by the following swimmers Georgia Croft , Alise Cotton, Oli Bates and Angelo Mitakos.

There are so many achievements covering the whole weekend, they are difficult to list here, but everybody deserves a big pat on the back! Well done to everyone who took part!

Sunday saw Orpington Ojays hold the annual Novices Challenge Gala at the Walnuts.
This gala is aimed at swimmers of 12 years or less that have yet to achieve a top 3 placing in an Open event or County Championship. A number of local swimming clubs and some from further a field supported the event providing a competitive and exciting days swimming.

Orpington Ojays were represented by over 30 swimmers many of whom had never swum in a competitive event previously. This included four 9yrs and under relay teams. All swimmers performed well and supported their fellow club members in full voice.
5 first places were awarded to Lotty Matthews (12yrs Breaststroke), Henry Choong (10yrs Butterfly & Backstroke) and Orpington Ojays “Black” Boys Relay Team (James May, Henry Choong, Ben Garwood & Jack Dickerson) for the Freestyle and Medley relays.
Finalists on the day were Chloe Saville (2nd 11yrs BS), Emily Morgan (2nd 10yrs BS), Girls “Black” Relay (FC 2nd , Medley 3rd), Katie Coad (3rd 11yrs BC, 4th BF, 5th FC), Louise Davidson (3rd 10yrs BC), Jack Dickerson (3rd 12yrs BS & BC, 5th BF), James May (4th 12yrs BC), Boys 12Uyrs “Purple” Relay (4th FC, 6th Medley), Girls “White” Relay (FC 5th),Holly Baronti (6th 10yrs FC, 5th BS), Helen Phillips (6th 11yrs BC), Ben Garwood (6th 11yrs FC & BS).

Well done to everyone including all the 9u relay teams most of whom were swimming in their first galas for Orpington Ojays.

Thank you to Janet Leggett for organising a very well run event, parents that volunteered in various roles, and the following senior swimmers James Briggs, James Lawrence, Oli Bates, Katherine Nye, Emily Coe, Clare Folkes, Gemma Leggett, Emily Davison, Saray May, Suzie Baverstock and Angelo Mitakos. All of which helped to make the day a success.

Day 1
Here we are at the Kent County Championships and what a great start to the Championships Orpington Ojays are having.

16 swimmers in total competed over the weekend.
Oliver Bates started the ball rolling with more than a 2 second personal best (PB) (1st of 2) time in the 200m freestyle. PB’s were also achieved by Alise Cotton, Rebecca Harvey, Hazel Colbourne , Oliver Coe(2), James Lawrence & Henry Choong.

Three swimmers were victorious in their age groups. Henry Choong won the 50m freestyle in an event best time. Hazel Colbourne won the 100m butterfly in a PB time and Oliver Coe achieved 1st place in the 200m breaststroke with a 13 second PB. Alise Cotton achieved 3rd place (400m FC), Emily Coe (200m BS) and James Lawrence (200m BS) achieved 4th places, Mike Bond 5th (50m FC).

What a great start for Orpington Ojays to the championships!

Day 2

Swimmers today had a lot to live up to following on from yesterdays fantastic results. Proceedings started with the 400m freestyle event and a 6th place for Emily Coe in a PB (1st of 2) time! Pb’s were also achieved by Henry Choong (2), James Lawrence (3), Rebecca Harvey (2), Oliver Coe (3), Matthew Steere & James Briggs.

Yet again the same three swimmers that were victorious yesterday achieved first places again. Today , however they all managed two first places each!
Henry Choong won the 200m freestyle and 100m individual medley both in PB and event best times! Oliver Coe won the 50m breaststroke and 100m backstroke as well as finishing second in the 100m individual medley all as PB’s. Hazel Colbourne won the 50m and 200m backstroke events with a PB in the latter.
James Lawrence achieved 3rd place (50m BS), Katherine Nye 4th (50m BC), Matthew Steere 6th (200m IM).

Overall Orpington Ojays swimmers achieved
9 first places, 1 second, 2 thirds, 3 fourths, 1 fifth and 2 sixths.
24 personal best times were achieved and not forgetting 3 event best performance times by Henry Choong.

Well done and congratulations to you all particularly Hazel, Henry and Oliver.

Let’s all look forward to the next round in two weeks!

Click here for results (PDF)

An exciting afternoon was had by all as swimmers up to the age of 12 from tadpoles, bronze, silver and gold squads competed in the first Race Night of 2007.

Race nights are held approximately every 3 months to enable swimmers to improve upon their personal best times and gain experience of competing against other swimmers to ASA rules.

Ribbons are awarded to swimmers placed in the first 6 places in each age group and were presented by Simon Coe (Head Coach) on Club Night (Mon 5th). Some of which are pictured.

Click here for photos

Well done to one of our platinum swimmers Henry Choong who attended the above Open Meet recently. Henry gained 6th place in the boys 9/10 yrs 100m backstroke in a time of 1.26.47 and also 5th place in 9/10 yrs boys 200m back in a time of 3.02.94.

A successful weekend was had by all swimmers that attended this year's Icebreaker Open Meet at Canterbury (5-7th Jan). This prestigious event held every year is of a continual high standard. Those who take part are aiming to achieve County, Regional and National times. Acceptance into the event is by no means easy! Twelve swimmers from Orpington were accepted for 41 swims.

A large number of personal best times (Alise Cotton with 5!) and finalist placings were achieved , all of which were richly deserved by a group of swimmers that have all worked very hard in training to achieve improvements in their technique and speed.

Finalists included:-

Sam Harvey 2nd 200m Backstroke
Hazel Colbourne 2nd 400m Freestyle
Emily Coe 3rd 100m & 5th 200m Breaststroke
Oliver Coe 3rd 100m Breaststroke
James Lawrence 5th 100m Breaststroke
Nicole Cheetham 5th 100m Breaststroke
Katherine Nye 5th 100m Butterfly

Well done to everyone, including Henry Choong who achieved a 2nd place medal in the 9 yr age group (200m freestyle 9 -11 yrs)

With relegation to division 2 looming and with a last minute depleted team , Ojays hosted the final round of the Speedo League at Whitgift (Croydon).

The three line whip was enforced due to dwindling numbers.

Before the Gala, Orpington were placed in joint last position, and required nothing short of a miracle to survive relegation. We needed 3rd place or higher!

The Gala started well; however when the first points were announced we were in 5th position and Simon suffered a nervous breakdown! But with exceptional character the team fought back. We had 12 first places (13u boys medley team, Mens Open Medley and freestyle teams, Matt Perkins, Hazel Colbourne, Blake Lewis, Gemma Leggett, Emily Coe and James Lawrence & Phil Kent), 12 individual pbs and 11 relays bettered previous performances.

The Final points were as follows:-
6th Burgess Hill 112 points
5th City of Canterbury B 146 points
4th Ashford Town 188 points
3rd Bromley 190 points
2nd Orpington Ojays 191 points
1st Epsom District 218 points

These final positions should mean that we remain in division 1 next year. All swimmers gave 110% in all the races, and in supporting the rest of the team. This lead to a truly remarkable result - WELL DONE.

Special thanks should go to Phil (for flying back from Scotland), Joe Heaney and Mike Bond for leaving their sick beds to swim, and Katie Coad (for attending with 3 hrs notice) also Matt Perkins for coming out of semi-retirement!!!

Thankyou also to all Officials and helpers, particularly to Janet Leggett who organised the whole event.

Three of our swimmers competed at the Dartford Open on Sunday 3rd December: Grace Williams, Jack Quinn and Louise Davison.

They had a very successful day with Grace gaining 2nd place in the 14 years 100m freestyle and 4th in the 100m back with a new 4 second PB in the backstroke. Jack gained 2nd place in the 14 years 100m breast and also did a 2 second PB whilst also doing a new time in the 50m fly. Louise gained 5th and 6th places respectively in the 50m back and 50m frontcrawl in the 9 years age-group. Well done Louise who is one of our youngest competing swimmers!

Well done to you all and also for turning up in the apalling weather!

Four swimmers represented Orpington Ojays at this year's Kent Development Meet at Gillingham.

All swam really well and enjoyed gaining invaluable competition experience.

Michael Luttners-Tickner and Louisa Sampson swam the 50m Freestyle and 50m Breastroke events while Anna Tompsett swam the 50m Backstroke & 50m Freestyle. Shauna Hancock swam the 50m Freestyle, 50m Backstroke and 50m Breastroke.

Well done to all of the above swimmers who acheived personal best times in all of the events they entered.

Let's hope we see more of your Ojays colleagues at the meet next year!

On Tuesday 7th of November Gold squad held a sponsored swim at the Walnuts. The two charities to benefit were The Phoenix Centre (Children with Special Needs) and Carley Furness (The 17yr old who was stabbed in Orpington on 30/09/06)

The swimmers swam non-stop for one hour and between them covered 42,733.3 metres. This raised a total of £1,200 which was split between the two charities and the cheques were presented on the 16th of November.

Congratulations and well done to Gold squad and their sponsors who together have raised over £4,000 for charities in the past 3 years.

The Phoenix Centre (Children with Special Needs)

Congratulation to Daniel Benjamin on winning the Endeavour Trophy (highest placings without winning a medal) at the recent Bromley Borough Gala held at the Spa, Beckenham. Daniel was presented with his trophy on poolside at Walnuts on Monday 20th Nov by Barry Chick from Swim Bromley.

Well done to all swimmers who have participated in the North Kent Junior League this season. We have done ourselves proud with a very close finish between 1st and 2nd place (2 points!) and came 2nd overall in the League (to Bromley). There were some very impressive swims on Saturday night and 12 new PBs. Well done to all. Many swimmers swam several races due to shortages of availability. Your spirit and that of the whole team is to be admired. Many of our relay teams also swam faster than last time. Let’s hope we can make it a first next year! Thank you to all our officials and helpers too, Nick Harvey, Steve and Debbie May, Sarah Coe.

Results on the Notice Board this Monday evening (20th November)

Ojays came up against very tough opposition from much larger swimming clubs in the second round of the Speedo last night. We competed against Staines, Haywards Heath, Croydon Amphibians, Epsom district and 1066 swimmers. There were fine performances all round resulting in improvements in times in 12 out of 16 relays. There were 15 individual PBs.

First places were gained by Hazel Colbourne (100 Open freestyle and backstroke), Emily Coe (100 breaststroke, 15 and under and Open with a 3 second plus PB!), Matt Perkins (100 Open fly). For all our great performances on the night we could only achieve 6th position.

These results show that those swimming are improving well presently and are in good positions to do well in future competions

Keep it up!

Simon

Click on the link below for a full report on the Barcelona Training Camp last month.

Barcelona Training Camp Report

The 2006 National Masters Championships at Sheffield held over the last weekend of October was attended by five of our masters. Training with commitment and focus over the last few months paid off with tremendous swims and places.

Richard Smith produced well deserved personal best times with 7th, 8th, 9th 12th and 14th places. Mark Hawkins managed 8th, 11th and 15th places but still his target of less than 30 seconds for 50metres fly is waiting to be smashed. Emma Hulls has been plagued by illness over the last few months but still achieved 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th and as always her reaction time off the blocks was the best in all her events. Alison Nye, our gold medallist, was happy with her 50m swims with 4th and 5th and a magnificent 1st place in the breaststroke. The 100metres breaststroke produced an excellent 4th place but Alison has much more to offer in this longer distance and fully intends to work on this area. Martha Feeley, our Platinum Squad Coach took on a relatively new challenge in the 400FC producing an excellent 4th place and 7th in the 200IM and must be congratulated on her ability to work full time, train one of our squads and also fit in her own training. Our relay team with a total age of 160 years produce 3rd in 4 x 50 FC and 6th in the 200IM.

Congratulations to the team and let’s hope this encourages more of our tremendously talented masters squad to participate in competitions.

15 swimmers took part in the White Oak Open Meeting on the 8th October. There were a total of 21 PBs (some very substantial!) with Claire Spearman, Oliver Bates and Oliver Coe achieving first places in 100 Breast, 100 Back and 100 Back respectively. Louise Davison swam her maiden gala and did herself proud. Out of a total of 17 teams, Orpington O-jays came 6th which was a fine achievement. Congratulations to all participants:

Louise Davison
Emily Davison
Alexandra Chrysostomou
James May
Sam Harvey
Oliver Coe
Sarah May
Emily Coe
Rachel Dickerson
Ellis Marsham
Grace Williams
Oliver Bates
Gemma Leggett
Rebecca Harvey
Claire Spearman

Results and times will be on the notice board on Monday evening 9th October.

Phew! What a fantastic evening we all had last night at the Captains Gala. Swimmers of all ages and experience competed against each other in 4 teams. These were lead by Club captains and Vice captains, The Kents, The Nyes, The Colbournes and The Steeres.

The evening provided a number of excellent swims and personal best times. There was close competition in all events. There were some swimmers that had never swum competitively before and they are to be congratulated on their performances. The points were close throughout and the Steeres finally finished in pole position and took home the trophy.

Thanks to all those who officiated and to the parents of those taking part, all who provided an excellent atmosphere. Thanks to Helen for organising the whole evening which indeed was a fantastic way to finish her term as Head Coach.

South East Region Masters Age Group Competition took place on Saturday 23rd September with five of our Masters looking for good swims.

Gina Charleton, Georgina Berry, Alison Nye, Richard Smith and Mark Hawkins travelled to Haslemere and brought home a massive 4 golds, 5 silvers and 4 bronzes between them. Alison, up to her usual high standard took 3 gold and a silver, Richard 1 gold, 3 silvers and 1 bronze, Georgina silver and bronze, Gina silver and another personal best time Mark a bronze and 2 fourth places. The freestyle age group managed bronze place with all ages having make 120 years.

Well done to our Master and keep up the training.

Well done to all our swimmers in the 2nd round of the Kent Junior League held at Southborough Pool on Saturday 16th September. It was a nail-biting evening with final points very close between the teams.

Congratulations to all those who achieved PBs at this time of year when we have just started back after our summer break. We had a total of 16 PB’s. Of particular note, is Ellie Miller taking 7 seconds off her 100m breast stroke time, Sam Harvey taking 4 seconds off his 50 m fly time and Molly Matthews taking 4 seconds off her 100m breast stroke time. Oliver Coe broke his 100m breast stroke time at the Division 11 Trials competition the night before and then broke it again at the Kent Junior League!! Well done Oliver!

Thank you to you all. You swam your hearts out and we are very proud of you. Here’s to the next round and some more good results now that we are back to full training.

Thank you to our team managers, Steve May and Sarah Coe, to our time-keeper, Nick Harvey, to our pool-side helpers and to our coaches. WELL DONE!

Final Points:
Bromley 213
Edenbridge 197
Orpington O-jays 192
Maidstone 184
Ashford 179

A big welcome to Jo, our new coach who has started with Orpington Ojays last week.

Jo is a previous Ojays swimmer and a is Level 2 Teacher/Coach. She will be working with Martha and Platinum Squad as well as Eve and Gold Squad.

I am sure that we all wish her well her at Ojays and look forward to her making a positive addition to the already excellent coaching team we have here.

Hazel Colbourne travelled to Ponds Forge, Sheffield to take her place at the Youth National Championships on 1st August. With the highest level of British swimmers competing the standard was extremely high. Hazel produced a magnificent swim, well paced, which showed in the split times. Her final time was within half a second of her submitted time which gave her a place in the middle of the 100m front crawl event.

Hazel is a great role model for our swimmers, her commitment to training enables her to compete at this high standard. Well done Hazel we are all very proud of your achievement.