Burton Amateur Swimming Club’s Bridge to Bridge Swim 2017 – Report

On Sunday 1st October the annual BASC Bridge to Bridge event took place. This event has been on the local swimming calendar for many years and attracts swimmers from far afield plus swimmers from all the local teams.  This year marked the 85^th Anniversary of the event and the 25^th year it has been held at the Meadowside Leisure Centre.

The organisation of the event by our superb B2B team – Jean Hiatt, Brian Brooks, and David Hutton – is a major task with months of hard work and dedication culminating in the day long event at the Meadowside Leisure Centre in Burton. The race is over 60 lengths, being the 1500m distance between the two bridges in the town, and this year Rob Lambley and Craig Day had joined the famous 3 to help run the event for the club.

Without this big fundraising day we would not have the club which we all take great pride in – and all on the Committee are very thankful to the B2B Team for making this event so special in our annual calendar.

This year we had a record number of 255 swimmers during the day – the previous best being 220 a few years ago – so a huge thank you to all of our members for taking part.

This year the club again had a record number of swims to its name and it was great to see so many of our younger kids teaming up in relays, and some of the older kids doing relays and individual races.

Burton raised the bar performance wise and came home with winners in the sections shown below – plus our age group teams came home with trophies galore. This year we elected to pick a team for all 5 of the 5 age groups in a similar fashion to the way we pick a gala team. The result was an amazing 5 wins out of 5 despite some strong opposition from neighbours Swadlincote SC who again showed great support by entering teams and individual swimmers.

Special mention to the Age 14 team of Jack Ward, George Stevens, George Greener, Finley Brown and Aidan Joubert ( swimming up 3 years to help the guys) – they smashed a record that had stood for a decade by over 10 seconds.

This event gives great exposure to the youngest of swimmers and we hope as a club to continue to grow the number of BASC entrants in the years to come – so get the date in your diary for next year guys

Our results are listed below but all entrants received a medal and the club was very proud of them all for having a go.

Individual Results for BASC linked swimmer’s past and present:

Age 12-15:

Jack Ward – 2^nd

Finley Brown – 3rd

Sophie Fowkes – Girls winner

Mary Duggan – 2^nd

Evie Phillips – 3rd

Age 16-19:

Matt Gates – Boys Winner

Rhys Owen – 2^nd

Holly Bonner – Girls Winner

Age 20-29:

Callan Dawson – Boys Winner

Kelly Gates – Girls Winner

Georgina Hutton – 2^nd

Lorna Hutton – 3^rd

Older Age groups:

Mark Brooks. Ian Gates, Simon Ward, Brian Brooks, Mary Bonner, Sam Owen, Pete Stevens. Brain Newbold. Chris West, Jo Stimpson – Age group winner, Jo Durkan, Helen Williams.

Team Results – age group based on eldest swimmer per team:

Age 10 and under:

Burton SC – Harrison Jones, James Copley, Georgia Ulyett, Charlie Miller, Scarlett Perry and Bella Smith – 1^st

Marlins – Lana Clamp, Bella Smith, Jaina Muogbo, Amelie Spiers, Amelie Brown and Charlie Moorby – 3^rd

Force 10 – Josh Cooper, Dylan Campbell, Dylan Mitchell, Lucas Joubert and Jasper Saunders – 4^th

Rolleston Reds – James Copley and school friends – 5^th

Rolleston Kids – Emily Copley, Freya Smith, Toby Durkan and Georgina Hiatt plus school friends – 6^th

Age 12 and under:

Burton SC – Aidan Joubert, Tom Mitchell, Ella Cooper, Sophie Fowkes, Noah O’Brien and Rosie Bolton – 1^st

BRIL – Brieana Shrive, Ruby Welsford, Izzy Stanley and Lilia Beresford – 3^rd

Spoon Collectors – Jed Bavester, Max Sandle, Sam Madill, Isaac Gill and Sam Duggan – 4^th

Year 7 Sharks – Aimee Stimpson, Ben Harper and school friends – 5^th

APE – Alice Hudson, Polly Hudson and Ella Holden – 6th

Age 14 and under:

Burton SC – Jack Ward, George Greener, George Stevens, Finley Brown and Aidan Joubert – 1^st and RECORD TIME

FINs Oranges – Finley Brown, Ellie Smith, Joe Mlyrea, Niamh Holden, Aimee Powell and Laurie Barrett – 3^rd

Dolphins – Kaliyah Hudson, Evie Phillips, Charlotte Breeze, Sophie Sturman and Charlotte Rumsby – 4^th

Mlyrea – Joe Mlyrea, Ellie Mlyrea, Scarlett Perry and William Perry – 5th

Age 16 and under:

Burton SC – Matt Gates. Finlay Bell, Hayley Brightman, Jack Ward, Molly Wishlade and Ben Crockett – 1^st

Hammerheads – Eve Sandle, Immy Hill, Mary Duggan, Ella Cooper, Rosie Bolton and Sophie Fowkes – 3rd

Open Teams:

Burton SC – Phil Peake, Phil Stimpson, Matt Gates, Ian Gates, Simon Ward and Callan Dawson – 1st

Family Teams:

Stevens – Pete, George and William – 1^st

Brooks – including Brian and Mark – 2^nd

Owen – including Sam and Rhys – 4^th

Cooper – including Sarah, Jason and Josh – 5^th

Stimpson – Jo, Phil, Aimee and Jonathan – 6^th

Wong – Alex, Daisy and Martha – 7^th

Greener – Chris, Helen and George – 8^th

Brown – Mark, Nicky and Amelie – 9^th

Haines – Kerry, Gareth, Sophie and Martha – 10^th

Smith – Paul, Lottie and Katie – 11^th

Hill – Katie, Immy, Sophie and Oliver – 14^th

This year the overall winners for the individual swim were :-

Men’s Result:

1^st – Benjamin Wells – from Swadlincote SC

2^nd – Matt Gates – Burton SC

3^rd – Jack Ward – Burton SC

Women’s Result:

1^st – Jo Latham – Local Swimming Teacher and coach

2^nd – Sophie Fowkes – Burton SC

3^rd – Mary Duggan – Burton SC

This event day itself was only possible due to the dedication of parents and friends to cover the shop (Chris and Dave), – Bev for all the certificates – David , Brian, Jean , Suzanne and Jane on the table – Craig for starting the heats and the many timekeepers ( Simon / Martin / Steve/ Ian /Mary / Louise / Suzanne / Phil /Brian / Craig / Rob / Rob / Jo / Jo / Jenny / Simon / Callan / Andy / Sari / Chris / Rachel and Matt to name a few– if I missed anyone then sorry – but with their help plus many friends and other swimmers taking a turn we got through to finish a very long day on time

Great Day for the club!!!!