National Junior Swimming League (m11)

As mentioned, the draw for round 1 can now be found on our fixtures page.

Round One – 28 April 2019

Hosts:
Braintree – at home – ref. Debbie Burcombe
Basildon – at home – ref. Jane Howell
Epping – at Barnet – ref. Henry Watkinson
Dunmow – at Southbury – ref. Matt Hart

Once again it is a sign of the high regard in which the M11 League is viewed, that we are able to confirm there will be at least 1 fully qualified ref at every gala this season.

All visiting clubs are to provide two officials; and additional duties and officials provided by our hosts are described on our Resources page.  A host pack will be posted to you.

Welcome to the 2019 season!

All participants have paid their entry fee and confirmed their place in the competition.  The draw for round one has therefore been possible and I have published it on our fixtures page. You will all be receiving a direct email with the information and relevant files for 2019.

The next milestone: is for all clubs to submit to me their lists of eligible swimmers by 31 March.  This must be done in the Excel template provided. I need to be strict about this. No alternative file formats and definitely no scanned JPGs.  Please get your swimmers’ DoB in the order I have requested – Year/Month/Day

Also please note the rules: swimmers who are switching clubs must do so by 31 March, and must be resigned from their old club.  Swimmers cannot remain dual club – if they do so, they are only eligible to swim for their old club.

Minutes for the AGM have been distributed directly to the mailing list. If you did not receive them please contact us to request them.

Brief synopsis:

competition dates for 2019
28 April
26 May
23 June

City of Cambridge has resigned, therefore Bethnal Green re-promoted to Div1
Brentwood and Harrow join us in Div2

Entry fee remains unchanged at £40. This needs to be paid by 31 Jan. as confirmation you will compete in 2019. The Treasurer will email you BACS details. As I need to order the printing for the programmes in Feb. it is essential all clubs are confirmed by this date.

The Southern Area final will take place at Sportpark, UEA, hosted by Norwich.

On Sunday 7th October.  Doors open at 12.30.

Clubs representing their leagues will be

Spectator and poolside passes are only available in advance, via your club.  Supporting files and documents for clubs:

• 2018 Southern Area Final covering letter
• Southern Area Final Rules
• Team Ages List 2018 – BLANK
• Team Event List 2018 – BLANK (1)

The winning team will progress to the National Final on Sunday 25 November.

We wish Camden Swiss Cottage the very best of success in representing our League.

The date for our AGM has been booked for Thurday 15th November 2018.

This will take place as usual in the Blue Room, at the Latton Bush centre Harlow at 8pm.

Applications to join the league for the 2019 season should be sent to us before the AGM where they will be discussed and approved.

Wow hold onto your hats! What a result…

Firstly, huge thanks to everyone who took part in round 3. From my own experience and what I’ve heard, all galas went extremely well and our hosts aquitted themselves superbly. Great attention to detail. Teamsheets properly submitted and DQs entered in the spreadsheets.  As far as I can see, there’s no reason to doubt the provisional results even before I get the CTK slips.

Provisional files are up on the results page, with promoted and relegated teams highlighted in green.

What did I say about round III? Much of it was decided by rule 9.2c in the event of a tie on League points ranking is determined by gala points in the final round. (These rules pre-date my involvement).

In spite of a valiant effort from Basildon in all 3 rounds, Camden has indeed pipped them by just 15 gala points in the final (despite Basildon scoring more points over all). At the other end, Harlow pulled out a storming final round to beat the drop zone and pipped Monson by just two points (again despite scoring fewer overall gala points).

In Div2 new-comers NUEL did gain promotion; but Barking who we also welcomed back this year powered through to top the Division with Greenwich in a strong second.

It’s been a very exciting year. I’ll say it again: you all deserve huge credit because I’m sure this must be the most competitive Junior League in the South.

So, we’ve now had chance to verify 3 of the 4 galas from round two.  Div 1 is fully verified.  A typo was found in the results file from the Hillingdon gala which had robbed Camden of a win. This made a considerable difference as it had been so close between Camden and CoCSC so the League points were altered by these two clubs switching places.  Fortunately it makes no difference to which teams are in the final, as previously announced or my choice of hosts.

However the seeding for the lane draw round 3 at Basildon pool has changed considerably (see new fixtures page).

It also gives Camden a real fighting chance of overhauling Basildon to win the League. And there is still the chance that Thurrock or Chelmsford could win and that a strong showing from Barnet could affect these other teams.

There really is everything to fight for.  And the medals are extremly nice!

Well, its a mix of positives and negatives really…

Host clubs have been fantastic; but we’ve had a few difficulties to handle, most often caused by the pool operators, and while we ARE taking steps, a bit more help from visiting clubs and parents will be useful:

Southbury Rd, Enfield was apparently dangerously over-crowded in the foyer and changing rooms. We are seeing this at all pools lately with operators not clearing out the public until the actual time of our warm up and we ARE going to do something about that; BUT if visiting clubs could please be reasonable about the time of arrival, particularly if you arrive very early by coach, there simply isn’t enough space in the foyers at Enfield and Braintree for 8 teams to hang about. Please try and stay out of the building until 20 minutes before warm up.

Parents:
please do not abuse your hosts. You are not allowed into the changing area. If your 9 year old cannot get changed alone then honestly s/he is not yet ready to compete.

Team sheets:
this is really a mixed bag.  At Hillingdon, the gala I attended, I was very please to see that every club heeded my request and is using the team sheet template so we can see quickly if there are any over-age swimmers.

However, for round 2 the number of electronic teamsheets I have received, even now, I can count on one hand.  Just to let you know, I DO appreciate that your team changes even on the day, but there IS a reason for me asking for the electronic team sheet even if I only get it after the gala.  You see there is a line of code in Excel that allows me to specify one set of cells and compare it to another set, and in this way it’s quick to check whether all swimmers in the team sheet are in the eligible swimmers file you submitted at the start. I can only do this if I have electronic files.

I haven’t had all the paper work in yet, but I’ve heard that at least one club did not submit a paper team sheet on the day. Please note that rule 8.10 gives me the discretion to remove all of your points for that gala!

As far as I can tell, every club is behaving with impeccable honesty about declaring over age swimmers and only using eligible swimmers so I’m not going to act like some “jobsworth” over this, but I’m trying to introduce methods that prevent mistakes going un-noticed because a few points here or there do make a difference. With 26 clubs x all your swimmers, this is not something I can check by eye.

Let’s finish on a positive:
the level of  competition and the behaviour of all coaches, swimmers and volunteers has been outstanding. It particularly contributes to my own enjoyment of the league and gives me great pride in how you are helping to grow our reputation in the South East.

Although the final gala points for round 2 are still provisional, we know enough to determine the draw for round three.  You will find this under our “fixtures” page.

Your hosts shall be

Basildon Phoenix – at BSV
Braintree & Bocking – at Freeport Braintree
Greenwich Royals – at Southbury Rd
Haringey Aquatic – at Barnet Copthall

Round 3 is a seeded gala based on your position in the league table, so the fixtures also show your lane draw.

A huge thank you to all our hosts for round 2.  Provisional results are now in. Wow it was close, with some teams finishing narrowly up on where they did in round one, changing the dynamic of the table and meaning it’s all to play for in the final round. League points are doubled for round 3, so whoever wins that gala has a chance of topping their division and that could be any one of 3 or 4 teams.

So I will be checking the paperwork very carefully when it actually comes in. An adjustment of just a few gala points could change the seeding and the dynamics; but from what I can tell it won’t change the League points for round 2, so I feel I know enough to determine the teams in each gala and inform the hosts of their duties.

In case you were affected, I’d just like to thank our hosts again for some of the issues they had to cope with at certain pools, where the equipment (or lack of it), condition, and behaviour of the pool operators fell below the standard we would expect. We are already taking steps to follow this up with Fusion Leisure.

Wherever possible the League will do what we can to ensure that an experienced referee is present at each gala and if possible a representative from the home club to help with preparation.