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.
