Next Race Night Coming Up 1st June - Plus Extras!!!!!

Just a reminder that the next race night is this coming Wednesday, June 1st at the usual time of 7pm. If you don't wish to race we would love it if you wanted to help out with timekeeping or marshaling etc. As usual, there is no charge for swimming on race night.

The events on the menu this round are 25m backstroke, 50m butterfly, 100m breastroke, and 200m any stroke.

As an added bonus we are going to supply a bit of nosh and juice for afters (yes, we're a little bit fancy) where we can have a brief chat and brag about our exploits in the pool. We all love to brag don't we? So........... we'll have a table in cafetaria set up; no chairs mind, because we're not that fancy. It would be great if you could stay, even for just 10-15 minutes to share a piece of cake or fruit and a cup of juice before you go home for your dinner. Dessert before dinner - perfect!

Where's Arthur - Answer Revealed

Remember, if you want to receive instant notifications of new postings by email, scroll to the bottom of the postings on the home page and where it says 'follow by email' pop your email address in and click on the submit button. Ezy pzy.

Also, for those attending the dinner this Saturday; it is at 7pm at Spices Thai, 123 Ormiston Rd, Botany South. You should have paid for your meal by now (money to Anne pronto please if you haven't paid yet). You can buy drinks there on the night or bring a bottle of wine with you.

Roving Reporter will be there with a camera so wear your best smiley face.

Where's Arthur? - Message from Martha

Martha has sent me a message and asked me to pass it on to you all:

Hello to everyone. I try to keep very much to myself but it has got back to me that people have been asking what has happened to my darling son Arthur. Well he was offered a position as a lifeguard at a swimming pool in Osaka, Japan. The job is difficult as the pool is very crowded, as you can see from the photo. He tells me he is happy but I can't tell from the photograph as my eyesight is failing. Can you find him in the photo for me?

Thanks Martha, it's good to know that Arthur is OK. Club members, remember, if you want to receive instant notifications of new postings by email, scroll to the bottom of the postings on the home page and where it says 'follow by email' pop your email address in and click on the submit button.

Fame! I'm Gonna Live Forever.

I wonder if they are giving autographs? What did they do with the sponsorship money they received from Orca? Were they wearing Blue Seventy goggles? Why are the rest of the team not in the photo? Why can't Howick and Pakuranga Times spell Cribbens? The answers to these and many more........

NOW, you can also subscribe to posts by email. So get notifications of new posts instantly in your inbox. How? Scroll to the bottom of this page and put your email address in the white box where it says 'follow by email'. Job done!

Race Night Results Published! Check Them Out

Wednesday night saw the first of the 400's nights. One sad, lonely soul chose to swim the 400 IM and all other contestants swam the 400 Free. Some very good times were swum and there were some races that had swimmers playing a bit of cat and mouse, jockeying for position and then sprinting for a nailbiting finish.

We have 36 different club members holding records. Yes, 36, so this might have to be the last time I add that one up since I've run out of fingers and toes and I'm not sure which colours to use on the abacus. The most hotly contested women's age group is the 45-49 age group with 4 record holders and in the men's it's the 50-54 age group with 6 record holders. 

Elizabeth Hayes now holds the most records in the women's events with 10 records in total and for the men, it's game on between Lapo Nustrini and Barry Davies who each hold 7 records.

We have now completed the 13 events in the four Club Nights we have had.  Next club night in June we start the programme from the beginning again. The events will be 25 Backstroke, 50 butterfly, 100 breaststoke and 200 any stroke. This gives you an opportunity to lower the times you set last round.

To see the results from Wednesday night click on the Overall Results tab, and on the Records tabs to view the current club records.

All Kinds of Exciting Stuff Happening

New Posting On The Tech Tips Page
From now on, doing slow open turns in freestyle will be a thing of the past. If you want to learn how to do new-fangled tumble turns at lightening speed then go to the Tech Tips page and you will find a set of excellent You Tube clips that give you step by step instructions. Pretty soon you'll be turning so fast that even Michael Phelps will be eating your bubbles. Thanks to Barry D for finding these clips.

The Race is On!
Yes it's race night again this Wednesday 4th May. It's 400's night so if you like swimming long then get thee along at 7pm. We shall be aiming to keep one lane free for general swimming, but if there are 20 of you in that lane, well, don't blame me for the congestion. If you don't want to swim we are quite happy for you to timekeep.

Dinner Is On Us (almost)
Remember to get your name down for the subsidised dinner at Spices Thai, Botany South, 7pm on 28th May. There's a set banquet menu and it's licensed and BYO wine. Check out the posting on 29th April for more details.

Upcoming Swimming Events
Currently there are no open water events around the corner as the season has finished so more on this closer to next season. Also no postal events on the horizon. Below are some upcoming pool events:

• 14/5/11 - Auckland Short Course Championships. Held at Cameron Pool, Mt Roskill, Auckland. Closing date is 8/5/11 (get your skates on to enter this one). Follow this link for an entry form: http://www.nzmastersswimming.org.nz/view-all-events/details/22
• 6/8/11 - Hamilton Masters Mid Winter Xmas Meet. Held at Waterworld, Garnett Rd, Te Rapa, Hamilton. No entry form available yet. Hamilton always put on a fun meet that is worth attending. Also, this will be a long course event.

Din Din's

South City Masters is holding a dinner to which everyone is invited. It will be held on Sat 28th May at 7pm, at Spices Thai, 123 Ormiston Road, Botany South (just down from Celsius). Fully licensed & BYO Wine. Menu is below ($32 version – with dessert, no soup). The evening will be subsidized with a rather generous subsidy for club members; so the evening will cost $15 for club members and $30 for non-members.

Please confirm your attendance by May 21st. There will be the usual sheet by the side of the pool at training sessions for you to do this. Anne Legg will be collecting payment in advance (nice one Ann, this makes it easy for everyone). 

Maximum of 45 people, so first come first served.

Banquet Menu

Entree

Chicken Wing

Curry Puff

Money Bag

Chicken Satay

Main Courses

Panang Curry with chicken

Beef with oyster gravy sauce and veg

Pork with chili, garlic and veg

Chicken with ginger and veg

Pad Thai noodle with chicken

Steamed Thai jasmine rice

Dessert

Banana rolls with strawberry sauce, icecream, cream

Filtered coffee or tea

Prince of the Bays - Son of KOB

16th April was the date for the annual King of the Bays swim. Unfortunately the weather was not being kind to the organizers or the swimmers. Nasty wind and rain meant that the normally 2.8km swim was shortened to 1.5km. It was so rough in fact that the organizers didn't even let the swimmers venture out into open water and they only swam twice around the 750m course and even then it was rough. 

Undercover Detective wasn't hang-gliding but did have 360 degree goggles on and saw everything. I don't know how many swimmers were entered (they usually get around 1300) but 651 swimmers cheated certain death and recorded a time. Here’s how our swimmers did.

JASON GRANT                  00:16:48            35th
RICHARD SMITH               00:17:06            40th
DAVID DONALDSON         00:18:20            87th
RACHEL RICHARDSON    00:18:25            93rd
ELLIOT CRAWFORD         00:20:03            194th
LIZ HAYES                         00:20:07            199th
TONY SHACKLOCK          00:21:40            289th
ANGELA TOMLINSON       00:21:45            294th
ANGELA OLIVER               00:22:31            342nd
DAVID WALKER                 00:23:54            408th
BARRY CRIBBENS            00:25:35            484th

What's this? Tony and Angela T 5 seconds apart again. That's the same margin as last time. I'm starting to think this is deliberate and conspired. To quote Angela 'only a fool breaks the 5 second rule'. It's really not necessary guys, it's not like there's food on the floor. To make matters even more confusing Elliot and Liz finished just 4 seconds apart. Now I've heard of tethered cycling but not tethered swimming. I'm sure this kind of thing is against the rules.

Undercover Detective - next time perhaps you could wear your head-mounted waterproof video camera and take some video. Or at least get some photos. I promise that the head-mounted gear won't add any drag and slow you down.

Satellite Spies - Lookout, They're Everywhere

That ocean swim that makes even Chuck Norriss run for the hills was on again today. Yes, The Rangitoto to St Heliers 4.6km swim. Roving Reporter wasn't there but Satellite Spy was and here is how South City members and honorary members did:

Richard Smith 1:01:12 (7th)
David Donaldson 1:09:52
Elizabeth Hayes 1:12:16
Rachel Richardson 1:12:51
Elliott Crawford 1:18:11
Pat Castles 1:22:00
Tony Shacklock 1:22:39
Angela Tomlinson 1:22:44
Mike Wansink 1:23:19
David Walker 1:29:02
Ross Faulkner 1:30:16
Barry Cribbens 1:41:06
  
Brilliant conditions: Partly cloudy, light wind, flat water. South City was well represented with 10 club members swimming. No one won a spot prize though. What's with that? Going on times it looks like a few people were holding hands throughout the race. Are Tony and Angela conjoined twins? They were just 5 seconds apart. I might need a spy-in-the-sky next time to check that one out. You can volunteer for spy-in-the-sky position if you like, it is unpaid but you get to learn hang-gliding.

Didn't they all do well.

Build A Better Mousetrap.........

and they shall come. And they did! 30 Masterful swimmers enjoyed their races on Wednesday with lots of short stuff to keep the sprinters happy. There was 25 Fly or Free, 50 Back, 50 Breast and 100 Free. Some great times were swum and 7 swimmers who had swum the 100 free last round managed to lower their own times and lower their own record or break records set by others in the previous round.

In the Womens there were four (4) record changes as follows:

25-29 age group  Angela Tomlinson reduced her own record from 1.24.32 to 1.22.31
40-44 age group  Elizabeth Hayes reduced her own record from 1.17.47 to 1.15.11
55-59 age group Avy Judelson set a new mark of 1.20.19 from old record of 1.44.15
70-74 age group Cathy Fagerstroem reduced her own record from 2.03.99 to 1.54.28

In the mens there were three record changes as follows:

45-49 age group Michael Harrison reduced his own record from 1.14.60 to 1.09.30
55-59 age group Ron Tomlinson set a new mark of 1.09.47 from the old record of 1.22.70.
65-69 age group Barry Davies reduced his own record from 1.39.77 to 1.38.99 

Checkout the Overall Results page to see what times were swum by whom and then have a look at the Records pages to see who holds what records.

There are now 33 different club record holders. The most hotly contested category is the men's 50-54 age group which now has 5 men holding records. Myself, I think they are just being far too nice to each other and sharing it around. Sharing is caring, so I've heard. Maybe they have a pact; one for me, one for you.....

The next race night is pegged for Wednesday 4th May, 7pm. If you are not the sprinting type and it takes you 20 minutes just to get up on the start blocks then you will like what's in store because I believe it might be the 400 Free (or IM if you are fast enough to finish an IM before 8pm bowls around). This is to be confirmed yet though. So if you like the longer stuff then start dusting off those enduro-goggles.