Brockwell Relays are a tried and tested format: a freestyle relay, medley relay and breaststroke relay, followed by a squadron and, if you have any energy (or body heat) left, a final relay mixed with swimmers from all the other teams.

We had a great blend of Brockwell veterans and newer members, which is a big pull for events like this. We also had a spread of teammates from all our weekly training sessions and locations, and a catch-up in the Prince Regent Pub once the racing finished.

Special thanks, in addition to Hannah and Jen, also go to:

– our amazing timekeeper Daisy

– Team Alex (his housemates) for cheering us on again

– Robyn for bringing much-needed drinks

There was some amazing other stuff going on in the other teams too. I’d never seen supported swimming with a noodle for partially sighted swimmers before, which was pretty humbling. There’s a real collegial spirit across all teams at the event, helped of course by the mixed race at the end.

If this is something you’d like to do we’d love you to join the event next year. There are two Brockwell Relay galas in 2027, one in May and one in August. There are also the Tooting Midsummer Relays in their 100 yard lido.

Spencer offers many opportunities for fun events throughout the year, away from mainstream masters competitions.

The Spencer Team

– Alex, Alicia, Anna, Christine, Hannah, James, Jen, Josh, Mark, Robyn, Ross

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Coaches Report from Steve Baker

The second staging of the Brockwell relays took place on Thursday 22^nd July 2021 with a team of 10 Spencer swimmers.

As the winners of the inaugural event in 2019 we had expectation and objective to retain the trophy.

I am personally delighted that we were able to mix members of longer vintage with new swimmers and of course mixing from various venues. The morale and spirit lift that this offers to swimmers and the club is massive. Of course, a round of tonic water helped in the pub also.

The event was competitive and we did not have every race our own way.  It was also good to know that whilst we did not win every front crawl race, we smashed the other strokes.

We also had fewer swimmers than Serpentine, Windrush and the Clapham Chasers so well done on the stamina.

Well done Olegas for stepping up to management duties and the assistant manager, Agne.   Thanks also for the long-distance travelers, Georgie from Hertfordshire and Mel from South Wales!!

Swimmers.

Over 120                                                                                  Under 120

• Lisa Hibberd                                                                  Sarah Tripp
• Sue Swaine                                                                    Georgie Quayle
• Emily Hayter                                                                  Mel Thomas
• Rebecca Pritchard                                                         Thomas Holmes
• Willem Heskes
• Luca Milana

Results.

O120 Free           2nd                                          U120 Free           2nd 

O120 Br               1^st Dead Heat                           U120 Br               1st

O120 Med          1st                                            U120 Med           1st

Cannon                2^nd

OVERALL 1^st

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After a gap of over 20 months, Spencer Swim Team got the chance for the first open competitive event in the water.

Three mixed teams of different ages competed in the South London Relays in the crazy but great fun 16 length relay event.  Each swimmer swimming 4 individual lengths, one at a time.  Sounds easy but in a 100yard pool it can be tough.  Start too fast and the jelly legs kick in pretty soon.

Following our three-age group clean sweep in 2019, we came back this year with two golds and a silver.  The Met Police, who consider this event their own, managed in a very tight finish to beat our 150+ team into second place.

Detailed results.

The Junior team (100-150 years) won the overall event in a time of 19.06, 25 seconds ahead of the next team in their group (The Met Police) and of course winning their age group of 4 teams.  As an added bonus, the junior team was on average 8 years older than the Met Police team.

The Middle team (151-200) were beaten into second place in their group of 16 by the Met Police by 37 seconds.  Overall, the middle group were 3^rd.  Their time was 20.21.

The Oldies team (201 +) won their group of 8 by 86 seconds and were 5^th overall.  So, the only teams to beat the oldies were the other Spencer teams and the Police. Their time was 20.56. 

Given the training over the past 18 months these are very good times. Congratulations to all 12 swimmers and our three erstwhile supporters, Georgie’s mum, Agne Petrikas and Luca Milana for braving the monsoon conditions. The water was a very pleasant 20ish, the air was warm and wet.

30 teams lined up in a 33-yard-wide pool and astonishingly there was only one clash of heads during the event.

Teams

1^st place in 100+ Age Group            Olegas Petrikas, Sue Swaine, Georgie Quayle, Olivier Geleoc   (146 years)

2^nd place in 150+ Age Group           Laura Mason, Alain Renders, Barbara Halls, James Draper        (180 years)

1^st place in 200+ Age Group            Willem Heskes, Lisa Hibberd, Ed Hill, Steve Baker                        (226 years*)

*(The age of the whole team, not just Steve!!!)

Felafels all round rounded off the evening and great fun was had by all.

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Over the past couple of years, we have upped our game however and this year we hit a new high by the winning of the gold medal at all three senior age groups.  The only one we didn’t compete in was the under 100, we could have but are only allowed three teams.

There is of course always more devil in the detail.

The three teams were called:

Spencer Youf    (100-150)                       Georgina Quayle, Sue Swaine, Olivier Geleoc, Rob Tate.

Spencer Stewarts (151 – 200)                  Mel Thomas, Jess Campbell, Laura Mason, James Draper

Spencer Oldies (201 plus)                         Lisa Hibberd, Ed Hill, Willem Heskes, Stephen Baker

The competition amongst the 40 teams was really good and Spencer did their best to make it a fight all round.

The young team were overall fastest team with a time of 18.23, beating even the first placed team in the under 100-year category.  This is a fabulous time of 68.9 average 100 yards.  Their winning margin in their age category was 1 minute and 16 seconds, so over a length.  A fabulous performance.

The second age group made life more interesting, winning in a time of 20.35, 16 seconds ahead of the second placed home team and the following three teams, places 2-4 were only separated by 3 seconds.  A fantastically close race for such an event.

The oldies named Goldies decided that following their 2018 victory an improvement was required and won in 20.32 a winning margin of 1 minute and 15 seconds.

However, the detail here is that they managed to beat the younger Spencer team by 3 seconds.  Life in the old ones yet!!!

The last length must have been really exciting as no fewer than 7 team finished between 20.32 and 20.59 with 4 finishing within 8 seconds of each other.

For the record, the young team won out of 11 teams, the middle group out of 18 and the older team out of 7, but without rubbing it in would have won the middle group as well, so oldies we got the fifth fastest time out or 40 teams including the under 100 team., so very well done indeed.

Just to complete the stats, the young teams time was almost the same as last year with the oldies posting an improvement of 18 seconds.

Enough stats for one night.

Well done everyone.  Here’s to a double treble in 2020!!!!

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