The Cotswold League is a competition between up to 20 Swimming Clubs who compete in 4 galas each in January, February and March, with finals for everyone held in April. The age groups are 11 years, 13 years, 15 years and Open. The events vary from 25m for the younger swimmers to 100m for the older ones with each Club hosting one of the galas.

6 January – Cinderford hosted the first gala at Monmouth School Sports Club, in a friendly but competitive atmosphere. The final points were Backwell 148, Cheltenham 133, Wells 128 and Cinderford 117. Well done to everyone who swam, you did yourselves and the Club proud.

17 February – Round 2 was hosted by Burnham at Hutton Moor, Weston-Super-Mare, Final results were City of Bristol 124, Brockworth 96, Cinderford 91 and Burnham 79 points. Well done to everyone again who competed for us.

2 March – Round 3 will be hosted by Cwmbran is at Pontypool Active Living Centre. Visiting Clubs are Cinderford were Bristol North. Unfortuately Snow prevented us from participating in this gala.

23 March – Round 4 wil be hosted by Bristol Penguins is at Easton Leisure Centre, Thrissell Street, Easton, BS5 0SW. Doors open 5.45pm. Visiting Clubs are Cinderford, Dursley and Tridents

Good luck to everyone selected for the Galas.

The Club has held a list of Short Course Records since 2010 and Long Course Records since 2021 (post Covid). A lot of long standing Short Course Club Records fell during the year including Billy Harris’s 200m Freestyle which held for 15 years.

Short Course Club Records broken during 2023 are:

10 year old age group: Harriet Purshouse 200m Freestyle (previously held by Hannan Kibble since 2013) and 100m and 200m Backstroke (both previously held by Zea Levy from 2014)

13 year old age group: Thomas Rawlings 200m Freestyle (previously held by Billy Harris since 2008) and 400m Freestyle (previously held by Josh Peck from 2010)

15 year old age group: Chase Lane 200m IM (previously held by Todd Montague from 2012)

Open male age group: Morgan Peck 400m Freestyle (previously held by Todd Montague from 2013) and 100m Butterfly (previously held by Dean Embling since 2013).

Open female age group: Nia Westlake improved on her 100m and 200m Breaststroke records, and her 200m IM and 100m and 200m Butterfly records.

Long course Club Records achieved during 2023 are:

13 year old age group: George Watkins 50m Freestyle, Thomas Rawlings 50m Backstroke and Rae Barnard 100m Breaststroke.

14 year old age group: Ella Plant 200m Backstroke and Toby Page 50m Backstroke and 50m Butterfly.

15 year old age group: Chase Lane 50m, 100m, and 200m Freestyle, 100m Backstroke, 100m and 200m Breaststroke and 100m Butterfly and Martha Day 100m and 400m Freestyle, and 50m, 100m and 200m Backstroke.

Open age group: Chris Hadfield 800m Freestyle, Thomas Cottrell 200m Backstroke , Phoebe Taylor 50m and 200m Backstroke, and 50m Butterfly and Nia Westlake 200m, 800m and 1500m Freestyle, 50m, 100m and 200m Breaststroke and 100m Butterfly.

Well done to our 15/16 year old girls relay team of Imy, Daisy, Millie and Libby after a very early start to be at Hutton Moor for 8.00am warm up and with all the girls competing in the Cotswold League Gala the night before, they put in a valient effort and finished is 9th place in both the Freestyle and Medley Relays.

Well done to all our swimmers at the Soundwell Open Meet at Hutton Moor in Weston-Super-Mare.

You all did so well with plenty of PB’s and many adding to their County qualifying times.

Swimmers achieving Club Records were Harriet Purshousr taking Hannah Kibbles 200m Freestyle record from 2013 and improving on Zea Levys 200m Backstroke record from 2014 by 10 seconds. Thomas Rawlings also improved on his own 200m Freestyle record.

Wow, a great 3 days of competition for swimmers, we hope everyone had a great time.

The results are on Swim England rankings, Swim Manager and our noticeboard at the pool. Plenty of swimmers achieved County Championship qualifying times for 2024 or improved on their already QT. The County list is also on our noticeboard.

Well done to the following swimmers who achieved Club Records in their races:

Nia W improvement in her 200m breaststroke

Jessi S a new Club Record in 100 breaststroke for 8 year olds

George R and Beatrice P, new Club Records in 100m freestyle for 8 year olds

As always, a great big thank you to all the coaches, officials and helpers – we could not do it without you.

All our competitive swimmers aspire to achieve qualifying times for the Gloucester County Championships (and Regional) as they improve their speed and strokes.

What is the Gloucester County ASA Swimming Championship?

It is a competition organised by the County held in January and February each year at the 50m pool in Bristol, it is open to all swimmers aged 10 and over (age as at 31/12/2024) who qualify from the 20 clubs in Gloucestershire.

To qualify for the 2024 Championships, swimmers must have achieved a time between 1^st January 2023 and end of December 2023 in a Licenced Meet faster than the published Gloucester County qualifying time (found on our website and noticeboard).  Licensed Meets are all the Open Meets the Club enters during the year where you pay for individual races and our Club Championships.

We have put a list on the noticeboard of Gloucester County Championship qualifying times and swimmers’ current times.

Please talk to the coaches or our reception if you need more information.

GL1 Pool was the venue for the latest Gloucester City Open Meet. After some last minute concerns following the abrupt closure of the venue, the organisers saw that the event ran smoothly and with no disruption to the swimmers.

27 Cinderford swimmers took part, as always among great team spirit and encouragement, achieving 52 PB’s, 41 Gloucester County qualifying times and 2 South West Regional qualifying times. The results are on our noticeboard. Well done to everyone.

New Club Records were achieved by:

Chase L in 200m IM who took Todd’s record which had stood since 2012

Harriet P who to Zea’s 100m Backstroke record which had stood since 2014 and

Thomas R who improved his own 400m freestyle record.

The Teaching group had an opportunity to put all that training into practice with races of 50m Frontcrawl and 50m Breaststroke on Monday and 50m Backstroke and 50m Butterfly on the Friday. All the swimmers were up for the challenge and it was so exciting to see so many smiling faces around poolside. Well done to all of you.

The County and Development squads had team galas both days with swimmers cheering on their team mates and lots of swimmers taking on new distances and strokes. Hopefully this will get everyone in the mood for the Club Championships in November.

We were also very lucky to have 10 new timekeepers doing their practical assessments over the 2 nights – thank you and well done to you all.

Well done swimmers at the Sprint Meet in September, there were fantastic results by everyone. The day went by in a blur with so many swimmers competing at 50m of all strokes and 100m IM. Also the girls put in teams in all age groups.

Medals were collected by Flora for her 50 fly and 50 free, Chase for 50 free, 50 breast, 50 fly and 100 IM, Thomas for 50 breast and 50 fly, Nia for 50 free, 50 fly and 100 IM, Harriet for 50 back, and the freestyle relay team consisting of Daisy, Libby, Nia and Millie.

Swimming County Championship 2024 qualifying times on the day were James, Chase, Thomas, Nia, Daisy, Grace C, Izzy B, Toby and George. Swimmers who now achieved or improved on their qualifying times for their first County Championships were Millie, Flora, Harriett, Florence and Lilly-Ann.

The Club is very proud of Nia who finished off the seasion at the SW Summer Open Nationals at Swansea with great results. She achieved a silver medal for her 200m butterfly and a bronze medal for her 400m IM against very strong opposition with new long course PBs in both.

She also PB’d in the 200m breaststroke in both her heat and again in the final.