Newsletter July 2017 @WarrenderBC @WBC_Water_Polo @Warrender_WaterPolo A Word from the President Good Luck to Archie, Roisin and George, we look forward to hearing all about your events in the next newsletter! On behalf of the club, I would like to thank Coach Craig Mitchell for his sterling work over the past 7 years and to wish Craig every success in his new career as a mechanical engineer. May I finish my introduction to the newsletter by paying tribute to Hammy Smith who sadly lost his fight with cancer earlier this month. Jackie Lawrie President Hammy Smith (1937-2017) We are very saddened to let you know that Hammy Smith passed away on Monday 3rd July, after a short fight with lung cancer. Welcome to July 2017’s newsletter! Hammy has been a titan of the Scottish A club of champions! Swimming scene for over 60 years. Since our April Newsletter our swimmers and water polo players have been very busy with lots He was a top Scottish swimmer and competed of successes to be proud of. Swimmers from for Paisley and Scotland in the 1950s. After across all age groups have been competing, our graduating, Hammy taught PE in Paisley and young swimmers at their first meet at Duns, our coached the school’s swimmers becoming competitive masters racing against other UK Scotland's chief coach at the 1970 Commonwealth Games. He was also an assistant coach on swimmers at the British Masters and Senior Age the Great Britain 1964 Olympic team and went on to coach ten Olympians and 30 internationals. Group Champs at Aberdeen and Age group swimmers competing at lots of local meets. Hammy was also invited to teach in Canada and later became England's first national swimming We also entered a strong team at the East District coach with the English Swimming Association. Open competing against some top University level swimmers. Hammy lectured physical education at what is now the University of Edinburgh, was Scotland's swimming director for ten years and won GB's 'Coach of the Year' in 1975 and in 2002 received a The Warrender Water Polo teams have also lifetime achievement award from the British Swimming Coaches Association. enjoyed many successful games with the highlight in May when as part of the GBR team, Dominique In recent years’ he has been a linchpin of a rejuvenated Warrender Baths Club with his Zahra scored the winning goal in the last 0.1 second against Israel at the LEN European enthusiasm and passion for the club and swimming in general undimmed; coaching young Qualification Tournament. swimmers even up until last year, passing on those years of experience and inspiring to the next generation. Our senior swimmers have been very busy and you will find a full report from the head coach Hammy will be sadly missed by all in the Club and the wider swimming family; and our thoughts highlighting their successes and the selection of are with Frances, Neil and Andrew at this time. Hammy’s funeral is to be held at Warriston some of our swimmers to swim internationally. Crematorium on Friday the 21st of July at 2:15pm, to which all are welcome. Any further This includes Archie Goodburn’s selection for the information will be posted on the website. GB team at the Youth Olympiad, Roisin Ramsay representing Scotland at the Youth Commonwealth Games and George Clough who will swim at the We recognise that Hammy has played an important role in the lives of many Warrender swimmers World Junior Championships in the US. and we would like to pull together a memorial book. If you would like to contribute, please contact the club president at [email protected]. Swanston Steading 109/12 Swanston Road EH10 7DS 0131 466 0764 1 In this issue... Check out 10 things you may not know about swim meets on page 8! Find your squad report! Warrender’s trophy winning team at the annual Duns Meet on Saturday May 13th! See page 10. Dominique Zahra (4th from left) picked for the GB junior men's water polo team and junior players selected for various Scotland junior teams! See page 12. Masters racing... ...and marrying! Page 13 Warrender Annual Dinner Tickets Now on Sale! Waldorf Astoria Hotel, Lothian Road, Edinburgh Saturday 28th October 2017 7pm till late £45.00 per person Pre dinner sparkling drink, 3 course meal Dress code: Black Tie Tickets are now available for our autumn event being held in the stunning Castle Ballroom of the Waldorf Hotel. This promises to be an exciting evening out, a chance to relax and enjoy delicious food in beautiful surroundings. Tickets are sold individually or as a table for 10. It is a great opportunity to get squad parents together, meet new parents or even host your business clients and colleagues. For further details, to book a table or reserve individual places contact Jackie Lawrie ([email protected]). During the evening we will be holding our popular auction, which always proves to be fun and very competitive! We are now looking for new and exciting prizes, so if you have any ideas or would like to donate a prize for this or for the raffle please contact Alison Payne ([email protected]). We are currently looking for people to help with this and future events. Please drop Jackie an email if you are interested in volunteering. We look forward to welcoming you to the Waldorf! 2 Head Coach Report It has been a very busy term of swimming and I know most of you are now looking forward to getting some rest and relaxation over the summer! Throughout May and June, I have been travelling around to various competitions, working with swimmers at all levels of the Club as they race. There have been some fantastic performances with huge personal best times delivered! This has enabled me to work with the coaches to identify areas for future development. You will hear more about the meets and results through other reports in the newsletter. Many of our Club's athletes will continue to train throughout July with the British Summer Championships taking place 25-30 July. We also have three swimmers representing their club and country this summer and I would like to congratulate them for their selections! Having three of our Performance swimmers selected to international teams is a fantastic achievement for the Club. I am looking forward to working with the European Youth Olympic Festival team after being appointed Team Leader for this event. My remit will be to work with and mentor the appointed team coaches and to liaise with the British Olympic Association on logistics. The IPC World Championships take place in Mexico City in October and the selections for this meet have not yet taken place. Scott Quin will compete at the British Summer Championships which will be the selection meet for the event. Good luck Scott! I would like to thank the coaches for all of their hard work over the course of the season. They have been very committed and dedicated and work hard to ensure each and every swimmer is able to strive to fulfil their potential. We are sadly saying farewell to some of our coaches who are moving on to new experiences after the summer. Craig Mitchell (Lead Coach, National Girls Squad) has taken a job in engineering in Leicestershire, and will depart from the Club after six years of coaching. Craig has been an invaluable member of the Club over this time, always willing to go above and beyond his coaching duties to help out with any task that needs doing. We wish him all the very best with his future endeavours and hope that he comes back to visit us from time to time! Hana Duheric (Benson White) and Tim Whitaker (Benson Red) are both travelling abroad for a year to continue their university studies and will leave in August. Hana will travel to France to undertake the third year of her law degree, while Tim will head to Spain to further his language degree. Hana has promised she will be back with us in twelve months! Thank you to both Hana and Tim for their work and good luck for the year ahead! I’d also like to thank Megan Lawrie for her contribution assisting Smith White on a Friday evening. Megan is off to study in Glasgow after the summer and we wish her the very best of luck. I hope everyone enjoys their summer break. We have sessions operating over summer for those who are in Edinburgh and would like to continue some training. Remember to check your emails regularly in case there are any changes to the schedule. We will communicate by email in July to confirm squad placements for the new season. All changes will take effect from the 14th August when the normal training schedule resumes. Lastly, many thanks to all of the parents for their support, both to the swimmers and to the Club, throughout the season. We can’t run as we do without you! Laurel Bailey Head Coach Scottish National Championships & Scottish Summer Meet 2017 We had two weekends of back to back racing in Aberdeen and Edinburgh, serving as preparation and target meets for a large group of athletes. The Scottish National Championships took place in Aberdeen from 29 June – 2 July, and was a great opportunity for swimmers to prepare themselves for the upcoming Summer Meets. George Clough (bronze 200 IM) and Archie Goodburn (bronze 100 Fly) were on excellent form, both preparing to represent Great Britain later in the summer.