A big thank you to Ann Mercer, Jan Clarke and Fiona Bradshaw for all their hard work during registration. The new fee structure is now in place and Paul and Sally have been working to ensure that sessions are allocated to swimmers according to their abilities.

The Backstroke Gala on 7^th February was the first of the internal Stroke Galas of 2007.

Over 80 personal best times were achieved – don’t forget to record your time in your log books. Special congratulations to Adam Clarke, Alex McDonald and Alex Jackson, who all broke the club record. Adam now holds the new club record having taken more than five seconds off the previous record time.

The next Stroke Gala is the Breaststroke Gala, which will be held on 14^th March. Warm up will be at 7pm – see you all there!

The collection for Margaret   will be donated to the Air Ambulance in the next week or so. Thanks to all who contributed and thanks to Margaret for supporting such a worthwhile cause, which relies totally on donations.

LSC has links with Penguins Swimming Club, which welcomes disabled swimmers and their families in swimming pool activities. Sessions take place on Sundays from 6-7pm at the Friary. Many of our swimmers, past and present, have volunteered their help – if you would like to know more you can visit their website at www.penguinsswimclub.fsnet.co.uk

Please hand in your completed questionnaires – if you would like your views to be known and haven’t yet filled in the questionnaire, please ask someone on poolside for a copy.  Your views are welcome and important as they help the committee and coaching staff to provide the type of club you want.

Completed questionnaires can be left on the table on poolside on Wednesdays. Please hand them in by Wednesday 7^th  March at the latest.

Competitive Swimming Awards have recently been achieved by:

Megan Moore – Bronze 50m Backstroke                            Ashley Butterworth – Gold 100m IM and 200m Freestyle          Chris Martin – Gold 50m Breaststroke, 100m Backstroke and 200m Freestyle                   Lily Sutton – Gold 200m IM and Platinum 100m Backstroke

Badges for the Competitive Swimming and Five Star Efficiency Awards can now both be ordered through Patricia Holloway.

Details of the awards are on the club notice board.

Congratulations to Lily Sutton, who has been selected to run for the Junior Girls yr 8/9 at the All England Cross Country Championships in Leeds on March 24^th.

A Coach to the Junior Squad has been appointed. The committee is delighted that Sally McDonald has accepted the position. Sally is a Level 2 Teacher and has gained experience as part of the LSC coaching team, working for Splashers and as a swimming teacher for Lichfield District Council.

Due to an error in the awarding of points for the Internal Stroke Gala League Table, the final positions were incorrect for the 15yr Girls. The final positions were:

Harriet Stringer 30 pts                   Amy Carnall 24pts                       Anna Kennett 13pts                    Emma Sisley 12pts                        Katie Wilson 11pts                      Keely Thorne 8pts

Apologies to Anna for this mistake and congratulations to her for coming overall third in the 2006 Stroke galas.

Club Kit                                        Please remember that if you represent Lichfield Swimming Club at a gala, you must wear club kit. Details are on the notice board – if in doubt, ask Nick Davison, who runs the club shop on Wednesdays.

A yellow gala hat is presented to every swimmer when they are first selected to swim for the club. Club hats can also be obtained from the club shop. Yellow hats should only be worn at galas and not for   training sessions.

Calling all family members. We are looking for youngsters who are interested in swimming competitively. If you have any younger brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces or family friends who are keen to improve their swimming we can offer lessons to help them achieve their goals. There are a number of “feeder” sessions, which help youngsters reach the required standard for club swimming.

If you want to find out more about how younger children can prepare for club swimming, please speak to Sally or email the club for more information at: -lichfieldswimmingclub@hotmail.co.uk

The Staffordshire Championships will take place over 2 weekends in March. This is a very important event for the club as the ability to coach swimmers to the required standard is one of the main measurements used to determine whether the club is running successfully.

Once again our swimmers achieved a fantastic number of QTs. In total 26 swimmers qualified in 125 events. We are delighted that the club will again be strongly represented at the Championships – congratulations to all of you who achieved QTs we are very proud of you.

GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL!

Thanks to all the coaching staff for their efforts in helping swimmers to reach their goals and also to Debbie Cash for making sure all the paperwork is in place to enable our swimmers to compete.