Bristol Henleaze Swimming Club

The last Swim School session for this half term is on Thursday 18th October.The last normal training session of this half term is on Wednesday 24th October.

There will be training for A squad only as follows:

Fri 26th October, 7.15pm to 9pm ,Horfield LC (4 lanes only)

Tues 30th October, 7pm to 9pm, Horfield LC

Thurs 1st November, 7.15pm to 8.30pm, Clifton High

Friday 2nd November, 7.15pm to 9pm, Horfield LC

BHJDS may swim for the first hour of those sessions..

 Normal training resumes for all squads and Swim School from Monday 5th November.

The committee of BHSC is delighted to announce a fantastic new partnership with both Bristol Universities and other Bristol swimming clubs (Bristol North, Penguins and Portway) to deliver a brand new performance pathway for our swimmers in the City.

Jez Birds has been appointed to the new role of Director of Swimming. This appointment is intrinsically linked to our swimming club as in addition Jez will become the Director of Swimming for BHSC with effect from November 1st. Some of you will know Jez but for those of you that don’t, he comes with exceptional experience.

During his career he has successfully coached a national champion and national age group and youth finalists. On top of that he has coached 5 out of the top 10 nationally ranked swimmers along with senior national and British universities finalists. He is an England talent level two coach and as a result has had the opportunity to coach England talent select swimmers!

Marco Maestri, chair of BHSC said; finally, we are able to give our swimmers exactly what they need - a proper route to development with like minded partners who want to see swimming flourish in a city the size of Bristol. It's been a privilege to plan this with the people involved and I feel incredibly excited about what this opportunity offers both the individual and the club. Having Jez as BHSC Director of Swimming will take us to a new level – he is a consummate coach and it will be fantastic to have him on board both for the club and for the performance scheme.

This joint appointment cements the partnership forged whilst ensuring that the BHSC swimmers get the focus they need moving forward.

There is a lot to do in the next few months. As a club we will need to overhaul our existing structure and schedules, maximise our pool time and make great use of the facilities that the universities are able to offer us as part of this joint initiative. Jez will work with our existing coaches and teachers in the coming weeks to find the right pathway for all. As soon as we have some concrete news regarding this, we will share it with you. Please keep checking the website for updates and more news.

So, lots to do but we now have a great scheme that can put Bristol clubs on the map and I'm very grateful for everyone's hard work in getting us there. More details will follow over the course of the next few weeks In the meantime, if you have any queries, please email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and we will endeavour to get back to you as soon as we can.

A big thank you to everyone who helped at Club Championships yesterday. The whole evening ran very smoothly when you consider that we had a record number of entries this year. We were lucky that the electronic timekeeping behaved itself -  until the last few heats of the boys 100IM, when lane 3 became unusable and we had to move swimmers around! Let's hope it's fixed before the National Arena League galas next weekend.

 All results for club championships so far are on the results database. You will need to log in to access the database and set the "course" to SCM  (short course metres)- it defaults to yards and none of our swimmers swim in races measured in yards, so it can look as though swimmers have no results!

The Club's annual Presentation Night disco will be held on the 14th December at Filton Civil Service Club, tickets now available from Sandra/Hilary at £4.50 per swimmer and £3.50 per adult, ticket prices have been increased as we have booked a better disco than previous years. See you all there. Tickets available at Club Champs on Saturday.

Hilary is now taking orders for personalised swimming hats. If you would like to order a hat with a name on, then please see Hilary at  a session or club champs this Saturday.

Results from both Saturdays are now on the  Results Database which you'll need to be logged in to see.

Well done to all our swimmers

Bristol North Open held on Saturday 29 October – first session

This was the second weekend of the very popular Bristol North Meet and one of the first galas of the season. Although only open to 9 – 12 year olds it attracts a high quality field and a very high volume of swimmers. It’s a great gala for those getting their first experience of an open meet and has a very friendly but competitive atmosphere, so if you didn’t swim this year, make sure you enter in 2013.

We took two teams - the 9 year old girls and the 11 year old boys. Francesca Gilpin, Lucy Thornton, Saskia Maestri and Catherine Brooke swam a great heat in the 25 medley relay and went into the final in third place. They all performed brilliantly to hold off 5 other teams to take bronze medals. The boys team of Archie Watts, Tom Pitt, Joe Hubble and Rory Maxwell also swam well in the 4 x 50 free relay going into their final in 4^th place and just missed out on the medals to finish 4^th in this well contested event.

Of the 4 individual events that our swimmers entered, Catherine Brooke, Archie Watts and Rory Maxwell all achieved a much coveted spot in the finals. These were held at the end of the competition for the top 8 competitors from each event and the excitement and noise level was explosive, but all our swimmers kept their composure and nerve. Several of the girls just missed out on a place in the 9 year old 50 meter butterfly final, where Lucy Thornton was placed 9th and only 1 second behind the 8th placed finalist, but next year they’re all sure to be up there.

Our finalists who all received medals were:-

3rd place: Francesca Gilpin, Lucy Thornton, Saskia Maestri and Catherine Brook, in the girls 9 year old 4 x 25 m medley

6th place: Catherine Brooke in the girls 9 year old 50 m free (pb)

6th place: Rory Maxwell in the boys 11 year old 100 m fly (pb)

7th place: Archie Watts in the boys 11 year old 100 m fly

5th place: Rory Maxwell in the boys 11 year old 100 m back (pb)

8th place: Archie Watts in the boys 11 year old 100 m back

All the children behaved beautifully and looked like they had been doing it for years. A special thanks to Alysia Maestri who helped marshall the 9 year old girls to their relay success.

Lisa and Tamsin

You may have noticed that there are just a few roadworks affecting roads in north Bristol at the moment!

Please allow extra time for your journeys to club championships at Horfield , especially on Saturday 6th October because in addition to the roadworks, Bristol Rovers have a home match that finishes at about 4.45pm!