After last years successful trip to Sheffield Bishop's Stortford S.C is once again organising a trip to Sheffield on 27th November 2010 to take part in the Sheffield City Swimming Club Annual B Grade Open Meet. There are qualifying times for this meet, this means the swimmer must not be faster than the upper time or slower than the lower limit time, The meet is being held at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, Ponds Forge is largest Olympic sized swimming pool in the country it's also one of the finest pools in the world. Taking part in this competition will be a great opportunity to swim at a world class sporting facility, the times achieved will be able to be viewed on the asa Nationals Rankings Database.

Unlike the pool at Bishop's Stortford College which is 25m long by 14.5m wide Ponds Forge is 50m long and 25m wide nearly three times the size of the college it also has a spectators gallery that runs down both sides of the pool with a maximum capacity of 2,600, the pool also feature the largest video scoreboard installed in a swimming pool in this country allowing full colour video to be shown and the swimmers full name and club during the race. Ponds Forge also features a large leisure pool known as Surf City the leisure pool features a central pool with a wave machine there's also a flowing circuit that goes around the outside of the central pool which has a reasonably strong current and if that isn't enough there's two large water slides.

The age groups are split into six groups: 10 Yrs, 11 Yrs, 12 Yrs, 13 Yrs, 14 Yrs and 15/Over

The events are 50m and 100m, 10/11 50m all strokes and 12/Over 100m all stroke + 50m Freestyle there is no 100m IM.

Like most meets there's an entry fee of £4.00 per event we believe this is really good value for money.

I'm sure some of you are thinking that's a really long way to go for an open meet, the great news is you don't need to drive there yourself the club is organising a coach to take you there if numbers permit, now because of the three hour travel time we will need to leave on Friday evening around 5:00pm this mean staying in a hotel for the night. As this will be such a great experience for swimmers and parents we encourage parents to attend, if this isn't possible swimmers can still attend but will be sharing a room with other swimmers in groups of three, swimmers that have parents coming with them we ask where possible they share a room, all though you don't need to travel on the coach or stay in the same hotel as the club we recommend you do to encourage team spirit.

The cost per head for this great opportunity is going to be around £60 this doesn't include entry fees. At the moment we are looking for people to show interest, if you are interested in taking part please reply to this email and let us know if the swimmer will be going on their own or with a parent, if a parent is attending how many and also could you tell us if you will travel on the coach and stay in the hotel with the rest of the club or will you sort out you own transport and accommodation. After the competition ends on the Saturday we might be able to drop into a restaurant on the way back and get something to eat if time permits. We need to have an idea on the number of people interested by the end of June so we can get the entries in by the end of July for anyone that doesn’t have the qualifying times at present remember Club Champs is taking place in July.

Your coaches will be speaking to the swimmers about this meet in the coming weeks to explain the benefits of taking part in such a great competition.

For more information or to let us know you are interested in going please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Regards
Graham Spratt
Bishop's Stortford S.C