Otter Mile 2023

The Otter Mile this year started under a grey sky. Although some swimmers showed initial relectancy towards swimming in colder-than-QMSC temperatures! Howver, isn’t that one of the charms of open water swimming? We didn’t measure but the more experienced open water swimmers reckoned it was a balmy 18C ;-)
There were three trophies to be won in one single race.
The trophy for first male swimmer went to David Adamson who fought a long side-by-side battle against Pip Bennett who had to let David go in the last couple of metres.
The trophy for fastest female swimmer went to Alice Dinsdale-Young. Well, we know where the trophy is and we’ll hand it to her on the next occasion.
The Jack Cunningham Salver trophy for best handicap race is going to John Goodbody. John has clearly been doing some extra training and finished in 34:40. Not bad for somebody who is just over three times the age of the youngest participant!

Otters at World and European Aquathlon Champs

Otters have been branching out into multi-sports since long before Rachel Joyce started smashing the world of Ironman triathlon. Whilst many have representative honours at triathlon, more Otters are turning their hand to growingly recognised Aquathlon scene (being better suited to the more balanced split of the splash and dash format).

This year, current Otters, Pip Bennett & Ed Buckley travelled to Samorin, Slovakia for the Worlds and were joined by ex-Otter, Sean Kinsey, in Bilbao, Spain for the Europeans – with Pip looking to build on his debut bronze in 2021.

The two venues provided contrasting experiences and races.

The Slovakian Olympic training centre in Samorin was also hosting the Collins Cup, so we were able to train in stunning facilities, alongside the world’s best triathletes. The 30-plus degree heat meant for a non-wetsuit swim in the Danube, with a mass start.

Pip, as his custom, led his age group out of the water (10th overall out of 300 swimmers) and tried to hold off the field on the run. Eventually he was hauled back by two familiar foes, with just 20 seconds separating the podium places. Ed, on the other hand, had to try and regain time on the run, positively relishing the hot conditions to record 17:38, earning a silver in the M45-49 category. Both finished together on the blue carpet, in 18th & 19th place overall respectively, with Ed wanting another 300m to overhaul the difference.

Whilst Samorin was compact, Bilbao was spread out; with a one way wetsuit swim in the estuary, a nefariously dangerous swim exit, followed by a run along the promenades. This time the different age groups went off separately, the older competitors being further from high tide; whilst gaining from a stronger current, suffered greater wind against tide chop for 800m.

Sean competing in the M55-59, benefitting from all his open water experience, was incredibly the fastest swimmer overall of the 350 competitors, Pip not far behind in 5th.

Once again, Pip had a 35 second lead to protect, but was overhauled by a Pole in the closing stages to miss out on the gold by just 7 seconds. Sean had almost a minute’s lead, but that was soon whittled away by a very fine Spaniard. Ed wasn’t able to replicate his Slovakian run heroics and was disappointed to only finish 6th (though that did represent 2nd of 18 Brits in his age group).

3 silvers and a bronze from the 2 championships represents a fine haul for the Otters.

Otter Half-Mile 2021

The Otter Half-Mile was held at Henley Sailing club on the River Thames at Wargrave, near Henley on Friday 16 July. This was the first Otter event that has been held since the 150th celebration events in 2019 and it was a welcome return to Otter traditional social activities!

While there were still some COVID lockdown restrictions in place, this did not have any impact to an thoroughly enjoyable evening

The weather was glorious, with 24 in attendance although very well attended by the “mature” Otters. 15 swimmers completed the handicap swim event, being led off by David Skidmore OBE with Matt Burgham chasing the field from the back, 6 minutes 30 seconds later.

The race for the win was very close, with just 4 seconds between first and second, although it was the only female in the race, Alice Dinsdale-Young who won, with Ric Jones in second.

Many thanks to Jeff and his team at Henley Sailing club for hosting us as they have now for many years, and we hope, for many more to come.

Results and pictures follow.

Dave Warren

Hon. Handicapper

GB Aquathlon Championships

Saturday 17th July saw Ed Buckley and Pip Bennett competing at Dorney Lake in the GB Aquathlon Championships. Blistering heat, even with a race start of 8AM meant the 750m swim was non wetsuit. The 5km flat race course to the other end of the lake and back meant, even with Covid distancing, it was possible to keep track of other competitors. Ed finished 4th in the M45-49 category while Pip picked up bronze in M40-44. He adds this to his series win at that South London Swimming Club Aquathlon Series held in Tooting over the previous couple of months.

“Return to Pools” - Update – 26th May 2021

Dear Otters

“RETURN TO POOLS” - MASTERS SWIMMING

Further to our update note of the 6th May, the Committee has agreed that the 3 training sessions per week attendance limit can be lifted with immediate effect.

We will continue to monitor the attendance v pool time availability equation and reintroduce attendance limits if necessary in the interests of fair access for all members.

The need to make a prior booking for each training session you attend remains – NO BOOKING – NO SWIM.

And finally, if you are attending training sessions please make sure that your subscription payments are up to date.

Thanks for all your co-operation.

Happy Swimming and Stay Safe

On behalf of the Otter Committee

Paul Hindle

President

“Return to Pools” and Otter Subscription Payments - Update – 6th May 2021

Dear Otters

The reopening of society after Lockdown #3 feels much more sustainable than previous attempts. Hopefully, this one will be for good!

“RETURN TO POOLS” - MASTERS SWIMMING

The Committee is now focused on getting the Master Swimming section back in the pool starting from Monday 17th May. We are working hard to ensure that we can retain as many as possible of our pre-Covid training sessions and to that end, we are already engaging with the pool owners/operators.

We will let everyone know all the details in due course.

SESSION BOOKING SYSTEM

Covid restrictions have meant that pool operators are required to impose maximum number limits on all indoor Club training sessions. We expect this policy will continue for some time and possibly beyond the June 21st target date for a full reopening of society.

The Booking System we put in place for previous “Return to the Pool” episodes will be reinstated and as before all session participants will need to have made a booking for each training session they attend. NO BOOKING - NO SWIM.

In the interests of fairness to all, we will initially be asking everyone to limit their bookings to not more than 3 sessions per week. Members who abuse this simple request will be denied access to the Booking System. We will keep this booking limitation under review and will relax it as soon as we feel we are able to do so.

The Booking System requires you to have a set of personal log-in credentials. If do not have those log-in details or need a reminder then please email otterbookingsystem@gmail.com.

OTTER SUBSCRIPTIONS – MASTERS SWIMMING

We expect all returning Masters Swimmers to continue to pay or to reinstate their Otter subscriptions prior to attending their first Otter swim training session after Lockdown #3 as follows:

1. IF YOU CONTINUED TO PAY NORMAL SUBS
   Thank you.
   We will have automatically registered you with Swim England as Category 1 (an active member who does not compete externally) or Category 3 (volunteers, coaches etc), as appropriate.
   However, if you wish to wish to retain/change your Swim England registration at Category 2 (i.e. an active member of the club who competes externally) and have not already done so, please pay an additional one off payment of £20 (this being the cost differential between Category 2 and Category 1 SE registration); this approach is in line with the policy adopted by the Club in recent years.

2. IF YOU PAUSED PAYING NORMAL SUBS BUT PAID A £35 FEE IN JANUARY/FEBRUARY
   Please subtract £35 from your 1st reinstated Subscriptions payment, and then pay in full from the 2nd reinstated Subscriptions payment onwards.
   We will have automatically registered you with Swim England as Category 1 (an active member who does not compete externally) or Category 3 (volunteers, coaches etc), as appropriate.
   However, if you wish to wish to retain/change your Swim England registration at Category 2 (i.e. an active member of the club who competes externally) and have not already done so, please pay an additional one-off payment of £20 (this being the cost differential between Category 2 and Category 1 registration); this approach is in line with the policy adopted by the Club in recent years.

3. IF YOU PAUSED PAYING NORMAL SUBS AND PAID NOTHING MORE
   Please reinstate your Subscriptions payments in full.
   Once your 1st reinstatement payment has been received we will automatically register you with Swim England as Category 1 (an active member who does not compete externally) or Category 3 (volunteers, coaches etc), as appropriate.
   However, if you wish to wish to retain/change your Swim England registration at Category 2 (i.e. an active member of the club who competes externally) please pay an additional one-off payment of £20 (this being the cost differential between Category 2 and Category 1 registration); this approach is in line with the policy adopted by the Club in recent years

FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT WISH TO RETURN TO TRAINING IMMEDIATELY

In normal circumstances anyone who leaves the Club, i.e. stops paying subscriptions, and then wishes to rejoin at a later date has to pay another joining fee. In today’s circumstances, the Committee has decided that for all existing members we will waive the re-joining fee providing you rejoin the club and commence paying subscriptions before the end of 2021. If you wish to rejoin after that date you will be expected to pay a new joining fee.

OTTER SUBSCRIPTION RATES

Are available on the admin page of the Otter Swimming Club website.

We look forward to seeing you all back in the pool very soon, and in the meantime please stay safe.

On behalf of the Otter Committee

Paul Hindle

President

“Return to Pools” - Update – 30th November 2020

Dear Otters

I am pleased to announce that our Master Swimming training venues will start to reopen again on Wednesday 2nd December. Initially, this will be QMSC only, however, for the foreseeable future, this will NOT include the Sunday afternoon nor the early morning Monday sessions. Hopefully, other venues will follow very soon; we will keep you informed as they do.

Session Booking System

The Session Booking System will be re-opened from 8:00 am tomorrow (Tuesday 1st December).

When you make a booking please make sure that you have read the Pre-training Covid-19 Health Survey and then tick the box to confirm that you are symptom-free, will only attend training if you remain symptom-free, you are not self-isolating and are returning to training fully aware of the risks associated with the Covid‑19 virus. You will not be able to make a booking unless you do so.

Please also note, as before:

• If you turn up to an Otter training session without having made a Booking you will NOT be allowed in the water.

• There is a cut off time for all Bookings, as follows:

• Morning sessions – 9:00 pm the evening before

• Evening sessions – 12 noon on that day.

• The Booking and Attendance Register that we set up for every training session will be prepared shortly after the above cut off times – any Bookings made after the cut off times will be considered void and omitted.

Otter Subscriptions

If you are intending to restart Masters Swimming training with Otter for the first time after the Covid lockdowns, please reinstate your subscription standing order before attending any Otter training sessions. You will also need to get some personal login credentials to access the Session Booking System – please email otterbookingsystem@gmail.com.

If you paused your Otter subscription standing order for the duration of the 2nd lockdown please reinstate it before you attend any further Otter training sessions. We are aware that timing issues may mean that some of you will have paid for November and then subsequently found that the Otter training sessions were being cancelled because of the new Lockdown. If you would like to carry your November payment over to cover December then please discuss with our Hon. Treasurer (Chris Eden); he can be contacted by email at otter.hon.treasurer@gmail.com.

The Otter Committee will continue to monitor the situation and keep you updated on new developments. In the meantime please all stay safe and look after yourselves and your families.

Thank you for all your help, understanding and co-operation during these difficult times.

On behalf of the Otter Committee

Paul Hindle

President