Posted on Thursday 11th February, 2021

Around the Clubs

February 2021

North Region

Cairns CLAMS

Tobruk Memorial Pool has been remarkable and the Management have been understanding and provided much leeway to the CLAMS – Lanes are provided; areas are set aside for our cross-swim sessions; and most importantly staff are becoming more proficient in the art of coffee making.

We recognise that we have to get our swimmers to reregister and encourage others to register. We have attracted a great contingent of Cairns Water Polo Players to train with and they are keen to compete.

Our COVID experience has not had a detrimental effect on our swimmers. We have conducted a couple of swims within our club that have provided goals … some of these being:

A lazy 100 cubed swim organised one Saturday morning and a group of about 10 swimmers succeeded in completing 100 x 100 freestyle in 100 seconds … a healthy 10 kilometre set;
We have a tradition of doing a swim for members birthdays – the swim being their age times one 50 metre lap on a minute, for the keen ones get out and dive for each lap … great idea … but it is Masters Swimming and the laps are going up every year… ;
The ‘Bleeding Eyeballs 100’, similar to the fun birthday swim but 100 laps, an annual event. We have no swimmers in that age group (yet); and
We have swimmers that are going to compete in Rottnest Island Swim in Western Australia and the Gold Coast Swim.

Our Saturday and Sunday morning training sessions are well attended and are great social events where the problems of the world are dissected, debated and resolved … if only the United Nations could copy our model.

We are hoping that 2021 is a better year for all AND there is the Great Barrier Reef Masters Games from 20 to 23 May 2021 and the swimming events are at Tobruk Memorial Pool Cairns.

Ted BUNT, President, Cairns CLAMS.

Cairns Mudcrabs

Muddies training is back in full swing after a short break over Christmas with some members planning for swims at Great Barrier Reef Masters Games, Ironman and other open water swims. Other members are just looking for fun and fitness!

At the end of 2020 the Mudcrabs presented Barbara Williamson with a well-deserved Life Membership. While Barb has not been in the pool for a few years, many MSQ (and MSA, and MSSA) members will know her for being the face of Muddies and being involved in many aspects of swimming across the state!

Last year a few members swam at Green Island, the Virtual Bondi to Bronte (maybe they will be able to do the real thing this year?) as well a social swims at our local Crater Lake, Barrine and a club only time trail. Members also worked hard in the heat to do two different fundraising BBQs at Bunnings.

This year members have tried an Aquarobics class with our head coach, Theresa, where we found out about some muscles we didn’t know existed, and a another social swim in the beautiful lake Eacham.

The Mudcrabs are looking forward to more opportunities to have fun and try some new adventures in 2021.

Barbara Williamson has a long affiliation with MSQ, and has recently been made a ‘Life Member’ of the Cairns Mudcrabs. Congratulations Barb!

Barb can remember bombs being dropped on London during the second world war. She was a young child and she would be woken by her parents to go to the bomb shelter when the siren was activated.

It must be that she having swam regularly all her life, is at least partly why she is enjoying a long and happy life. The president of “Cairns Muddies’ thinks it may also partly be, because she has had at least one glass of red wine, every day of her adult life.

Barbara and her husband, Michael retired from the London Police force and lived in Spain. They then followed their children to Australia.

Barbara has been the mainstay of “Cairns Muddies’ for many years. Her contribution to the club has been enormous. The club is grateful to her wonderful children for bringing her to Australia.

Barb Williamson receiving her award, with Kevin Murgatroyd

Rats of Tobruk Masters

Renovations have been completed at Tobruk Pool and the Townsville Tourists Club has conducted a test of their new automatic timing system. They have offered to make it available should the Rats of Tobruk or MSQ wish to hold any swim meets at Tobruk Pool.

Club members have been scattered over the Christmas period with members joining other Masters swimmers for swims in Toowoomba, Launceston, Hobart, Adelaide and Stanthorpe. In return, Peter Reaburn, from Miami Masters, had a few swims in Townsville.

Two new members have joined in 2021 as second claim members – Gary Sims from Canberra and Barbara Pearce from Adelaide. Both have close family connections in Townsville.

John Barrett

Townsville Aquaholics

Townsville Aquaholics enjoying the last session of 2020.

Whitsunday Masters

Whitsunday 1. Photo of our small group after a training session at the Proserpine Pool. All of Members still kept in contact during Covid and so pleased all we have to do now is sign in before entry to the pool!

Whitsunday 2. This was after the completion of “The Beast”. A popular yearly competition which includes a program of different strokes – Maxi Beast 3,000 M and Mini Beast 2,000m. T Shirt on completion, the public invited, and a way of inviting people to join the Masters Swimming.

Whitsunday 3. Our Annual General Meeting held at the Bloomsbury Hotel. We are all proud of our green shirts and thoroughly enjoy our social outings, no matter where they may be. Two of our Members are founding members of 30 years and our coaches Mark and Raylene have played a special role in our club for 28 years.

Central Region

Gladstone Gropers

Model Gropers: The Gladstone Gropers had some reluctant models for our recent professional photo shoot at our Sunday morning session. The professional photo shoot is to support our brand refresh including updating the club logo, collateral, digital media and supporting a general membership drive. The Gropers were fortunate successful applicants of The Gladstone COVID-19 Recovery Program for not-for-profits funded by Rio-Tinto and delivered by Not For Profit House. This was a timely injection of in-kind support after a rough year for the Club. Standby for the launch of the new logo.

Hervey Bay Humpbacks

Hervey Bay Humpbacks are now getting great turnouts for our Sunday morning club sessions averaging about 30 swimmers each week.

We have also welcomed several new members and continue to receive phone calls with follow up visits. Our business cards on the front desk at the Aquatic Centre along with many of our members swimming in adult squads are our main methods of advertising our club.

Our new Committee was elected at our Nov AGM with three new committee members joining us.

Australia Day saw a few Humpbacks joining in an unofficial Australia Day swim ticking off new distances.

Sadly, with the ever-changing Covid situation we have had to change our Swim Meet this year to a Postal event. We will miss having all our swimming friends visit this year but plan to have several lucky draws from amongst the entries. This way everyone has a chance of winning one of our excellent prizes.

We have welcomed an extra Coach on board this year. Christine has joined Pete and the two of them are keeping us on our toes. Most February Sundays will be concentrating on our swims for the Albany Creek Postal Meet.

Many of us are looking forward to the State Championships on the Sunshine Coast so many fingers are crossed that our State stays healthy and the event can go ahead.

Included photos are Christmas hi-jinks, new committee and Ann, Paula, and Karen at the Australia Day swim.

Maryborough Masters

We are meeting each Wednesday at 10am to conduct time trials for Albany Creek postal and Endurance swims. We have had great numbers around 10 people both swimming and timekeeping with emphasis on participants recording split times to gain experience. I’m told that everyone is enjoying extra interaction. We have also had some interest from swimmers at the pool that see us having fun and recording times, we decided to wear our club shirt as we feel this helps in gaining interest from new members.

Ray has been running specialised masters squad at 3:30pm Tuesdays and Thursdays, Ray has been training us for specific goals including starts,diving, finishes, turns, sprint and endurance. Ray is training each person aiming to meet their goals for the State Championships at Kawana. We normally have 5 swimmers each squad session.

We will be holding a swim event on a Saturday to enable swimmers to swim and record their postal swims for Mackay, we are looking at a date in mid February to do this. We have at this stage 4-5 members that will be attending the Mackay meet and 5 completing postal swims.

Bob Stanley is organising the Hervey Bay postal event for us and this will also be done on a specific day to bring some fun into the postal event for us as we are missing the meet atmosphere.

We will be holding a sausage sizzle at Bunnings on 13/2/2020 and will have 10 volunteers to assist in the two shifts, we had 4 members attend the Bunnings workshop to ensure we adhere to the rules in preparing and cooking food.

We have seen an increase in confidence from swimmers who are challenging themselves to either swim a greater distance or swim a different stroke than they normally would. Swimmers have all been issued with a personal swim recording book which they are using and notice their times improving, this is fantastic for moral.

We were fortunate to have photos and an article in the newspaper recently, this was our members receiving their medals from the Hervey Bay meet in 2020, a really nice recognition, these photos were also added to our Facebook page. Our media officer has also advised that additional interest from the newspaper for future events is welcome.

Sad news: Paul Goener all round sportsman as highlighted on the MSQ page, passed away after a short illness on 23 November, 2020. Paul was a stalwart of the club and many other local organisations. He will be missed.

North Mackay Sinkers

This period is the commencement of our swim season for the 2020-21 summer period with the club emerging from limited club sessions.

Events:

October: The annual Open Water Swim at Green Island near Cairns is held during this month. Several distances up to 3 km are available and two members travelled to the region to participate in what is a popular and beautiful swim over the islands sand and coral gardens.

November: The annual Whitehaven beach swim is a regular on the Sinkers schedule but due to restrictions was held at Cats eye beach on Hamilton Island. While not having the same allure as Whitehaven, Cats Eye proved a perfect tonic for what has been a restrictive year. About 15 Sinkers swam the event with a good number enjoying podium places to collect some great prizes.

With the December period being the renewal for membership the club offered incentives to returning and new members to sign up. Practically all members and a few guests joined on the back of the “Swim Free in January” offer and coupled with a free club swimming cap we have maintained our membership base and importantly had all (Bar one!) registered prior to the New Year.

At the request of members an extra session was organised for Thursday afternoons prior to Christmas as well as a change to regular swimming hours for Monday & Wednesday moving forward to 5:45pm (Now our regular time slot).

A swim and social was organised for Xmas at Balnagowan that was well supported for a great afternoon in a very picturesque spot.

Our last 2020 swim on Wednesday 23^rd December was a casual fun session followed by complimentary Italian cuisine (aka Pizza!) and some quite refreshments after the session.

The North Mackay Sinkers wish all clubs the very best for the 2021 year and look forward to visiting members at our “Fun in February” carnival (Saturday 27^th Feb). Enter now and come join us!

Dan Stampa, President, North Mackay Sinkers.

Sunshine Region

Albany Creek Masters

Albany Creek began the year with swimming as normal on Sundays, while following covid19 restrictions. We were all set for our January General meeting when that went up in a Covid19 smoke known as lockdown in the Brisbane area.

However the club is focused on and actually has already dived into 2021 with the clubs inaugural

POSTAL SWIM being run over January and February 2021. At time of writing, it is 18th January and those reading this may find the event is almost finished. How sad is this!! Time passes so quickly at this time of year.

Our new executive is off and swimming, organizing the Postal Swim with the support of the club. It’s a good event for a club particularly with our 3 levels of capability enticing perhaps those who would shy away from a more demanding event.

The members of our club swim at the leisure centre in swimfit and various squads with their fellow members and enjoy coffee afterwards at the local haunt as a reward.

Our new website is up and running, thanks to Tash and her friend Issy, who has provided the knowhow and set it up for us. They are currently putting the final touches to it.

Our AGM was held in November 2020 and there has been a change in some positions. We would like to thank the members of the previous executive, David, Lyn and Graham, for their hard work over the last few years. Welcome to our new committee members.

Best Wishes everyone for 2021

Michael Kennedy – Club President

Brisbane Northside Masters

Northside finished 2020 with a very strong membership with lots of new members coming along, many seeking to get fit after the COVID restrictions, and what better way than swimming in a Masters Club.

On December 12^th Tracy Clarkson travelled to Launceston to participate in the Tasmanian SC Long Distance Meet and came home with 2 National and 3 Queensland records, well done Tracy!

Club members wound up the year with a fun session in the pool, followed by an enjoyable lunch. Our Trophies and Awards presentations for 2020 will be limited this year due to a lack of events but will take place in February anyway, after our Annual General Meeting.

After a short Christmas and New Year break, we endured the frustrating false start, then underway finally on January 17^th, which saw a surprisingly big turnout for the first swim of the year.

Membership renewals have been very strong so far this year and new members continue to arrive at the club.

The Club has booked the Valley Pool for our annual swim meet in August, in what looks to be another limited year of competition.

Pictured here are some members training at our alternative venue, Musgrave Park on January 24^th, under the watchful eye of coach Bev.

Caboolture & Districts Masters Swimming Club

Caboolture and Districts Masters will now be formally known as “Belgravia Masters Swim Team” and be based at the Burpengary Regional Aquatic Centre.

Our first use of this facility as a “new” club was held on Sunday 24^th of January when we hosted a morning with the Sunshine Coast Club to get some events underway for the Albany Creek Postal swim.

We hope this is the start of many more social swims as I believe it was enjoyed by all who came along.

Our club is now in a promotion phase and recruiting new members and promoting the facility are our main goals at the moment.

Neil Newman, President, Caboolture Masters Swimming / Belgravia Masters Swim Team.

Noosa Masters

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose! (The more things change, the more they stay the same.)

2020 was certainly a year of ‘change’ in so many ways. One victim of ‘lockdown’ and ‘isolation’ was the Endurance 1000 competition, in which Noosa Masters have been national champions for seven consecutive years.

But even with pools closed for months, and the competition officially suspended, many swimmers around the state kept slogging away at the E1000 targets. And Noosa swimmers managed to amass the highest aggregate score among Queensland clubs. Again! Hence the Gallic headline above! But ominously, the statistics suggest some serious competition coming from clubs including Ipswich and Miami.

The just-published scores for 2020 are spurring Noosa Masters swimmers to pile on the points, aiming to extend their E1000 dominance in 2021. Challengers welcome!

Nudgee Masters

What a year! We were preparing to run a meet in July at the start of the year!

The pool was closed in March and reopened in July. During that time when we could meet in groups of 10 outside we got together to walk and have morning tea on the water front at Sandgate. So still stayed in touch through social media and these gatherings.

Unfortunately we lost one of our training sessions on a Tuesday morning. We now only have one session at Nudgee College pool on a Thursday morning! Our long time coach Col Cresser retired from the college as well in that time! Miki is the new coach and the swimmers appreciate her stroke correction and sessions.

We have had a couple of meetings towards the end of the year. These were mainly to organise bags for Share the Dignity.

We did have a Christmas gathering at one of our members’ home which was great! It was almost a normal end of year event!

Nudgee Masters is proof of swimming being the reason for coming together of like minded people and forming strong bonds that have kept us together throughout 2020 and beyond!

Rackley Masters Swimming Club

Rackley Masters swam 100 x 100m to earn our Christmas indulgences. It started off as a joke by someone who shall remain nameless (Dean), but became a reality soon after. I think everyone was surprised at how doable the set actually was. Thank you to coach Alex for getting us to a fitness level to achieve 10km without too much trouble. It is likely to become an annual event now.

Sunshine Coast Masters

As the host club for MSQ State Championships in April 2021 we are busy planning and preparing for the meet. QSC are excited to be hosting the first meet back after such a long break from competition.

Our members have been training hard since the pools reopened last year. Our club coach Sue Senent runs the club squad every Sunday morning at Kawana. Members also train with the adult squads at the various pools on the Coast. QSC has gained some new members from the adult squads who are keen to compete at the State Championships.

Recently QSC joined the Caboolture Crays at the Burpengary Aquatic Centre to complete some Albany Creek postal swims. Big thanks to Neil and the Crays for a great morning.

In November 2020, the club was successful in obtaining a grant under the Queensland Government Active Restart Infrastructure Recovery Fund to purchase a Wylas semi-automatic timing system. We are learning and trialling the system alongside Martin Banks getting ready for the State Championships.

UQ Masters

As the COVID-19 restrictions continued across the country UQ Masters members and other adult swimmers have been continuing with restricted training sessions. We continue with one hour sessions, and there are a number to choose from.

We have returned to a freshly painted 50m pool with training timetables varying depending on outbreaks and the junior club timetable for meets. The mornings are great!

A few of us recorded times for the MSQ Postal Time Trial Meet.

Activities:

Training hard!
Racing at the recent River City swim morning
Assisting with the UQ Swim Meet

South Region

Brisbane Southside Masters

The 2020 BSM Club Person of the Year as voted by members was GREG FLANDERS. Many Congratulations Greg from all BSM for your outstanding contributions to BSM in 2020.

Greg landed 2 roles in 2020, that of Vice President, and when COVID hit he accepted the position of BSM COVID Liaison Officer. Greg was an outstanding contributor to the Management Committee, organised post COVID training sessions, and ensured our compliance with COVID protocols both at MSA and Queensland State Government level.

2020 BSM COACHES AWARDS

BSM coaches John, Elise, Peter, and Elaine gave their 2020 Awards to: Chris Campbell, Josh Hemelaar, Wendy Gorman, Traudi Marcello, Tom Brennan and Carol Rylance.

Element Swimming

We held our annual “Club Champs” on Sat 5^th December. There are photos on our Facebook page from the event – see 7^th Dec post. Here is the write up:

Our annual ‘Adult Squad’ Club Champs kicked off last Saturday afternoon and unlike 2020 – it didn’t disappoint. It was a day of rivals racing, great banter and some well-deserved awards. Thank you to all our fantastic adult squad members who attended & took part in the events.

Norah took out all her female competitors to become the highest point scorer and the title of Swimmer of the Meet. She was a weapon in the water!

Chelsea made a comeback to the squad after almost a year hiatus in Victoria (good move that was!) to return after borders were open and her first stop before home, Club Champs 2020.

Lachie’s efforts in the open water events earlier in the year and his hard work and dedication to every swim session well & truly crowned him with the most impressive effort of the year. An amazing achievement!

Reluctantly 2018 & 2019 Club Champ, Mark Sullivan conceded victory and handed over the shield to our new Club Champ for 2020 Lachlan McCarthy. He has earned the privilege to call himself “CC” for a year. Well done Lachie!

Congratulations again to our award recipients:

2020 Adult Squad Champion (Club Champ): Lachlan McCarthy
2020 Swimmer of the Meet: Norah Elvidge
2020 Most Impressive Swim: Chelsea Carpenter
2020 Most Impressive Effort of the Year: Lachlan McCarthy

For those who missed out this year – better start training for next year’s Club Champs. See you there!

Miami Masters

2020 has been quite a trying year for us at Miami, what with all the Covid restrictions, the redevelopment of the Aquatic Centre and being limited to only having one pool — it does get very busy here. No worries, because all the construction looks like being completed pretty soon and we still have a magnificent facility nearby, the ocean. And there’s also an excellent short course facility out at Nerang. We’ve certainly been pretty lucky here with all the Covid limitations, but it’s obvious that the competition side of swimming has been forgotten for some time. Most of us are certainly keen to get back there.

Despite all the handicaps, we’re still training and enjoying ourselves. Our little wine tasting excursion was certainly one highlight of the year. All we needed was a bus, an itinerary and some numbers. So it was off up the hill to a Tamborine winery, and then back down via Canungra to one at Mt Nathan, which is just near Nerang. Certainly a lovely day: good weather, good company, okay wine and the bus didn’t break down.

We usually have a Christmas break-up do after Saturday training at the pool, but this year our once spacious facility ain’t no more. The indefatigable Denise Robertson once again offered her place on the river to the club and we all met there. Thanks to all the Social Committee and others for the catering; the food was excellent, and timely. And special thanks to Denise for all your effort and generosity.

Tradition demands that the last Saturday before Christmas is a muck-up day. Our intrepid coaches Kim and Mark ensured we would do something beyond just going up and down the black line. Kim bought some of those kiddies’ beach toys so it was relays with a twist. There weren’t too many there, but they certainly look like they enjoyed themselves.

Next task is to get involved in the Albany Creek Postal swims and hopefully some proper comps in the near future. We were very pleased with our results in last year’s Postal comp and appreciate that so many Masters swimmers from all over the state were involved. Hope to see the Masters community back to normal very soon.

Palm Beach Masters

Palm Beach Masters are looking forward to working with local clubs and MSQ to host a Preparation Meet in March on the Gold Coast. We hope this collaborative effort will be a fun way to assist with racing preparation for the State Championships in April. More details will be available very soon. Save the date – 21 March from 12pm.

Redlands Bayside Masters

When the Covid 19 lockdown occurred in March 2020, our Cleveland Aquatic Centre and Redland City Council made the decision to upgrade the facilities. A State Government Grant was applied to cover the cost of the 50m pool upgrade, including new filters which had to be acquired from Spain, and general maintenance of the surrounding areas. Unfortunately, there were delays in importing the filters, however they have finally been installed. Our very excited swimmers wait with bated breath as our 50m pool is being filled and prepared for action.

In the meantime, we have had a small group of active swimmers very keen to keep fit in the 25m pool, since it opened with social distancing.

In spite of the 50m pool closure our AGM went ahead in November and was very well attended. In December our Social Director Sharon entertained us with lots of games, fun and hilarity. It was a very wet day; however, this didn’t affect attendance, and we had the Aquatic Centre to ourselves.

We are in the process of sourcing new club shirts which will bring a breath of fresh air to start the New Year. Opening of our 50m pool should attract new members and bring back our old friends.

Plans are in place to start a membership campaign with flyers and advertising in the local paper. A group of members from Bay Islands Swim Club are very interested in joining us for a social swim at our pool, and we plan to have a social day with them at the Russell Island Pool next month.

So, things are looking bright for the year ahead, with lots of fun, fitness and friendship.

Club President, Vivien Carlsson.

River City Masters

We haven’t been brewing kombucha or making our own sourdough during the pandemic, but River City Masters has invested in a little facelift and brand refresh to celebrate the start of 2021! And with our little lockdown reminding us of how dull life is without swimming, we kicked off the year with a friendly, informal time trial session from 6am – 8am on Saturday 6 February.

We had a number of RSM swimmers participate, along with members from other local clubs. Sure, the racing suits were perhaps a little more snug than the last time they were wiggled into, and the times were perhaps a wee bit off usual form – but it was fantastic to see everyone enjoying getting back into racing and be uplifted by the social contact amongst like-minded swimming enthusiasts! Many thanks to everyone who helped orgainse, volunteered their time and participated!

Fabulous photos thanks to Wade JB.

Thanks to the QRC team and Karina for a great morning!

Toowoomba Tadpoles

Christmas 2020 – Below are some photos from the club’s end of year social event and Christmas party at North Toowoomba Bowls Club. The weather held off and everyone was able to enjoy a relaxing lunch before ripping into some serious lawn bowls. Almost need name badges on the day as some people came along and disguised by wearing clothes.

Club Equipment – During the latter part of 2020 the club purchased a new BBQ to accommodate the regular breakfast BBQs and we were successful in obtaining some grant funding from both the Toowoomba Regional Council to support us purchasing Meet Manager software to help us with the administration and records for the club 1500m postal swim in July 2021. This grant was enhanced through gaining additional funds from the Get Active Qld Government to purchase a laptop computer and printer to host the Meet Manager software and for wider club administrative functions, rather than using members personal equipment.

Pool Events – In the pool, 10 club members participated in the MSQ Postal Swim meet gaining an overall position of 5th and we look forward to building on that performance with numbers and possibly our overall ranking. The club was fortunate in getting Don Taylor out of the pool for a short celebration of his accomplishment in receiving the 15 million metre award. That has given him additional motivation to continue swimming and build on his achievements.

The Year Ahead – The best part of 2021 was without doubt being able to return to swimming as everybody missed the fitness, the social interaction for the brief lock down that we endured as part of the COVID-19 response. While we know there is still a long road ahead we hope that we can continue to enjoy the massive benefits we all derive from regular swimming sessions.

Warwick Wahoos

Our masters swimmers are back in action after the centre was closed for 3 months due to COVID. Warwick Wahoos meet each Sunday at 9am at WIRAC.

Yeronga Yabbies

Yeronga Yabbies have remained a tight-knit team helping and supporting each other, past and present members.

The Yeronga Yabbies are proud and happy to have had a social swim together with coffee afterwards with restrictions. Keeping our team active and connected has been our goal and I am proud of our team’s connection and care.

We are looking forward to lots of fun in the sun racing and enjoying our love for swimming in 2021.

We are positive membership numbers will be up this year as we are experiencing a lot of interest.

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