Martha Horstead (left) and Paige Howells-Davies (right)
The summer-time sporting calendar is certainly full. Today, as I write this article, the semi-final of the Cricket World Cup is playing out. On a different channel, Wimbledon is nearing the end of another good tournament. And that’s not to mention the Tour de France, the recently completed Women’s Football World Cup or the upcoming Netball World Cup.
Alongside it all, swimming at Cranleigh Swimming Club goes on. At least for another few weeks, until the season-end at the end of July.
As I’m sure you’ve come to expect, our swimmers have been busy since the last article. The countless hours in the training pool are par for the course. On top of that, there has also been some great competitive swimming too.
Over two weekends in June, many of our swimmers competed in the 2019 Surrey Age Group Summer Meet. As a development gala, with less competitive qualifying times than the main County Championships, this provided a great chance to compete against swimmers from across the county.
Our swimmers took that opportunity with relish. Of the 41 swims in the gala, 40 of those yielded personal bests. In a sport where so much is about competing with yourself, that was exceptional. There were also many medals too. Our swimmers won 7 golds (Connie Emmet, Ellen Shayler, Juliette Small, Lana Howells-Davies, Lucy Andrews and Will Stanley). There were also 2 silvers (Connie and Ellen) and 9 bronzes (Alice Bruce, Connie, Ellen, Jack Westerman, Juliette, Lucy, Millie Hastie and Yasmina Voogd). Add to this the 4 club records, all set by Connie, and we can consider it to be a very successful meet.
Next up in the calendar was the Club Championships weekend in late June. Club Championships are licensed galas restricted to Cranleigh swimmers. As a club, we used these Championships to feature two longer distance events. Swimmers were given the chance to test their stamina in the 400m Individual Medley (Friday) and the 400m Freestyle (Sunday).
Yet again our swimmers proved up to the test. In the medley, 12 swimmers achieved county qualifying times. In freestyle, 5 county times were set. In each case, 3 swimmers also broke club records for the event. Special mention goes to Paige Howells-Davies and Martha Horstead for their efforts in the 400m Freestyle. As the two youngest swimmers taking part, swimming this distance as one of their first competitive swims was a monumental effort.
As July has rolled in, we have turned our focus again to growing the club. We are always on the look-out for new swimmers to join our ranks. Swimming is a great way to have fun with friends, build great discipline and get really fit. We recently welcomed swimmers in the Cranleigh Leisure Centre to take part in a fun Learn to Swim gala against swimmers in our Junior squads. It was a great success and we are very grateful to Cranleigh Leisure Centre for helping us to run this event. If you took part in this event or saw us at the Cranleigh Fete and maybe took a leaflet, please do get in touch for a trial. We would love to welcome you to our club. 
If you are a local business who would like to sponsor our next Open Meet then please contact Paul Stevens of CASC on 07759 661949
If you are interested in joining Cranleigh ASC, please come down and see us on a Sunday evening at Cranleigh Leisure Centre from 4.30pm onwards or visit our website www.cranleighsc.org We offer two free taster trial sessions, for children wishing to see if they enjoy it.
