Club Championships

Held annually - usually October to December and comprise long distance front-crawl 1500m/800m, middle distance front-crawl 400m, 200m all strokes and Sprints, 1OOm/50m/25m all strokes. All swimmers are invited to attend. Long distance and middle distance events take place, normally on a Sunday evening at Corsham and the Sprint events over two Saturday evenings, normally at Caine. The Sprint events include special categories for Novices (in this case, those who haven’t swum in a competition before) and Masters (over 21 years).

Events follow National guidelines. Races are swum in mixed age and gender groups based on previous times obtained, so the fastest swim last. The club maintains a database of all swimmers’ times so please enter even if you can’t remember your times.

Cups are awarded for first place in each age group, gender arid stroke with medals going to the top three.

In addition, points are given for each swimmer in each race. These are known as BAGCAT points (British Age Group CATegory) and are standardised nationally. The Club awards trophies and medals for the top performing swimmers in each age group.

County Championships

For many of our swimmers this is the peak of their year. These championships are swum annually in February and March. Times from club championships are generally used as qualification. Qualification times needed are displayed on the notice boards or on the web-site, but please ask an official if you need to. Again run on National guidelines, events are swum in gender and age group categories, all strokes. Girls 13 and under and Boys 14 and under swim in the BAGCAT championships - medals for top 3 and trophies for the best overall swimmers. Older swimmers compete for trophies at Junior (16 and under) and Senior level.

District Championships

A higher level again to encompass swimmers from Western Counties region (Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall) - held annually in May, June and November (after the County Championships). Qualification times are even harder. Again details can be found on the notice boards or web-site.

National Championships

The highest level - held in July/August each year.
All swimmers in the country with qualifying times are eligible.

Open Meets

From time to time the Club will advertise for entries into Open Meets on the Notice Boards. These meets are organised by Clubs like ours nationwide, and as the name suggests, are open to all clubs and swimmers. They vary considerably in standard from Grand Prix events for the very talented to events for swimmers who generally don’t get a chance to compete against other clubs and swimmers. As such, qualifications times vary. Some of the lower standard events have upper and lower qualification times which effectively restrict the entry ability. These meets, whilst remaining competitive are excellent social events and usually have medals and trophies for winners.

County League Competitions

As the name suggests these are run by the Wiltshire ASA and are the so-called Summer and Winter Leagues. Clubs can enter as many sides as they want (some of the Swindon clubs enter 3 teams) so that the league comprises 20-odd teams from the Wiltshire area.

Summer League

Consists of a number of divisions with each division having 4 teams.
Each team takes it in turn to host a home gala - so there are 4 rounds each year.
Some 50 races are swum in gender and age groups, a mixture of relays and individual events with point awarded in each race.
The team with the most points at the end of the 4 rounds is promoted to the next division and the team with the fewest is relegated.

Winter League

Similar format to Summer except teams swim in much larger divisions and the races are all relays.
Maximum points are awarded in each event to the team with the fastest time from all the teams. Events take place over the winter months with a final usually in March.
Again the coaches select the team. Since the Summer league is mainly individuals and the Winter League for relay teams, the two teams vary according to age and ability.
Both leagues are highly sociable events and a good opportunity to meet other club members.

Time trials

The Club attempts to run time trial sessions occasionally so that all swimmers can obtain times for qualification into the various events.
It is also important for a swimmer to see that he/she is making progress in a particular stroke and for the coaches to see whether a swimmer is ready for team or individual competitions.