Big Beeches well done to the small band of Beeches swimmers who took part in this weekend’s Wolverhampton SC Open Meet. It was a well organised meet, but rather warm on poolside for all – the joys of British Summer weather at the side of a pool!

Taking part this weekend were Becky Gulliver, who got a Gold medal in the 50 Backstroke, Bronze medals in the 100 Free, 200 Butterfly and 50 Free, and 4th places in the 200 Free, 50 Butterfly, 200 Backstroke and 100 Backstroke. Lewis Carless, who won a Bronze medal in the 200 Butterfly, and came 4th in the 200 I.M. Ella Payne, who came 4th in the 100 Butterfly; and Daniel Cox, who came 5th in the 100 Breaststroke. Other swimmers over the weekend were Mason Carless and Daniel Job (who managed 3 personal best times on Saturday in his swims!).

 They kept up their spirits at lunchtime with a short trip to the park….!

Congratulations to all who took part.

Olympic and Paralympic swimmers are backing The Food Champions, a new campaign that shares the eating habits and refuelling secrets of leading athletes with fitness enthusiasts, and people who play sports at all levels. For swimmers the recipes are Josef Craig’s tasty Tyneside Taqine, Fran Halsall’s Fuel for the Pool Porridge, Ellie Simmonds’ Mouth watering Mackerel and Beetroot Salad, and Hannah Miley’s Gold Breakfast Bar.

For more info go to: http://www.thefoodchampions.co.uk

In just 14 days time   6 swimmers from  Sutton Coldfield    are taking on the ultimate open water swimming  challenge –

The 6 plan to swim across the most ionic stretch of open water in the world . The  English Channel.

But that’s not all – as well as swimming all the way to France, they will then turn around and swim all the way back England  !  The team are Paul Bates, Ross Emery, Stuart Fuller, Rob Small, Claire Thorn and Charlie Wheadon – collectively known as Big Rick’s Swim Team – and they will be raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support, which is a charity close to their heart.

Just Few TASTY details about the English channel

More people have successfully climbed Mount Everest than have swum the English Channel. It is considered one of the world’s hardest swims, not least because it:

–          Has an average water temperature of 14-16C

–          Has a variety of jellyfish which sting

–          Contains some of the most difficult tides in the world

–          Is 21 miles across at its shortest point, but the team will swim a lot further each way

–          Takes most swimmers 10-20 hours just to complete a single crossing

And to make matters worse, there are strict rules in place which mean that wetsuits are not allowed, so it’s trunks or swimming costumes all the way! And off course with this being a two swim we will have to swim throughout the night to complete it.

The team has spent the last two years preparing for this challenge, taking part in a number of open water swimming and endurance events (including getting into lakes with sub 10 degree water temperatures at 7am on a Saturday morning!).

Our Double Channel window is from 27^th July to 31^st July..we have to be ready and waiting  in Dover, waiting for the call  from our channel pilot Lance Oram to go…we can start almost at any time night or day…the swim itself can take anywhere from 20hrs to 30hrs …all depends on the weather in the channel ..

(with this link you can  live track our swim when we go , our boat for the trip is Sea satin http://cspf.co.uk/tracking )

Should you wish to sponsor Big Rick’s Swim Team on this extremely tough challenge, please visit their sponsorship page and donate what you can: https://www.justgiving.com/teams/bigricks

To see Pictures & Videos of just how hard we have been training check our team  blog page https://bigrickchannelswimteam.blogspot.co.uk/

Kind regards

Paul Bates

Big Ricks Swim Team

It was another hot and steamy night at the SnowDome on Saturday night for the third and final round of this year’s Mercian league.

Beeches came second on the night to Orion – by a mere 7 points! (Congratulations to Orion Swimming Club.)

Under the watchful guidance of Senior Coaches Simon Hughes and Louis Oliver, the team amassed 17 first places, and 16 other top three finishes, which was a pretty successful night for the coaches.

First places on the night went to:

Cameron Rimmer, in the Open 100 I.M.; The Female Open Relay Team (Sareena Gaddu, Katie Gulliver, Jessica Jones and Kavita Gaddu) in both the Freestyle and Medley relays; The male Open Relay Team (Jack Dobson, Louis Oliver, Steve Dunn and Cameron Rimmer) in both the Freestyle and Medley relays; Katie Gulliver in the Open Butterfly; Steve Dunn in the Open Butterfly; Becky Gulliver, in both the 50 Freestyle and 25 Butterfly for the 10/unders; Jessica Jones in the Open Backstroke and Open Freestyle; Maddie Hughes in the 50 Butterfly; Harvey Higgins in the 50 Butterfly; Sareena Gaddu in the Open Breaststroke; Louis Oliver in the Open Breaststroke; Ella Payne in the 100 Freestyle; The girls 12/under Freestyle Relay Team (Eleanor Elwell, Ella Payne, Brieanne Lecky and Maddie Hughes).

Well done to ALL the swimmers who took part – you are one part of an amazing TEAM!

Big thank you to Adrian Cox, Cher Jones, Yvonne Rimmer, Jamie Keyte and Mandy Blizard for their volunteering on the night. Together Everyone Achieves More 🙂

Big Ricks Swim Team – in just a few short weeks these amazing people will be swimming the Channel – all to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support.

To donate – please visit their just giving page – https://www.justgiving.com/teams/bigricks

Lets help them reach their target of £5,500!

For more information on their journey – including some spectaculr photos from their recent night swim please see their blog – https://bigrickchannelswimteam.blogspot.co.uk/

Sunday learn to swimmers should by now have received an email letting them know their class times – some will be the same, some have changed.

If your child swims on a Sunday, and you haven’t had an email – please let us know.

Thanks for your help with this 🙂