Easter trip to Norwich Long Course Open Meet

Iain Chalmers

Thursday

Dinnaton has travelled out of the South West since early 2020 for a Spanish Swim Camp, and before that the furthest the club had been was Portsmouth, still very much south and rather west, or Edinburgh, for Jas our last national contender.

So, a trip across to East Anglia, the flats of Norfolk and a completely different swimming community was always going to be a change of scenery, and a learning curve for our swimmers who haven’t done too much travelling before.

That being said, a number of the team have made the journey to compete at this meet in the past, Hattie, Reuben C, Tilly, Lillie, Alice and Grace all having raced here last season with Dawlish. But for Megan, Rosie, Ruby, Willow, Reuben M, Finley, Laila and Hana this was very much new territory. We were also joined by Tia, one of our learn to swim teachers and Stanley and Jacob, who are good friends to swimmers in the club, with the trio representing Plymouth Leander, but part of our little community for the weekend.

The journey - six hours on a good day - went well, most of us avoided the bad weather, and we met at the UEA Sportspark for a swim to loosen off the journey. We discovered another familiar face, Reid Jones, who started his swimming with Dinnaton until 2016 and now swims with Bath University, was also entered into the meet.

Following a 20/30 minute loosen off we went to get food, where test number 1 was out before the swimmers. Burger and chips, or pasta?

Some succeeded, others less so!

We also had problem number 1, a lot of very excited swimmers, burning up a lot of energy!

Friday

After a group pre pool session outside the building, we acquainted ourselves with our surroundings. A busy warm up was the next lesson, swimmers don’t tend to care how other swimmers warm up and they’re not going to be polite and give you space! Some elbows out and quick realisation meant we did warm up, but an early introduction to how tough the competition would be.

Hana Wood started our days racing in the 200 backstroke, she finished a couple of seconds outside her PB which, was the theme for the day. Excited energy had been replaced by problem number 2, nervous energy.

The best clubs from the midlands and South East were in attendance, City of Norwich themselves, City of Peterborough, Repton School, St Felix School, Leicester, Milton Keynes, Hatfield, Ipswich, Derby, the list goes on and on. Even Hamilton Aquatic’s - a 40 strong team visiting from Dubai. In addition, Norwich’s two hour proximity to London, a number of swimmers finished up racing in the British Championships being held during the week, and made a beeline to Norfolk to race again!

Willow Miles wasn’t too bothered by any of that and swam the race of the day in her 100 free, clocking a 2 second PB despite some ongoing knee issues. Her brother, Reu, feeling ‘sick’ (nervous!) rose above it to register PBs in the 100 fly and the 400 free. Suddenly didn’t feel sick (nervous) anymore after that. Megan Harris, recovering from illness also had a solid swim, matching her long course times and swimming quicker than she expected too.

Hattie Crosby was the star of session 2, her own 100 fly nerves giving way too much debate on how best to swim the race before she strung it together and put in an extremely mature performance. Laila, our youngest traveller had a strong fly swim, fading a little in the final 25m but otherwise very good.

This showed two more problems. No swim down facility between events, and the need for more long course swimming to ensure we are more comfortable with the format.

We spent Friday night doing our own things, some went for a meal, others an early night. Those nerves and that excitement needed time to settle before day 2.

Saturday

I’d be lying if I said I was happy with Saturday morning, the girls competed in the 50 free, one of our collective favourite events and it just… don’t quite come together. We did a good pre pool before, a decent warm up and discussed the race in advance but it just didn’t quite happen. A trend of sitting about 0.5 seconds a length away from times we would be happy with was forming, and it was becoming a bit of a battle mentally for everyone – myself included. Coaches always want swimmers to do well, its difficult to have the answers when things don’t quite come together, and so we all felt a little glum at the conclusion of the morning session.

But, then we hit the afternoon and things started to turn around. First with Hana Wood, stepping up and smashing in a PB, while winning the heat with Willow coming in second for a Dinnaton 1-2. Ruby and Hattie improved their previous long course PBs in the same event, and Tia got her first PB in 5 years, and a place in the final. Stan followed up with taking a final in the 50 butterfly, while Ed Morris clocked a new PB in the same event. While Rosie, only competing in the first two days got the videos she needed for her A level PE Qualifications.

It was a nice feeling ending the session with some happier faces, and Leigh sorting out some Sports Hall space for us meant the team had some space to play some games and chill out before Stan and Tia’s finals.

Stan and Tia, while representing PL, were undoubtedly part of our team. Both had positive influences on our swimmers both athletically and socially, and so as a team we stayed for the finals session and to cheer them on.

Norfolk and the South East have a much more fun approach to finals than we do down here. Swimmers’ names get read out, there’s music and teams cheer their team mates on. So, with Hamiton’s 40 strong team of Orange clad swimmers making noise for most of the finals, I asked our group to step up, and a rousing cheer for Stan when his named as announced, and chanting of his name when it wasn’t was spine tingling from my space on poolside, and surely helped propel him to a new PB and a bronze medal which was loudly cheered. Tia, not expecting to final and not originally planning to swim it wasn’t looking to take home medals or PBs, but instead familiarise herself with the process of swimming finals again ready for her 50 backstroke the next day. More noise, more cheering, more Hamilton attempts to copy our chanting and we finished the day to head to Bella Italia, fuel up as a team and then back to accommodation for a good night’s sleep.

Monday

We found problem number 4 throughout the first two days was being too cold to race. Simply saying ‘pre pool’ wasn’t working out, so we had a chat and really emphasised the need to be warm before racing. This ended up working nicely, swimmers were more active with pre pool and some improved performances came as a result. Laila Cater in the 200 freestyle was the epitome of this, as she delivered a mature, confident performance and easily her swim of the weekend to record a new personal best time. Ed, Reu and Finley clocked PBs in their 50 freestyles, while Reuben Crosby, in his one swim of the weekend, got his Devon County time and a PB in the same event.

In the afternoon’s 50 backstroke, Tia made her way into the finals once more, while Hattie, Hana and Ruby all registered long course PB’s as well.

With Tia swimming alone in the final, we once again stayed to support, and she brought the curtain down on the meet for us with a 7^th placed finish in the final.

But this is where the fun begins!

An away meet is a great chance to socialise, and team build but it must be about the swimming. Throughout the weekend, with swimmers who get on so well together, keeping their feet on the ground was at times slightly tricky. The excitement of Thursday, nerves on Friday, lows and highs of Saturday and then the evening gatherings is something that experience will bring. Swimmers who raced this meet last year and remembered the telling off for eating burgers and ice cream sundaes instead of pasta on the Thursday evening, made better choices this year. While swimmers who struggled with pre pool on the first two days, had better luck on the final day. Its about experience and focusing on the process to manage the excitement and nerves in order to chase performance.

But once the gala is over, I can no longer protest a burger, and so off we went as a team to TGI Fridays. We had a great meal, some mocktails, and then headed to the local bowling alley to play some arcade games and pool. Everyone got to just socialise without worrying about swimming the next day.

After a great evening, and then a good night’s sleep, and a rather tedious and difficult drive home, I think we are all keen to revisit Norfolk next year, take the lessons we have learned from this meet forward into our next competitions and continue to build the team, both athletically and socially.

Thank you to everyone who travelled, it was a great weekend, and of course thank you to Simone and Leigh for their support poolside, and the support of all the parents off poolside with helping with all manner of different scenarios all weekend. This now making it to its fourth page is where I will sign off, of course I can’t fully delve into all the scenarios and stories each swimmer faced but hopefully the highlights will suffice.

Thank you all, until next year!

Dinnaton team

Grace Anderson-Shill

Laila Cater

Hattie Crosby

Reuben Crosby

Tilly Crosby

Rosie Cuming

Megan Harris

Ruby Gove

Alice Mansfield

Reuben Miles