With the horrible events that are occurring in Ukraine, CUSWPC have set about hosting charity events over this year to raise as much money as possible to help as best we can. For this event we have teamed up with OUSC.

Many swimmers and water polo players on the teams have been directly impacted by the recent events, and so this cause means a lot to us as a club and a family.

We will be hosting a 100 by 100 metre Front Crawl relay on the 14th of May in which members of current and past members CUSWPC and members of OUSC will take part and power their way down the pool. The event will take place between 2pm and 5pm at Parkside Pools, in which time the team will be attempting to also get into the records books. If you are a member of our Alumni, please come along to swim or support us in this event!

After the relay, we will be hosting a Charity dinner at Hughes Hall starting at approximately 6:30pm. Even if you don’t feel like hopping in the pool, feel free to come along to both events! Price is estimated at £35 non-drinking and £50 drinking (bottle of white or red wine).

In order to sign up for the relay and/or dinner please fill out this form by the 30th of April. We’d love to see as many of our Alumni there as possible!

All of us at CUSWPC and OUSC would appreciate any support you can give; no matter how small the donation, it will still be making a massive impact. You can also be involved by donating to our just giving page, watching the livestream, or coming to the charity dinner afterwards.

The money raised will be donated to a charity called Save the Children. Save the Children is a charity that focuses on the education and health of children across the UK and the world. In Ukraine, their focus is on distribution of food, clothes, and medicine, providing vital mental health support and education to children and families and assisting refugees arriving in Romania. With over 3.5 million children trapped in Ukraine, they are attempting a very difficult task and can use all the help available. To find out more, you can check out their website here.

Thank you!

Ellie and Alfie xx

Blues Swimming Captains

Registering interest for 100 x 100 relay or dinner:

https://forms.gle/ccHnbMuLyU5TB2rQ7

Just giving page:

https://www.justgiving.com/Cambridge-University-Swimming-and-Water-Polo-Club

Save the Children:

https://www.savethechildren.org.uk

26th February 2022 at Rosenblatt Pool, Oxford
Cambridge 73 Oxford 107
Mens: Cambridge 42, Mens Oxford 48
Womens: Cambridge 31, Womens Oxford 59

Varsity this year was hosted by Oxford at their Rosenblatt pool, which meant an early start for the Seconds. The Seconds have had a particularly dynamic squad this year, with tough training times, some of the swimmers found it difficult to work around academic commitments and other sporting commitments, as well as some notable losses due to injury. With Renat Samur stepping up from the development squad, Raphael and Tads dropping down from the Blues to help fill the men’s squad, we managed to pull together a full squad! At 5:30 we departed for Oxford. After a quick parade, and an intense warm up, we could feel Oxford eyeing us up from across the pool.

The morning’s proceedings kicked off with the 100 IM, with the gent’s squad unsure what to expect; cheers erupted on poolside when Ed Roberts snatched first place by a second and a half from the first of the Oxford swimmers with a personal best time of 1:05.29. Ben Roberts secured 3rd place closely behind with a fantastic performance.

Next up was the 50 backstroke, where Grace Riley put on a fantastic performance to take 3rd place less than a second behind 2nd, with a 35.39, and Julia Dabrowska posted a personal best of 40.98. Tads put in an equally strong performance for the gents, securing 3rd with a 29.66.

This was followed by the 100 free. Evie Anema secured 2nd place with a blistering 1:04.4. Despite this performance some say the pool was still too warm for her taste. Raphael’s 58.02 marked 3rd for the gents, and Nathan Williams was closely behind with a personal best of 58.29.

The 50 Fly followed, where Anna Stevens secured 3rd place with 32.62, and late squad addition Abbie Lewis put in an incredible performance, swimming 35.31 despite only being with the squad for a few weeks prior to Varsity. The gents 50 fly proved equally stimulating when underdog Harry Weston brought it home, securing 1st place for the light blues with a rapid 26.67. Some say the warmup was his 4th training session of the year.

Into the break, Oxford led with a 20 point lead, but the squad was undeterred, with adrenaline running higher than ever as the second half kicked off with the 200 free. Another strong performance from distance swimmer Evie Anema tagged third place for the light blues with a time of 2:18.38, just 3 seconds off first place in what was a tense race right down to the final flags. The gents 200 free proved equally fruitful with Tads bringing home the full 4 points with first place, pipping oxford swimmer by 2 seconds to the pads.

50 breastroke was a loud one, with much anticipation from poolside regarding Ed Roberts’ performance. Some say he’s our very own Peaty. After a tense first length, Ed bolstered his lead and the scoreboard confirmed the win for Cambridge with a 32.32, pipping his Oxford rival by 0.3 seconds, and bagging his second personal best of the day.

Finally for the individual events was the 50 free. Despite difficulties making it to sessions due to various far-flung placements, the squad knew that Anna Stevens was fast on paper and quicker still in the water. Placements didn’t stop her from taking the lead in the first length, and after managing to fend off the Oxford swimmers she took home another victory for the light blues with the time of 29.71, a full 0.4 ahead of oxford. Despite this lead though, all swimmers finished within a second of each other, with Grace Riley narrowly missing out on 3rd by just 0.1 of a second, but still posting a personal best of 30.84.
For the gents, again a close race ensued, with just 1.2 seconds between first and last place. Wild card Harry Weston took to the blocks, and managed to convert all his erg training into a mighty performance for Cambridge, securing the win with a phenomenal 25.33. Ben Roberts put in an equally strong performance posting an impressive 26.55.

Oxford had a 26 point lead into the relays, and whilst the hopes of a win for the light blue seconds at Rosenblatt seemed only a distant dream, the squad was determined not to go down without a fight, and a loud one at that.

First up was the medley, with both the gents and the women conceding to Oxford, with the gents’ race being particularly close, with the light blues being just 1.5 seconds behind, owing to Oxford impressive backstroke performance.

Finally, all eyes fixed on the calm waters for the freestyle relay. After a close race the women were just 5 seconds behind, and whilst not beating Oxford, it represented a strong performance from the women that they should be proud of.
The final relay, the gents 50 freestyle relay proved to be one of the most intense races of the Seconds Varsity, and perhaps the closest I have ever seen. Despite strong performances from Tads and our dev squad swimmer Renat, Oxford put in a strong performance, and led by 3 metres into the final 100. Ben Roberts, our third swimmer, was faced with the daunting task of reeling Oxford in. Unbelievably the fresher from Fitz was able to take the wind from Oxford’s metaphorical sails, completely closing the gap, and leaving both shades of blue neck and neck going into the final leg. Stepping up to the challenge for Cambridge was top trainer Harry Weston. The tension on poolside was tangible. After hitting the water for the 6th time this year, in perfect synchrony with the oxford swimmer, Mr Weston surfaced a metre ahead of the Oxford rival. No doubt spurred on by the screams and chaos that were unfolding on poolside, he managed to fend our rivals off to the flags, and the team secured a win in the last event beating oxford by a full second and a half, with a time of 1:42.11, ending our fierce battle on a high.

Despite not quite being able to clinch the win from oxford, the squad should be very proud of themselves, the determination they showed right up until the last race, and phenomenal team spirit that was present throughout the whole event was truly fantastic. Despite difficulties making training times, a big congratulations should go out to the women’s squad who’s commitment to training regularly translated to some excellent personal bests.

On behalf of the team, I’d like to extend a massive Thankyou to Oxford for hosting us this Varsity, to Felix Gallagher for organising this fantastic weekend, to the Oxford Captains Lucy Greenwood, and Joel fernandez, and finally to our Coach, Chris Greenhalgh, and all our friends and family who have helped us along the way! I wish both squads the best of luck for any future competitions they may have, both in swimming and the squad’s many other sporting disciplines.

We look forward to duelling again next year, a little closer to home, in more familiar waters.

With warm regards,

Alex Vayro and Cameron Lackey
Second Swimming Captains

26th February 2022 at Rosenblatt Pool, Oxford
Cambridge 77 Oxford 103
Mens: Cambridge 40, Mens Oxford 50
Womens: Cambridge 37, Womens Oxford 53

Varsity was back to its roots this year. Hosted at the Rosenblatt pool, Varsity started early for the Blues team as we all travelled up at … 5.30am, which led to a lot of people having a cheeky nap on the coach. Despite the sleepy start, the team was in great spirits as we cheered on the Seconds to a fantastic performance. Then, at 11am, it was time for the Blues to parade and perform.

After a confusing last few years, the team was back and ready to hit the ground running. The team has put in an incredible amount of work this season and despite only having 5 sessions a week, having an almost record breaking number of injuries: from sprains, to torn muscles, to broken feet, we were looking strong and feeling excited for the battle we were preparing for. With the camp training under our belt, coached by the one and only El Captain, Coach Collins, only a month prior to Varsity, confidence was high and the team had an incredible atmosphere.

Our very own Captain, Ellie O’Keeffe, and Justine Rannou, a first time Varsity swimmer, led us off to a flying start, with Ellie breaking a 12 year old club record in the 200 IM going an incredible time of 2:22.15 and Justine coming shortly behind.
The guys were already jealous of the strong female performance. So, the dynamic duo of Theo and Leo (Cannon and Karski) stepped up to the blocks for their 200 IM. They took matters into their own hands, with Theo breaking his own club record in a spectacular time of 2:01.05, and Leo following hot on Oxford’s heels for another 2nd/4th finish.

After this incredible start, the 100 Backstroke was up next. Second year’s Sophie O’Keeffe and Clemmie Butler Brown performed fantastically, with both swimmers getting best times and Sophie smashing the blues time, smashing the O*ford swimmers by over 2 seconds and winning our first race of the meet. In a close finish, Clemmie was unfortunately touched out by her competitor, but put in a brilliant race.
In an even closer finish, the guys race led to all swimmers finishing within 0.5 seconds of each other and an exhilarating race. Fresher Yann Divet and CUSWPC Veteran Kaz Uzwyshyn-Jones smashed out two blues times with Kaz achieving his first ever in his final year of racing.

200 Free was up next, with Jasmine Gray and Yoshi Eschen stepping up and both achieving personal bests.
CUSWPC legend Jacques Bonsell dove in next with fresher Tom Woolley. A solid 2nd/3rd performance from the boys with two fantastic swims and Tom achieved his first 200 Free PB in 4 years!

Ellie was back up again for the 100 Fly, along with fresher Megan Kemp. Both swam fantastically with Ellie getting a close second and Meg getting a brilliant personal best time.
Up next Hugo Bellamy and Alex Song swam a strong 100 Fly. Hugo managed to equal his previous record and Song came in strong just behind.
Our very own president, Carmen Lim, stepped for a 50 Free. Not only did she hit a strong personal best, she also went the fastest S8 50 Free in Asia for this season!

After a short break, it was time for some distance. Yoshi was up once again but this time with Fresher/OAP Georgina Quayle to race the 400 Free. Despite both girls being more used to choppier waters, they swam incredibly well, with Yoshi getting a blue and personal best and Georgina swimming her heart out for a personal best as well.
After the girls was one of the most exciting 400 Free races I have witnessed in a long time. Jacques was on the blocks again, accompanied by Fresher and BNOC Flynn Ryan. The front pack came in to all finish within about of a second of each other with Jacques being touched out by O*ford’s Max Loake. Flynn finished in an incredible personal best of 11 seconds!

Next up was the 100 Breast, with Lili Csada and Sara Mahmmud both performing in their first Varsitys. They gave their all, finishing some great races but couldn’t quite reach the O*ford girls.
The guys 100 Breast was a tough battle. Giorgos Papageorgiou smashing a big personal best, getting his blues time and beating the O*ford team captain. While Maxim de Wildt managed to hold onto the ex-Olympic gold medalist from O*ford … for 25 metres, before finishing 0.3 behind the next O*ford swimmer. The boys came out with a strong 2nd/4th finish.

Then we came to the final individual race, the 100 Free. For the women’s race, Sophie O’Keeffe was back up again with 6 year CUSWPC veteran Charlotte Rowlands, who was performing with a broken foot! Sophie came in 2nd with an awesome personal best and blues time, with Charlotte close behind and only 0.4 off her personal best.
The boys then stepped up. Theo the Cannon Cannon was back again to smash another personal best, beating his own record and became the first CUSWPC swimmer to ever go under 50 seconds for 100 Free! Following close behind was Jonnie James, who claimed a personal best and his first ever blues time in his first full season in the Blues team.

Second break over, and it was time for the relays, and as always, these supplied some incredible swimming and amazing races.
For the Women’s 4×100 medley relay we had Clemmie Butler Brown on the Back, Alex Vayro on the Breast, Megan Kemp on the Fly and Ellie Mason on the Free. The girls performed fantastically and hit great times.
For the Men’s 4×100 medley relay we had Alex Goodacre, resident Geriatric, on the Backstroke, Samrahn Sandhu on the Breast, Kashif Carter on the Fly, and finally Ben Carter on the Free.

Finally, my personal highlight from the competition, the 4×100 Free Relays. Both teams beat Oxford and broke club records and did the team proud.
The girls were led off by Jasmine Gray, followed shortly by Ellie O’Keeffe, then Charlotte Rowlands and then brought home by Sophie O’Keeffe in an incredible final time of 4:01.03.
For the guys, The Cannon led us off, followed by a strong Hugo Bellamy, then Jacques Bonsell whipped out a swim, anchorman Tom Woolley smashed out the back end to bring home in a final time of 3:24.85.

Overall the team managed to achieve a record breaking 18 individual blues times, 6 club records. Despite this incredible performance from the whole team, it was sadly just not enough this year. For a team with only 5 sessions a week and a lack of our own pool, we surpassed even our own expectations.

We would like to say a massive thank you to Oxford for so graciously hosting us this Varsity, to Felix Gallagher for organising this fantastic weekend, to the Oxford Captains Sophie Lawrence and Max Underwood, and finally to our incredible Coach, Chris Greenhalgh, and all our friends and family who have helped us along the way!

Hope to see you all next when we face off against the dreaded O*ford, but this time on home turf.

As always, lots of love,

Ellie O’Keeffe and Alfie Collins xx
Blue Swimming Captains

The aspiration to build a swimming pool on the West Cambridge site for University staff, students and community use remains a key ambition for the Sports Service. It also remains firmly within the City and South Cambridgeshire sports facilities strategy, with West Cambridge being identified as the preferred location to serve the west and north of the city.

The Perse School is advancing its plans to build a 25 metre 6 lane pool on its Hills Road site in the south of the city and a West Cambridge site development would complement this. The rate of growth of the city and surrounding areas means current infrastructure such as sports facilities, and water space in particular, is insufficient.

The long-awaited confirmation of planning approval for the West Cambridge site masterplan that was announced recently has added some impetus to looking at the remaining phases planned for the original Sports Centre that has now been open for 8 years.

There are a number of significant conditions to be satisfied within the planning approval such as finalising transport, energy and other infrastructure requirements. In addition to meeting the needs of students’ clubs, we believe that provision of better sport, health and wellbeing facilities, will be recognised as an important factor in making West Cambridge a desirable place to work and important in attracting commercial research companies to invest in the site.

Our aim for 2022 is to put a business case, plans and design options for indoor and Padel tennis, additional indoor multi-purpose sport space and a 25 metre eight lane pool into the University’s internal planning process.

There will be challenges around capital costs, sustainability, parking and transport to overcome and, of these facilities, the pool is the most challenging to deliver in economic terms. However, good pool-time programming that meets a range of needs from children’s swimming lessons to swimming for health, wellbeing and competition (including related activity such as water polo) can be managed to deliver a well-used facility within an efficient pool design.

We have a new committee for the academic year 2018-19, with some experienced members and plenty of new ones, here are the people hoping to make this year the best yet for CUSWPC!

President: Chantelle Doran

Medic at St John’s, plays women’s water polo since and full of great new ideas!

 

Secretary: Jess Payne

Studies Phys Natsci at Magdalene, swims 200m IM, 100m fly and freestyle.

Harold Beale club/ Sponsorship officer: Seren-Jones Reddy

Bio Natsci at Churchill, plays women’s water polo.

IT Officer: Mario Cekic

PhD in computer science at Clare Hall, plays men’s water polo.

Welfare Officer: Kate Read

Engineer at Girton college, plays women’s water polo.

Publicity secretaries:

Yung Lo

HSPS at Peterhouse, plays women’s water polo.

Siân Stockton

PhD in Pharmacology at Darwin, plays women’s water polo.

Tadpoles president and alumni relations officer: Dan Toy

Chemical Engineering at Gonville and Caius, swims backstroke.

Men’s swimming captain: Henry Choong

Maths at St John’s, swims 100m and 200m freestyle and backstroke.

Women’s swimming captain: Georgia Crawford

HSPS at Newnham, does the 100m freestyle.

Swimming secretaries:

Charlotte Rowlands

Medicine at Gonville and Caius, swims 100m breaststroke.

Alex Lezard

Engineering at Clare, swims 200m IM.

Marlins Captains:

Karl Romain

Studies medicine at Girton, swims 100m freestyle and 50m breaststroke.

Phillippa Chambers

Land economy at Newnham, swims 100m and 200m freestyle.

Open water swimming captain: Matthew Chadwick

Earth sciences by the British Antartic Survey at Sidney Sussex, plays men’s water polo, as well as swimming open water.

Men’s Water Polo Captain and Club Vice-President:

Ben Tinkler-Davies

Studies engineering at Clare.

Men’s Water Polo Secretary: Alex Norcliffe

Studies Phys Natsci at Sidney Sussex.

Women’s water polo captain: Lara Tritton

Studies Phys Natsci at Jesus.

Women’s water polo secretary: Beki Mills

Studies Phys Natsci at Newham.

Water polo college League officer: Henry Stuart-Turner

Studies Medicine at Emmanuel.

Looking forward to the new upcoming season as the start of the academic term is fast approaching…