The club competes in two leagues, one in the autumn for all ages and one in January-March for our youngest members. Both are swum in three rounds.
The head coach picks the squads in consultation with his team - if chosen for the honour of representing your club and town, it is vital that you confirm as soon as possible that you can swim, or indicate if you can't, and even more important that you turn up on the day.
Obviously some swimmers will just miss out on selection. But don't get disheartened - particularly in the Speedo, the double-year format means swimmers might make the A team one year, the B the next etc despite improving their times. Get stuck into training, give the coaching team a harder choice next time and support your team-mates in the meantime!
The first league is the National Speedo League, in which virtually every club in the country takes part. It is structured regionally, and the winner of each regional premier division competes in the national final the next year, with the runner-up taking part in the national B final. The regions overlap the national structure of districts (Southern Counties, etc), but there is a separate league for London, so we rarely if ever compete within the M25.
Each meet consists of sprint events, in two-year age bands - 10/11, 12/13, 14/15 and open. The meet always kicks off with a 4x25m open IM; the youngest group swims 50 metre individual events and the others swim 100s; relays are 4x50m in the three age groups and in the open category there is a 4x50 medley and a 6x50 freestyle (known as a squadron relay) which always concludes each male and female programme.
Unlike most competitive swimming these days, ages are as of the end of the year rather than as of the day of the swim - for obvious reasons, as clubs would otherwise have to change teams from round to round. (By the time the national final comes round in April, of course, many swimmers will be outside the age category in which they competed in the autumn, but they still compete on the basis of ages the previous 31st December.)
Swimmers are limited to two individual events in their own age group, but may also "swim up" in a higher age group and/or the open category.
We currently field two teams in the league. The A team competes in the Premier Division South. Below the Premier sit Divisions 1 and 2, both of which are further regionalized into eastern and western sections. Our B team swims in the western section of Division 2 South.
The Premier Division has 18 teams and each meet usually consists of six clubs, although because the cost of travel is prohibitive the Tigers of Jersey submit times swum in time trials for the first two rounds and only send the team over for Round 3.
On the basis of results in the first two rounds, the top six teams swim in a meet which decides the overall league winner and runner-up to go through to the national A and B finals, the middle six swim another gala and the bottom six swim a real dog-eat-dog meet after which four of them will be relegated (to be replaced by two promoted from each of the two Division 1s). Two clubs are relegated from each of the Division 1s and two promoted from each of the Division 2s.
You can see the rules for points and on which club swims in which gala in rounds 1 and 2, and host of other information including full results nationwide, at the league's excellent web site, linked near the top of this page.
After cutting things rather fine in 2001 and 2002, winding up in Gala 3 each time but each time staving off relegation by winning the meet comfortably, the As had their best season for several years in 2003 and finished in the comfort zone of the mid-table gala, equal ninth out of 18.
The Bs (who of course from time to time lose a potential heat winner to cover an absence from the As) have done rather better, finishing well inside the top half of their division - in which the majority of teams are other clubs' A sides - in the last three seasons.
The league is great entertainment and completely gives the lie to the idea that swimming isn't an exciting spectator sport. I couldn't recommend it too highly to parents, whether or not your own swimmer is taking part.
Exactly the same can be said for the Thames Valley Junior League. The league involves most clubs in the Berks and South Bucks ASA and also has three rounds, with the top group competing in Round 3 in the A final and the others the B final. Reading won the B final in 2001 and 2002 and were sixth in the A final in 2003. As with the Speedo, the format means we never know where we will be swimming in Round 3 until the results from the first two Saturdays have been collated.
Age groups in the TVJL are in single years, nine and under, 10, 11 and 12, and again the relevant age is the swimmer's age on 31st December in the year of the league. Events are 50m individual swims and 4x25m relays, with the youngest group swimming only relays. Their medley relay has no butterfly but two legs of freestyle, and new for 2003, the 9s swim mixed relays in both freestyle and medley.
Another innovation for 2003 was the introduction of a mixed freestyle squadron relay to finish the evening, with each club fielding one boy and one girl from each age group. I'm told the decibel level is frightening!
We host meets in both leagues, more often in the Speedo, and as always the more parental help is available on the day, the better things go. Clubs are also rightly expected to provide officials, and we welcome applications from parents to train for all roles from timekeeper upwards.
And of course you can read reports on all league meets via the meet calendar and previous seasons via the archive.
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