ACTIVITIES | lmsc

Leicester Masters Club Activities...

Link to the Swim England Events Calendar

Etwall Eagles 20th Masters Open Meet, Alfreton; 29th November 2025

Sixteen swimmers from Leicester Masters took part in this event and it was also good to see our twin team from Darwin Masters at the event too!

The team came second overall in the event which is a massive achievement for our club.

‘What a great day!’ Gez Sutton

It was a fun and friendly swim event where everyone enjoyed supporting each other, watching the exciting relay races and skins events. There were 18 Personal Best times throughout the event!

The skins event highlight for us was our Cath Davies who was chosen to take part and came fourth overall. She was also first overall in her age group over the whole event – well done Cath!

In the fun 20th anniversary relay race there were 20 swimmers in each team in each lane (120 swimmers in total) and the winning white team won prizes at the end. Great to see everyone swimming together and chatting to swimmers from all different clubs!

There was also representation from Leicester Masters in the exciting six team relay race.

Ruth Smith who had an excellent day with personal bests in all her swims (100 IM, 100 breast, 100 Free and 100 Back). Joanne Beedham had a PB in 100 free, Geraint Griffiths in the 50 Breast and Barry Twigg in the 50 Breast.

A special mention must go to the three ladies who swam in their very first swim competition with us and were brilliant. Dorothea Morfey, Jules Gregg-Allured and Toni Briggs. Dorothea took part in the 100 IM, 25 Butterfly, 25 Breast and 25 Free; Jules in the 25 Breast, 25 Free and 50 Breast and Toni in the 25 Breast and 25 free. You were all brilliant and I was proud to be team captain.

Linda Dootson (Team Captain)...After the event some comments from our new competitive swimmers –

Etwall, you were my very first event-and wow what a ride! The team spirit was off the charts, I felt so supported and cheered on every step of the way. My goggles even managed to stay in place eventually, which felt like a personal victory! The fun relay was such a brilliant addition – though I have to admit, I’d have preferred a pink swim cap instead of a yellow one. And now I’ve got a serious case of swimsuit envy…I can already see my bank account crying as this sport becomes my new obsession! Toni Briggs

I am very pleased that I took part in the gala, I was so nervous before hand, it's only just over a year since I joined the club not knowing how to swim front crawl properly. Helen has been a fantastic coach. I had a fantastic day at my first gala; I felt part of the swim team who gave lots of support which helped calm nerves on the day. Thank you to everyone. Jules Gregg-Allured

Etwall was my first ever gala, and I enjoyed it tremendously thanks to the great team spirit of Leicester Masters. I was horribly nervous in the run up to the day and just wanted to dive off the blocks without losing my goggles and to finish my races without disqualification. My diving warm up was unpromising, but thanks to Jo who lent me a pair of goggles that stayed firmly on, my confidence rose. Once I dived off in the 100 IM all my nerves melted away and I couldn’t wait to race again. I swam 6 events in all, goggles on and no DQs. I came third in my 25m fly and pretty much last in everything, but for me just being there was a big achievement. I also have some PBs to beat next time! I’d never have done this without the encouragement of the club, thank you all. Dorothea Morfey

South Yorkshire Masters Meet; Ponds Forge, Sheffield; 8th November 2025

Leicester Masters fielded a strong four-swimmer team at the South Yorkshire Masters Meet at Ponds Forge on 8 November 2025, with excellent results across the board.

Cath Davies enjoyed a superb meet, winning gold in the 50 m backstroke and 100 m butterfly, plus bronze in the 50 m freestyle.

Nopy Martin collected double bronze in the 50 m backstroke and 50 m breaststroke.

Eleanor Morton showed her versatility with determined swims in the 50 m freestyle, 100 m backstroke, and 100 m breaststroke.

Peter Wynn (Pictured) made an outstanding debut, claiming victories in both the 50 m freestyle and 50 m butterfly. An exceptional day’s racing at an iconic venue, demonstrating the club’s strength and spirit on the Masters stage.

Helen Atton (Head Coach)

Leicestershire and Rutland ASA Masters Open Meet; 14th September 2025

Leicester Masters were flying high with a very successful day of swimming on Sunday at Braunstone swimming pool with 17 swim members attending, 3 of which were swimmers attending their first meet.

There were 23 Personal Best swims and 34 gold medals in total from our team! Congratulations to everyone who took part.

Special mentions must go to –

Helen Atton, our coach and swimmer achieved all time personal bests in the 200 freestyle (by 5 seconds) 200 breastroke,4x1 Individual Medley and 100 Backstroke.

Ruth Smith for personal bests in all of her events which included 50 backstroke, 50 freestyle, 200 backstroke and 50 breastroke.

Dan Goodwin for personal bests in 50 freestyle, 100 Individual medley and 100 freestyle.

Jo Beedham for personal bests in 50,100 and 200 breastroke.

Well done also to our new swimmers to the club, Tom Cummins, Sam Franks and Dipesh Chandarana.

Gold medals were presented to Geraint Griffiths (5) Gez Sutton(5) Dan Goodwin (5) Linda Dootson(6) Rachel Hurst (2) Jo Beedham(2) Helen Atton (1) Cath Davies (2) Ruth Smith (2) Anne-Marie McDonell (1) Eleanor Morton (1) Andy Botterill (1) and Barry Twigg (1) who has come back from injury to compete with us again! Geraint Griffiths, Gez Sutton and Linda Dootson were overall winners in their age groups, with Helen Atton coming second in her age group with a massive 38 points!

A big thank you to Steve Dootson and Pete Farmer for recording all our times even though it was a bit difficult at times due to the number of swimmers we had in one heat!

Great to see Lindsay Prince , our Honorary President coming to support all our swimmers.

UPDATE: Leicester Masters in first place out of 47 clubs! Click here for the full list of points!

Linda Dootson ( team captain)

Steve's Team and University of Birmingham Masters Meet; 31st May 2025

A successful day out was had by all at the Steve's Team at Birmingham University meet.

There were three sessions this year which made for a long but successful day for all of our five swimmers - Jo, Gez, Eleanor, Nopy and Linda.

There were PB's from Nopy Martin in the 100m Breaststroke and 100m Butterfly, Jo Beedham in the 100m Freestyle and Linda Dootson in the 50m Breaststroke.

Medals were in abundance with 13 in total from all swimmers including six gold medals!

Well done Team!!

Linda Dootson ( team captain)

Derbyshire Long Course Open Master Meet, March 16th 2025

There was a total of 16 PB’s and brand new times completed.

Special mention goes to Eleanor Morton for achieving her first medals in her age group, with a gold and 3 silver, and

Ann-marie McDonell for completing in her first gala and achieving both a silver and a bronze medal!

We even had a good luck message from Andrew Cooke at Everest Base Camp...thanks Andy, and good luck to you too!

Linda Dootson (Team Captain)

PB’s Medals and Hats

The event was held at the Moorways Sports Centre in Derby.

Helen Atton, Linda Dootson, Andy Botterill, Anne Marie-McDonell, Nopy Martin, Cath Davies, Eleanor Morton, and Dan Goodwin all attended the meet and everyone enjoyed the experience of a long course gala at the 50m pool.

There were some great achievements too – 11 first places, 12 – second places and 3 - third places overall, and either medals or Derbyshire swim hats were chosen.

SE West Midlands Masters Championships, March 8th 2025

Geraint also went on to receive 5 Gold ribbons and one silver from all his events.

Eleanor, Helen and I pictured here to recognise International Women's Day 2025!

Time sheets are available on the WhatsApp Club Compete Group.

A very well done to all who competed.

Linda Dootson ( team captain)

A good start to 2025 with six swim members of Leicester Masters attending the West Midlands gala at the Alan Higgs centre in Coventry.

The atmosphere at the meet was friendly and a good time was had by all who attended with a few PB’s and ribbons for non West Midlands competitors.

Congratulations and PB’s include Helen Atton in the 200 breast, Eleanor in the 50 fly and her first attempt at 100 breast and Geraint Griffiths in the 50 free.

19th Etwall Eagles Masters Open Meet; Alfreton, December 7th 2024

This is always a meet that has a great atmosphere with events that rarely happen elsewhere. This includes the "skins" race and the 25m races in all strokes.

Leicester Masters had 10 swimmers this year, with a few unable to take part because of illness and injury.

However, there were some great swims overall and some exciting relay races.

Special mentions go to Ruth Smith for PB's in 50m breaststroke, and 50m backstroke; Cath Davies for PB's in 50m breaststroke and 100m butterfly; Jo Beedham for a PB in 100m freestyle; and Eleanor Morton for a PB in 50m breaststroke.

There were also successes in the 25m events: Pete - backstroke, freestyle and breaststroke; Cath - backstroke, butterfly and breaststroke; Linda - backstroke and freestyle, and Helen - freestyle

Timekeeping by Steve and Tom, and timesheets, including split times, are available here.

We were at our first event with our link club Darwen Masters Swimming Club: https://darwenmasters.uk/ pictured below with the LMSC team. Darwen were brilliant, including the winner of the female skins race, fourth from the right!

Well done everyone!

Linda Dootson - Team Captain

Midlands Inter Counties; Birmingham November 2024

Four of our swimmers were selected to represent Leicestershire at the recent Midlands inter-county meet.

The competition took place at the Sandwell Aquatic Centre - a fabulous facility built for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in 2022.

Linda, Jane, Cath and Rachel all took part in multiple events, swimming individually and on relays, helping Leicestershire to 4th place from the 9 counties of East and West Midlands.

Linda swam 50m individual in every stroke, and deserves a special commendation for tackling the 50 fly for the first time, with no prior notice.

It is difficult to put into words how hard it is to step up to do a stroke you’ve never done before, mentally as well as physically.

Sometimes it really isn’t about winning (or losing), it’s stepping up and showing what a true athlete and team captain stands for. We decided that Linda was our Swimmer of the Meet for all of the above reasons. 👏🏻

Jane was lucky to scrape a 2nd place in the 50 breaststroke. The winner in the next lane set a new British record. Jane also swam 3 relays.

Cath was called upon to swim the individual 50 free. It's the first time she has raced the event as a master- and she swam a super speedy 32.67. She also put in impressive splits on 2 relays.

Rachel turned in her trademark fast 50 fly, and pulled in more points for the team on the 140+ medley relay. She also helped Linda with some last minute butterfly technique coaching.

The combined results from all the other regional inter-county meets will be published in the next week, so swimmers can see how they ranked nationally.

There was good team spirit amongst the Leicestershire team as a whole, but LMSC swimmers really looked out for each other.

Jane & Rachel