ACTIVITIES | lmsc

Leicester Masters Club Activities...

Link to the Swim England Events Calendar

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

Birmingham University Masters Meet; 6th October 2024

A great afternoon and evening was had by six Leicester Masters swimmers at the swim meet on Sunday.

A fantastic total of 23 medals in Gold, Silver and Bronze was achieved by Catherine Davies, Gez Sutton, Linda Dootson, Andy Botterill and Simon Glover. It was an event that was often dominated by the University swimmers (some trying to achieve national and international records) but everyone who took part received a warm welcome. It was agreed by all that the pool was great to swim in, even though the surface around the pool was very slippery.

Special mention to Cath Davies who achieved third place in the overall women’s points total!

Also big thanks to Helen our coach who attended to give us great support throughout.

Linda Dootson - Team Captain

Leicestershire Masters Open Meet - 15th September 2024

PB and Medal Fest for LMSC

On Saturday September 15th, Leicester Masters swimmers achieved 22 PB’s and over 44 medals at the Leicestershire Gala on Saturday. This was a tremendous achievement by the 16 members who entered.

There was also tremendous support from those who were not swimming as we received the loudest cheer of the meet when our relay teams were announced! Thank you to all those that attended, including our team manager Steve and Tom who helped with giving split times and making sure everyone was ready for their race. Time sheets are available to download here

Special mentions go to Cath Davies who was in her first competitive event for the club and she came first in her age group, received five gold medals and three personal best times.

Our coaches showed that they are also brilliant swimmers with Pete Farmer coming first in his age group, five gold medals and six personal best times. Helen Atton and Jo Beedham also received gold medals and Helen a personal best for her 50m Breastroke and Mel for a personal best in her 50m backstroke.

Other swimmers that received PBs include Dan Goodwin, Andrew Cooke, Simon Glover, Eleanor Morton and Ian Bannister. Other swimmers that achieved gold medals include Sian Davis, Jane Mc Carren, Geraint Griffiths, Linda Dootson and Andy Botterill.

As Team Captain, I am really proud of everyone that took part. Here’s to the next one!

Linda Dootson (Team Captain)