Our first Novice Gala was a great success. The feedback received from other clubs has beeen extremely positive and the event was felt have a great atmosphere and to have been well run and structured. The committee would like to pass on their thanks to the Gala Organising committee.

- HTC -

Congratulations to Rory Thomson on his promotion to JC3.

- JHG -

Congratulations to

Kai Jones,
Robert Marsden,
Jamie Maskall and
Alistair Webster

who have just moved up to JC1 from Otters Cubs.

Also, welcome to the Carroll family who have recently moved to Cults. Rhys Carroll has joined our JC1 squad and his sister, Gwynneth, has joined the JC2s.

- EMR -

In recent years Cults Otters has been fined on several occasions for failing to provide enough officials at North District Meets and for giving insufficient notice when a swimmer withdraws from a North District event.

Please help us to avoid this in the future by finding a replacement official if you are unable to officiate and by letting the match secretary know immediately if a swimmer has to withdraw from an event. The fines will be passed on to the swimmers if they do not inform the club of any changes.

- EMR -

Our Junior Squads from Otters Cubs through to JC1 and JC2 turned out a terrific performance at the clubs first novice gala at Northfield pool. Cults Otters beat nine other clubs who had come to compete in the gala and were presented with their top club trophy by Stewart Haslam, Head coach of City of Aberdeen Swim Team (COAST). There were too many good swims and personal best times to put them all in this news flash, and coaches Hilary and Michelle Gaunt were really pleased with the performances.
The final results were:
Cults Otters 269 points
Aberdeen ASC 167 points
Westhill 109 points

Best performance by a Cults Otters swimmer was won by JC2's Daniel Gibson
Daniel Gibson 27 points
Lindsey MacInnes 25 points
Charlotte Craw 24 points

The gala organising committee would also like to say a huge thank you to all the Cults Otters parents and senior swimmers who supported the gala by helping, officiating or demonstrating swimming and for the generous raffle prizes which were much appreciated.
Thank you also to the senior technical officials who had no swimmers taking part but gave their time to ensure the gala happened - Peter Renwick and David Downie our referees, Dave MacDonald and Norman MacLennan our starters, Sandra Middleton our AOE operator, Ellie Ross and Kevin Paterson our recorders, Ian Thom and Ross MacDonald our announcers and Cults Otters judges Geraldine McClure, Greig Smith and Eleanor Milne.

- CLM -

Will no longer has any swimmers directly involved in the club and wishes to resign his post as Chairperson. Thanks for your efforts Will.

Anyone interested in this or the post of Vice Chair can contact Will or the club secretary for more information about he post. Email addresses are on the Club Committee page.

- HTC -

Details of the new procedures can be found by following the new STO training link on the Club Info page (option on menu). Further information and application forms are on the North District Website at
http://www.sasanorth.org.uk/sto.htm

- HTC -

We would like to thank Gregor for all of his hard work and achievement with the JC3 squad and wish him every success with COAST.

I am very pleased to announce that Aileen Lilly has agreed to take on the role of JC3 Coach after the departure of Gregor McMillan. Aileen joins the Cults Otters coaching team with a wealth of experience in swimming gained both as a competitive swimmer and as a Level 2 teacher with the Cults Otters Learn-To-Swim programme. She also has previous coaching experience with other swim clubs.

Aileen attended a JC3 coaching session prior to Christmas in order to meet the swimmers and has also been working with Gregor on a handover and on the training programme for the next 6 months.

I ask you all to join me in welcoming Aileen to her new role and in wishing her every success with JC3. I would also ask the parents of JC3 swimmers in particular to support Aileen with her new endeavours. This should take the form of a poolside rota of helpers which will be developed by the JC3 squad representative.

- WP -

Well done everyone who swam on Sunday 11th Nov at Tullos against Aberdeen ASC. It was a great result 8-2 to Otters. There were some brilliant swims with a great many pb`s again despite having competed only 2 weeks ago .
A big thank you to all helpers.

- HG -