Meets

More Information may be downloaded by clicking on the following links:

ASC is a competitive swimming club and swimmers can begin competing for the club when they have ASA registration. There is a variety of different types of competition - Open Meets, including Designated and Graded Meets and League events.

Swimmers represent the Club in League events, but they can enter Open Meets as individuals.

Entry ages may be calculated as at the 31st December, or the age on the last day of the Meet. This is made clear in the entry details.

Open Meets may be "Graded" or "Designated". Graded Meets can be A, B or C grade, depending on the entry times required. Designated meets are usually so called because they are designated by the ASA as meets where times recorded may be used for entry into other high level competitions such as National and Age Group Competitions. "A" grade meets are normally those with a minimum entry time. B and C grade meets usually have a maximum entry time. ASC encourages and supports members in competing at Open Meets. For many of these, particularly those that are nearer Amersham, the club will organise entries and club members will attend as a group. The coaches may also attend the meet. The club coaches will advise swimmers about which meets and events to enter.

Details of all competitions will be found on the club notice board and check the club diary to see what's coming up.

Berkshire and South Bucks County Championships, which are held annually in the Spring are an example of a "Designated" meet. They are followed by the South East Region Youth and Age Group competitions and then by the National Age Group competition in late July/early August. Required entry times for these competitions changes from year to year and can be found here.

The club swims in a variety of Leagues including the Thames Valley, Milton Keynes and Speedo League. Selection for these Team events is made by the coaches. The Thames Valley League also have their own website

Open Meet Entries - Fees and Refunds

Open meet forms are distributed by the coaches to those swimmers they feel should compete. We as a club are required to submit a ‘bulk’ entry as this cuts down on the paper handling of the host club. In most cases therefore the forms you complete are entered onto a computer package collating the details. This is then emailed to the host club and one cheque posted to them.

Your cheque should therefore be made payable to the Amersham Swimming Club Open Meet A/c.

The closing date for the club entry will be ahead of the official closing date set by the host to enable us to collate the entries. Also some meets are on a first come first served basis rather than pure entry times. These meets will have submission deadlines way in advance of the official closing date.

Please ensure entry forms are completed accurately and are legible. Common errors are:

No administration fee is added
Event boxes are ticked instead of a time being entered!
No ASA number
Current date entered in the date of birth box
Entry times do not meet the criteria set by the host. Swimmer can be too slow or too fast or not have reached the required age.

Wet and squashed forms retrieved from the depths of a swimmers bag are often unreadable!

All errors take time to ‘fix’ and can delay the clubs entry resulting in more swimmers being rejected when meets are on a first come first served basis.

The Administration fee covers the cost of the coach pass for the coach attending the open meet, any relay entries and the postage. For all future open meets the administration fee has been reduced to £2.50 (from £3.50). It is has been possible to reduce the fee as far more swimmers are attending open meets however for interest it is worth pointing out that for the recent county entry the £3.50 was insufficient. The shortfall was made up from the surplus on other open meets.

Refunds
Generally host clubs only give refunds when swimmers are rejected when an event is oversubscribed. No refunds are given when a swimmer is ill, fails to turn up or decides not to swim a particular event entered for.

Refund cheques are provided by the host club after the meet has taken place. The refunds will be processed as soon as possible after the meet and a cheque returned to you. Please note the administration fee is only refunded if a swimmer has all their entries rejected.

Please do not reduce your entry fee for a new meet by an amount you think may be due to be refunded. The same applies to club fees. Refund payment delays could be caused by the complexity of reconciling payments made in this way.
The refunds will be processed in due course and forwarded to you.

Finally if you are in doubt whether to enter a meet, what times you should enter etc speak to your coach.