News

The top swimmers from Shirley Pool were racing on the opening weekend of the Hampshire Counties 2019 and came away with gold, five silvers and a bronze.

Read the full report here

The party has started. Everyday until the pool closes will be a party for the kids. Prizes for the best fancy dress.

Alice the snow girl

Picture gallery is here

Southampton Dolphins have been invited to take part in a Novice gala in Winchester at the River Park Leisure Centre. This event run by Winchester City Penguins Swimming Club and an opportunity for swimmers aged 7 to 11 years old to have some fun and experience a relaxed fun competition. It is aimed at swimmers who have never competed before or who may have thought about possibly competitive swimming, mixing traditional one length races with fun events involving woggles, floats and other equipment. It has both individual and team events. It is a great event, that only lasts a couple of hours and allows everyone involved to have a lot of fun.

If you are interested please, contact myself, Matt Boyd-Wallis with your name and date of birth and I would like to put a team together, so that we can all have a lot of fun before the Christmas break. Please email me on mattboydwallis@gmail.com, before Wednesday 5th December at 1pm. I will then put a team together, email you and then post the team list with events on the Dolphins Board at Shirley on Wednesday Night.

Southampton Dolphins Swimming Club took another leap forward at the Winter Open Meet, at the Littledown Centre in Bournemouth.

The Shirley based Club recorded 70 Hampshire qualifying times, and skipped away with 12 Gold, 12 Silver and 10 Bronze medals.

Among the youngsters breaking through was Alana Maddock (10), who won 3 gold medals in the 400m and 200m Freestyle, recording times that take her up to 3^rd in Hampshire across three disciplines. The young flyer also took silver in the 200m IM & 50m Breaststroke,

Isabel Turner (12) topped the podium in the 200m Backstroke and recorded a time that now ranks her 6^th in the Country. Issy had to settle for silvers in a high class field 50m Butterfly & 100m Free.  The Dolphins showed their strength in depth with another 12 year old Ellena Lewis striking gold in a hard fought 50m backstroke. The resurgent Lewis  produced best ever times to secure silver medals 100m IM & 100m Back.

Also improving was Rhyseren Taylor who won Silver in 400m Freestyle which lifted her ranking to 4^th in Hampshire, boosting her results from the previous weekend where she won Gold in the 800m Freestyle, recording the fastest time in Hampshire to date for this event.

Alana on her way to gold

Issy Turner

Rhyseren Taylor

Emily Lowther (12) came away with 6 Gold medals, ranking her 4^th in the Country for her 100m Breaststroke, 5^th for her 50m Breaststroke and 9^th for her 200m Breaststroke. Emily is also now ranked 1^st in Hampshire for 400m IM, 200 IM and 200m Fly.

Younger brother  Matthew (9) followed his sister by winning gold in the 100m Butterfly and recording a time that ranks him fastest in Hampshire.

To complete the  haul, Phoebe Fields took 100m Free & 50m Free, Freya Latimore 200m IM & 200 Free and Freya Manning the 200m Backstroke.

Oliver Cook, Nathan Lewis and Verity Telford all won Bronze medals and joined Freya Latimore, Ellena Lewis, Alana Maddock and Isabel Turner in recording Hampshire qualifying times for this season’s County Championships in January 2019.

The 62 personal best times recorded by the swimmers, enthused Head coach Matt Boyd-Wallis and assistant Coach Paul Dollery,

“These results confirm how well all the Dolphins Swimmers have been applying themselves and how they have taken on the new changes and training approaches set by the coaches. It is an amazing example of swimmers believing in themselves, their training and supporting each other. These results have really enthused and encouraged everyone at the club to work hard and look forward to the New Year, Hampshire County Championships and beyond”

“It was just an outstanding weekend from all, not just the swimmers, but volunteers who helped out on poolside, to the parents in the stands supporting every swim and swimmer.”

Four teenagers that learnt to swim at Shirley Pool made the finals of the  English National Schools Swimming Championships last weekend.

Tyler Ellis,Max Nugent, Filip Fraczek- Kryger and Kieran Beckett were representing their college, Barton Peveril, for the first time in the prestigious event at London’s Olympic Pool.

The team qualified by topping the Hampshire Schools event and then finishing fourth in the heats of the 4 x 50m freestyle in a time of 1.40.88 to make the finals. They trailed in fourth place on the first two legs of the final before storming past The Harrow School on the third leg to lead by more than a second. The final 50m extended the lead and secured a fabulous third place on the podium for the Southampton boys in a time of 1.38.97 .

Kieran Beckett (17) was learning to swim in the small pool at Shirley before he started school, progressing through the ranks into competition swimming with Dolphins.

Tyler Ellis (17) also spent 8 years learning his art at Shirley, starting as a toddler. Max Nugent (17) joined the swim club as a ten year old and peaked as National Champion in 100m butterfly as a 16 year old.

A young Keiran Beckett

Filip Fraczek-Kryger (16) began swimming with Shirley as a 4 year old and stayed with it until 2018, becoming the fastest swimmer over 50m in the Country for his age.

“I’m so happy making a podium finish in the relays.To beat specialist swimming schools just as a group of close mates was a great feeling and one I will never forget” said Kieran.

Filip starts with the Dolphins

Shirley Pool MD Dave Perry, “There’s no luck in that result. Thats year’s of hard work in the pool, some great coaches and a lot of dedication from the parents. Everyone that has been involved with these lads over their swimming career will tell you they are lovely to teach. We are very proud that Shirley pool has played their part in teaching them to swim and opening the door to success.”

Tyler (right) as a nine year old Dolphin

The other teams sharing the podium were Millfield School and Plymouth College, both colleges attract top swimmers from across the Country to train while studying.

National Champion Max

Echo press report:

Shirley Swimmers make National Final

Southampton Dolphins, the competitive section of Shirley Swimming Pool, were in action last weekend and they made a big impression at the Hart Open Meet. Read the news report from the Daily Echo here..

Just to confirm: These are the current times for Saturday: 0630-0830 gold, Silver and Bronze  1130-1230 Swim Squad, Dolphins 5,6 & 7. There is NO training 1230-1330.

NEW Training Schedule with Coaches 2018-19

Luke Myatt 1987, first lesson?

Small Pool Lesson 1987

Small Pool Lesson 1987
Armbands and Rings!

More Pictures and press reports from the archives