Small club proves it has a big heart

The club has entered the new year in third place based on outright points.  

The intertown competition is between six clubs; Branxton-Greta, Singleton, Muswellbrook, Denman, Merriwa and Scone.

As well as having an outright winner, the tournament also awards a handicap winner based on the previous year’s results.   

Each club’s swimmers have one lane per race, and only a single race per stroke for each age group, meaning that the swimmers have to be good sports and share the races around with their 

fellow swimmers in their age groups.

After the first carnival, hosted by Singleton in October, Scone’s swimmers came in fourth place – no mean feat as their shortage of senior swimmers on the day saw some of their nine and 10 year olds swimming very competitively in 15-year-old races.  

In the Open Men’s relay, Scone’s oldest swimmer was 13 years old, and the team still managed to come in third place. 

Following Singleton, Scone members competed at Denman, Merriwa and  Muswellbrook intertown carnivals, making for a busy but fruitful end of year.  

There was a wide range of swimmers competing at all of the carnivals, based purely on availability on the day, and the committee congratulates all of those swimmers on their sportsmanship and “have-a-go” attitude.  

InterTown Race Secretary Anthea Shoesmith said: 

“On some carnival days, we have five swimmers competing in the one age group, meaning that we have to share the races out between them or ask some of them to swim up age groups.  

“Our committee views these carnivals as a chance for all swimmers to gain some outside competition in a supportive environment, so we don’t ever place ‘the best’ swimmer in a race at the expense of someone else, it is shared around. 

“All of the swimmers are so understanding of this, and they are so supportive of giving everyone a go, it is fantastic to see”. 

Coming up is the Branxton-Greta carnival this Saturday, while Scone play host on March 5.