Types of Competition

Club Championships
Club Championships all held throughout the year at Willowburn Sports Centre and are open to all members of Alnwick Dolphins. They are designed to help swimmers gain experience within a competitive atmosphere and are a vital part of their individual development.

Using Northumberland & Durham County qualifying times as a baseline ensures that, within broad age groups, all swimmers compete on level terms.

Age groups:
11 & under - swim 50m or 100m
12 & over - swim 100m or 200m
Masters - swim 50m or 100m

Awards for 1st 2nd 3rd and 4th places, plus a trophy for the winners of each of the 9
events in each age group. Trophies for overall Club Champion & Runners-up.
We have a presentation evening at the end of the year where all the winners receive
their awards and get the chance to meet outside of the pool environment.

Open Galas
These galas are aimed at the faster swimmers, but anyone can enter.

Graded Galas
These galas are aimed at swimmers who are not fast enough to enter the Open Galas - swimmers MUST NOT have swum faster than an entry time!

County, District & National Championships
Entry times are needed.

Card Meets
Card Meets are competitions where the swimmer will be given a card for each swim that the swimmer has received an entry by their coach. These cards need to be posted the day of the gala and by a specific time which will be noted on the card. It is
the swimmers responsibility to check before the competition as failure to post cards can result in swimmers not being able to compete.

Durham & District Junior League (or Diddy League)
The league is separated into 3 separate divisions 1st, 2nd & 3rd. The league is aimed at children aged between 9yrs and 12yrs. For each swim at the competition, points are awarded 6 points for 1st, 5 points for 2nd and so on.

ach club competes with other clubs in the same division, there are 3 heats held in March/April, with the final held in June/July each year. In divisions 2 and 3, if a club wins their final then they are promoted to the next division up. The winner of the division 1 final goes on to represent Durham & District at the National finals.

Northumberland & Durham and District or N & Ds
Age Group Championships are normally held over 2 weeks in March. Times are set for these championships and swimmers must prove they have swum faster than the entry times.

Gala Information

Attending Galas
Swimmers - don’t forget to take the following items to each gala:
Swimming costume, swimming cap (if you wear one), goggles, 2 towels, T-shirt, tracksuit bottoms & pool shoes/clean trainers - to keep you warm between events, non fizzy drinks, a packed lunch and snacks if the gala lasts all day. Please remember valuable items are taken at your own risk and REMEMBER YOUR ENTRY CARDS!

Gala Entries
Competitions are posted on the poolside notice board with an application form for swimmers to ad their names to. Once the gala organisers have scheduled the events swimmers will be notified if they have been selected. Check out the events calendar and the poolside notice board for future galas.

If there are no official Alnwick Dolphins representatives at the galas it would be helpful if parents kept a record of swimming times including the venue and date achieved. At each subsequent gala a swimmers fastest time will have to be submitted with each new entry for each swim.

Warm Up
Swmmers need to be aware of the time the warm up session from either the
competition details provided by their coach or usually via. the Hosting Clubs website.
Swimmers are expected to be at the venue in good time for the start of warm-up.
Warm-up sessions take place before the start of each morning and afternoon session.