We hope you are all well and adjusting to a new way of life.
Senior water polo and Masters swimming members should have heard from their team managers regarding monthly subs.
If you haven’t heard from them or have any questions please contact us (selecting the relevant dropdown option).
Sadly we are now suspending Penguin swimming and water polo training until further notice.
Swim England’s latest statement says:
“Having further reviewed the guidance, it is Swim England’s interpretation that club activity falls into the ‘public gathering’ category and therefore it is strongly advising clubs to consider cancelling or postponing activity – including events – until the end of May.”
We are very much looking forward to starting our activities again at the first opportunity. Take care, and do not hesitate to get in touch with other Penguins on WhatsApp or email, if you need anything, such as talking about front crawl technique, the ideal ball pressure, gossip, or other silly stuff.
Please bear with us while we work through the financial implications of the situation in relation to your subscription payments.
If you have questions please contact your relevant team manager : Sue, Claudio, Emma, Grimbo or Johnny.
Best wishes
Louis
Louis Lemieux
President, West London Penguin Swimming & Water Polo Club
Following tonights’ Government announcement, the Penguin Committee has decided to postpone* the Club’s AGM on Wednesday 18th March 2020.
Until the AGM can be rearranged the existing Committee will remain in place to manage the running of the Club.
In the absence of the AGM at this time, we wish to report that the Club remains robust financially and we are deferring the changes in subscription rates for senior members that were approved at the 2019 AGM. This reflects our current uncertainty regarding pool closures in the coming weeks. We will review our position as circumstances change.
Regarding training sessions, we are closely monitoring guidance from the Government, Swim England and our pool/school operators and we will maintain sessions whilst guidance say that it is permitted to do so.
Swim England have just published a statement containing this:
“At present the Government has not closed schools or restricted school activity and therefore we do not see any reason why clubs should not continue with their training programmes in their own environment within the guidelines of the facility.”
*The Club rules governing our decision are:
Rule 9.1 the AGM shall be held in March.
Rule 13.1 The Committee shall have power to make, repeal and amend such by-laws as they may, from time to time, consider necessary for the well being of the Club. Such by laws, repeals and amendments shall have effect until set aside by the Committee or at a General Meeting.
Yesterday the Committee made a new by-law allowing for the eventuality of postponing the AGM due to coronavirus COVID-19.
On 2 February our Hillingdon Penguin Under 16 team had their second London Water Polo League tournament in Division 3, at Whitgift School in Croydon. We were simultaneously hosting an Under 12 LWPL tournament in Uxbridge so Sam McHugh stepped up and did a fantastic job of managing the U16 team.
Two of our players, Charlie Richardson and Dan Murphy, also gained some valuable experience as table officials looking after the scoreboard.
The final scores were:
Game 1: Kingston 4-7 Hillingdon Penguin (friendly game as Chelmsford didn’t show)
Game 2: Hillingdon Penguin 2-8 Beckenham
Game 3: Hillingdon Penguin 9-7 Haringey
Coach Adam Maidment said, “It was another outstanding performance from everyone today. We not only attacked with pace, but also defended with strength and power. Jenson and Will won my MVPs for the tournament, by tightening up the defence and sparking quick counter attacks. Still lots to work on in training, but the effort and desire from everyone was phenomenal. Well done all!”
Many thanks to everyone , especially Adam, Sam, Youguang (who took these great photos), Jez and all the fabulous parental support.
Looks like you all enjoyed it.
Things got pretty busy for us at the end of last year so post is a little overdue, but they say that good news is worth waiting for, so we are delighted to announce that the winner of the Jack Petchey Award for November 2019 was Molly Payne.
Molly is with our Hillingdon water polo juniors and works hard in every training session and gives 100% in her swimming. She always pushes herself to the limit and helps others in their training.
It’s great to see Molly enjoying our sport so much, with her play improving as her confidence grows, and showing herself to be a tough and popular player.
The grant we receive from the Jack Petchey Foundation was used towards a new trophy and pool time for our Friendly Tournament that took place on 1st December.
The trophy is for the best development team – it was awarded for the first time at the Friendly Tournament, next at our Christmas Fun Tournament and will be awarded in future at all Fun Tournaments and friendlies at Uxbridge, to show the importance the Club places on developing players.
The Friendly Tournament was a big success (read about it here), not least with the Hillingdon Under-19s. On the day Molly said, ‘This is brilliant, I’m so excited to compete. I’m loving this!’
We are grateful to the Jack Petchey Foundation for their support in making the Friendly Tournament possible.
