Age Groups

The swimming year is a calendar year not a school year. The easiest way to think about it is to simply ignore the month the child was born in and concentrate on the year. E.g. If a child was born on 22/11/94 then they would normally swim as a ten-year-old throughout 2004. However there are ongoing changes to age group swimming and many galas are now ‘age as at date of swim’ or age at the end of a series of league galas.

A & B Grade galas and Speeding Tickets

These can be a very confusing aspect of galas.  Bigger swimming clubs tend to have enough swimmers to have more than one team for each age group.  Without B grade galas give the slower swimmers would not get a chance to swim in galas.  Speeding tickets and cut-off times are the usual method used to make sure clubs don't simply put their fastest swimmers into every single gala.  Sutton is a relatively small club and only has one team at present and this is why we sometimes struggle with 'speeding tickets' and disqualifications in these galas.

There are three divisions and six galas during the year.  The clubs have to be affiliated to a Sports Centre.  Age groups 9, 11, 13, 15 and Open. 

Notts & District League

Minor Gala League

A spring league of three galas and a similar Autumn league. Spring Age groups 10,11,12, &13. Autumn Age groups 9,10,11 & 12. One division of twenty-four teams from Nottinghamshire. “Age” is set as the age on the date of the third gala.