This year there have been 9 members in the Masters Team. In the 19 to 24 years age group we have Rachel Ingham who has competed for the first time and Chris Wood. Rachel has moved on to university now, but did compete at the National Masters Championships at the end of October. Chris is only doing a few masters events at the moment as he is concentrating on his triathlon events, in which he has just competed at the World Triathlon Championships.

In the 35 to 39 years age group we now have four members competing. There is Karen Driver who has just moved up to this age group this year, along with Philip Croxall, Bob Whittaker and Stephen Smith.

In the 50 to 54 years age group we have Janet Kirk, who has done few events this year. In the 60 to 64 years age group there in Tony Catterall who also has moved up an age group. And finally we have our eldest Club competitor in John Penswick a.k.a. Jack, who competes in the 65 to 69 years age group.

Half way through the year the ASA changed the nature of the 19 to 24 years age group so that girls who are 18 before August would be allowed to compete and therefore the age group was renamed as the Senior Age Group. This was to ensure a continual involvement from the juniors to the seniors.

Way back on 22nd January 4 members of the team travelled to Sheffield’s Ponds Forge International Sports Centre to compete in the Rotherham Open Masters. There was Rachel who competed in her first ever masters competition, along with Karen, Philip and Bob. Between the swimmers they managed 6 first places, 7 second places and 4 third places.

The next competition took place on 25th February at the Broughton Pool, Salford for the Aquabears Masters Meet. We only had three members taking part in this one, Philip, Tony and Jack. Yet despite this there were 10 first places and 3 second places. This was a point’s competition and Tony and Jack won their age groups with Philip finishing second in his.

The team then travelled up to Scotland for the next competition on the 21st and 22nd April to take part in the Scottish Masters Championships at the Tollcross Leisure Centre in Glasgow. The team comprised of Tony, Bob, Karen and Philip who between them managed 10 first places and 3 third places.

On 13th May, Philip and Bob travelled over to Scarborough to take part in the Yorkshire SA Open Masters Championships. They managed 2 firsts, 4 seconds and a third place.

The first big competition of the year took place at the Manchester Aquatics Centre from 16th to 18th June; this was the 2006 British Swimming Masters Long Course Championship. Five members of the Team took part, Tony had 1 first (200m Breaststroke) and 4 second places (1500m Freestyle, 200m Butterfly, 200m Backstroke and 400m Individual Medley), Karen had 2 thirds (1500m and 800m Freestyle) and a 4th place (400m Freestyle), Philip managed a first ever placing of 3rd in 100m Breaststroke along with 2 eights (50m and 200m Freestyle) and a tenth place (100m Freestyle), he even set a new personal best in the 50m Freestyle of 27.98. Bob managed 2 fifth (1500m and 800m Freestyle) and a 7th place (400m Freestyle) whilst Stephen finished 7th in 100m Freestyle.

Nobody travelled to Gateshead on 1st July as this clashed with England playing in the Quarter Finals of the World Cup.

The biggest competition of the year took place from the 3rd to 10th August at Stanford University in San Francisco. It was the 11th World Masters Championships, and this year there was no representatives from Colne, even though Philip and Stephen had shown an interest.

This left a large gap between competitions as the team trained over the summer with the next competition taking place in Scarborough at the beginning of autumn. So on 23rd and 24th September six members of the team took part in the ASA North East Region Masters Championships. The team achieved 12 first places, 7 second places and 3 thirds places over the course of the weekend. But more importantly they found an excellent Italian restaurant in the Old Harbour area of Scarborough by the name of Ask.

The final competition of the year was the ASA National Masters Championships held at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield from Friday, 27th till Sunday, 29th October.

The star performer was Stephen Smith who won Gold in the 100m Freestyle and Bronze in the 50m Freestyle events for the 35 to 39 years age group, equally as impressive was Karen Driver, also in the 35 to 39 years age group, who took Silver in the 1500m Freestyle events.

The first event of the meet was the grueling 1500m Freestyle where Karen Driver finished 2nd in a new personal best time of 19 minutes 27.52 seconds taking 12 seconds off her previous best, and this with a bad shoulder. Also competing was Bob Whittaker who finished 4th in a new personal best of 19 minutes 53.61 seconds in the 35 to 39 years age group and Rachel Ingham swimming in the Senior Age group (18 to 24) who also finished 4th in a personal best time of 21 minutes 49.21 seconds.

Next up was Philip Croxall also swimming in the 35 to 39 years age group who finished a disappointing 11th in the 200m Freestyle with a time of 2 min 22.28 sec.

On the Saturday morning Philip was joined by Stephen Smith in the 50m Freestyle, where Stephen finished 3rd in 25.33 seconds, which was his best time for over 15 years, and Philip was 10th in 27.52, which was also a new personal best.

Saturday afternoon, Karen, Bob and Philip took part in the 400m Freestyle event where Karen finished 5th in 4 min 57.28 sec, Philip finished 9th in 4 min 53.28 sec and Bob in 11th in 5 min 1.57 sec, which was a new personal best.

Sunday morning saw Karen, Rachel and Bob take part in the 800m Freestyle where Karen finished 4th in 10 min 8.34 sec. Bob was 10th in 10 min 32.39 sec and Rachel with a new personal best of 11 min 29.61 sec finished 11th. Straight after the 800m Rachel went into the 50m Breaststroke and finished 10th in 41.18 sec.

Sunday Afternoon saw Stephen triumph in the 100m Freestyle in a personal best equalling time of 54.89 seconds. Philip finished 8th in 59.28 seconds which was also a new personal time.

Next year the season starts a little later with the Rotherham Masters meet taking place on 11th February rather than in January. This gives the team a little longer to get over the excesses at Christmas.

The major competition next year takes place in Kranj, Slovenia (that's next door to Italy) for the European Masters Championships. Several members of the team have expressed an interest.

There is also the Great Britain Masters Championships taking place at the Aquatics Centre, Manchester in June and the ASA National Masters Championships at the end of October at Ponds Forge, Sheffield.