The results for Saturday 15 November 2025 have been published here.
It was yet another beautiful day at Drummoyne Pool — cloud clearing and a sunny arvo to top it off.
What a cracking Saturday! A big welcome to Eloise Tizzone who wandered down with her dad for a St Mark’s warm-up and promptly joined the Club — jumped straight into a 30m back time trial and a 4x20m Medley time trial like she’d been doing it for years. Spotting new faces is the best part of the season, so if you saw her grinning on pool‑deck, say g’day next week.
We had a few technical gremlins with the race starter and timing system this week — Margaret Joy endured two aborted starts (legendary stoicism), and a handful of swimmers ended up with DNS / 0.00 results where no timekeeper was available. Thanks to the refs and David Parker for wrestling the kit back into shape; those timing gremlins won’t beat us for long.
Perpetual trophy action
Heats were run today for the Tom Brown 50m Backstroke handicap — Phil Hayward took out heat 1 with his customary steely finish, and Yunos Yaqub surprised a few folks by taking heat 2. All heat winners progress to the Tom Brown final later in the season, so expect some revenge swims and tactical starts when the finalists meet.
The Five Dock Rotary 200m Individual Medley heats were also on the card. Cara Thompson strode to the win in heat 1 (nice improvement on her recent IM splits) and Liam Gooley led heat 2. Those heat winners will be lining up for the medley final — the trophy final is coming up on the calendar, so keep training those transitions. Plenty of points and bragging rights to be claimed.
Handicap Point Score — battles worth a beer (or a lamington)
Plenty of gamesmanship and close finishes in the handicap heats today — the handicap format keeps our lanes chaotic and entertaining. A few highlights and ongoing storylines:
- Seniors (Men): It’s a three-way scrum at the top — Thomas Pacey, Christian Taylor and Duncan Lyon are inseparable on points right now (they’re effectively breathing down each other’s necks). With Thomas, Christian and Duncan all trading wins and seconds earlier this season, expect more tactical finishes and thumb‑wars over every point.
- Under 12 & Under 10: Edward Pacey continues to rack up the Under‑10 points and is looking comfortable on top, but Harry Finn and Oscar Sullivan are never far behind — those youngsters are having proper battles in the sprints and the long stuff. Oscar’s been consistent across medleys and relays; Harry’s notch of Geoff Roper and long distance trophies last season shows he’s not shy of the big events.
- Under 14 boys: Alex Sellars is leading the charge with a solid points buffer, but Lincoln van Loo and Jude Wilson aren’t giving the lead away easily — that group is the season’s “who’s going to blink first” bunch.
- Under 8s & Under 6s: Georgina Aitken and Anna Rapisarda are doing very well in the littlies’ ranks — Anna’s total is surging after today’s wins. Those under‑8s are absolute pocket rockets.
- Seniors (Women): Jenny Gaskin sits nicely on top of the seniors’ ladies’ scoreboard, with Suzie Aitken and Emilie Krog chasing hard. The veteran vs newer‑arrival dynamic makes the Saturday mornings extra fun.
Most of these series still have a heap of meets left — there’s plenty of points to be gobbled up before trophies are handed out, so don’t put the goggles away yet.
Notable swims & personal‑goal shoutouts
- Phil Hayward: took the Tom Brown backstroke heat and was, as ever, race‑referee‑level composed. Also proudly chasing his personal goal of “eat chilli eggs at Jen the barristers” — priorities, Phil.
- Cara Thompson: won her Five Dock Rotary IM heat and trimmed her IM PB from recent swims — nailed one of her personal goals of finishing strong.
- Aodhan Perkins, Fergus & Hugo Beresford‑Harvey: great form in the longer handicap races — Fergus had a rapid 100m and big points in the sprints; Hugo showed excellent pacing in the medley heat.
- Young guns — Alex, Luke, Jaxon, Arden, Neave and the Allan twins: solid swims across the board. Special mention to Neave Murdoch winning her 100m heat and continuing to pile up Under‑12 points — she’s looking very sharp in all strokes.
- Eloise Tizzone: welcome again — nailed her first Club time trials with a cheeky grin. She’s going to make St Mark’s carnival organisers nervous in a nice way.
- Margaret Joy: two aborted starts and still turned up to race — if grit was a trophy, she’d win the perpetual one.
Family, school and rivalry notes
DASC is still the place to see family dynasties in action — the Pacey clan (Thomas, Jessica, Edward, Arthur) were out in force, as were the Rapisardas, Taylors and Sellars. Christian Taylor back from the U.S. and mixing with William and Lukas keeps the family rivalry spicy; expect sibling banter on the deck for the rest of the season. School affiliations are showing too (Saint Ignatius’ College, Rosebank, Russell Lea and others) — remember, they’re swimming for DASC, not the school colours, but schoolmates make natural rivals and training partners.
Timing gremlins & housekeeping
We had a few lanes with no timekeeper or dodgy starts; some finish times were recorded as 0.00 or negative (those lanes were noted as DNS or DQ where appropriate). Race officials have recorded placings where needed, and David Parker and the timing crew will be doing their usual wizardry to fix the kit before next Saturday. If you had a VOID or NT next to your name today, don’t despair — the ref’s placings are final for points this week but we’ll sort proper times for your PB lists.
What’s coming up & projections
- Tom Brown final (50m back) — winners from today’s heats will meet in the final later in the season (mark your calendars and keep practicing the underwaters and finishes).
- Five Dock Rotary 200m IM final is on the calendar — Cara, Liam and the other heat winners will be the ones to watch; expect tougher tactics and sprint finishes.
- The Molly Wark & Les Henry U/10 and 35 & Over 100m series start in a couple of weeks — lots of fresh points and youth trophies up for grabs.
- Handicap Point Score series — it’s still wide open in many age groups. If you’re chasing a trophy you’ve got time (and Saturdays) to claw points back — see the scoreboard and pick your events wisely.
Final word: brilliant turnout, fierce but friendly racing, a few technical hiccups that didn’t dampen the fun, and a whole lot of smiles. If you raced, cheered, time‑kept or brought biscuits, you made the morning. See you next Saturday — more points, more pranks, more PBs.
Race Secretary (aka the person trying to remember everyone’s handicap)
Note: The above meet report was automatically generated using an artificial intelligence tool. While care is taken to ensure that the information in this report appears reasonable, please contact racesecretary@drummoyneswimclub.com.au if you would like to provide any feedback on this content.