On Saturday 9^th September the Stourbridge S.C. ‘Diddy’ B-Team competed in the much-anticipated Nuneaton Junior Swimming League Division 3 Final. 

After weeks of preparation over the summer weeks, both in and out of the pool, the team was ready for its biggest challenge so far.  Of the 33 swimmers representing the team at the gala, 15 had never swum competitively prior to the 2006 diddy league season.  It was a massive achievement for the team to reach the final, especially after the team finished second from bottom in this league in 2005.  The most that anyone could have hoped for was that everyone swam to their potential and enjoyed themselves, and we were not to be disappointed.

The team warmed up in lane 5, (a good lane draw here from the team manager, not that I’m taking any of the credit, obviously!).  Then we made our way into the changing rooms, donned wigs and pom-poms and marched around the pool.  The kids looked fantastic, and this did not go unnoticed, as after all 6 teams had paraded, Stourbridge S.C. ‘B’ team were chosen by the league’s sponsors, Swimrite, as the ‘Best Turned Out Team’.  A shield was presented to two of our older swimmers, Dan Sheppard and Becky Irwin, and once it has been engraved will be displayed in our trophy cabinet at Dudley L.C. for everyone to have a look at. 

So, after much jubilation at being chosen as the most attractive team, it was time to prove ourselves in the pool!  Things got off to a great start, with Beth Hendy and Jarryd Aston-Baugh in the 10 years 50m freestyle events.  Both swimmers did PB’s, with Jarryd’s particularly significant, knocking 2.5 seconds off his previous best to finish 3^rd in a time of 37.86!  Beth also finished third and this was a great start for the team.   

Rebecca Bradley finished fourth in a very tight race, the girls 9 years 25m breaststroke.  The second placed and sixth placed swimmers were only separated by one second in this race, but Rebecca proved herself with a personal best, well done!  Tom Warner also swam a personal best time in the boys’ version of this event, great stuff, I can’t ask for anything more! 

The next stars of the gala were again ten year olds, except this time it is Emily Sheppard and Connor Meehan.  Both swimmers swam 2.5s quicker than their previous personal bests in the 10 years 50m breaststroke, Emily to take fourth place and Connor an impressive second place, fantastic swims from both of you.

Not to be left out the 9 year old girls showed their talent in both of their relays.  The medley team of Beth Hickman, Becky Bradley, Hannah Irwin and Emily Bennett took second place, behind a very strong Northampton B team.  The freestyle relay team of Hannah Irwin, Megan Dudley, Kay Bennett and Emily Bennett also took second place behind the Warley Wasps side.  The Stourbridge girls, although second, were a clear eight seconds ahead of the rest of the field!  Girls in both of these relays you were eight seconds quicker than you have ever gone before!  This is amazing! Well done, this is all credit to the hard work of all six girls. 

Time for some of the older swimmers to have some success now and it was the turn of Phoebe Facer who came second in the 12 years 50m breaststroke.  This was closely followed by a third place for Dan Sheppard in the boys’ version of this event, who also recorded a personal best time, well done Dan. 

Now I think we had got to this point in the gala, and some of the girls must have thought that I wasn’t paying enough attention, or that perhaps some of the parents were nodding off after the early start.  Either way, the girls pulled off not one, not two, not three but FOUR consecutive wins in female events.  Well…that certainly woke us up!  The first three of these were in individual events by Kate Fletcher, and then sisters Hannah and Becky Irwin.  All three girls swam fantastically with personal best times. Kate took victory in the 11s girls 50m butterfly, Hannah in the 9 years girls 25m butterfly and Becky in the 12 years 50m freestyle.  Kate was a clear two seconds ahead of the field in her race, Hannah just touched the Warley Wasps swimmer into second place by two tenths of a second, and Becky similarly pushed the Northampton swimmer into second place by one tenth of a second.  Nail biting stuff, but these were extremely valuable points.  Not content with these three wins, the girls 8 x 1 freestyle relay team stormed to victory.  Those of you that read my reports regularly will know that this is a favourite race of mine, as we were so far unbeaten.  However, most of the competition in the final was unknown to us, and Marc Soulsby had warned me how strong Warley Wasps are.  However, the eight girls did not disappoint, winning the event by two seconds, ahead of second placed Warley Wasps.  The girls in this team were Emily Bennett, Kay Bennett, Emily Sheppard, Beth Hendy, Jessica Hickman, Kate Fletcher, Steph Piper and Becky Irwin, and they were presented with a special trophy for winning this event at the end of the gala.  Once again, after engraving, this will be on display in the Dudley L.C. trophy cabinet. 

After this race, Warley Wasps were leading the gala, with 148 points, Worcester B were in second place with 117 points, and then only fourteen points separated the other four teams.  I fully admit to really wanting to leave the building at this point in time, and for someone else to just let me know what happened afterwards.  I didn’t know whether to jump up and down and scream at the kids whilst brandishing my clipboard, or whether to sit in a quiet (ish) corner and cry.  Needless to say I did the former.   

The swimmers carried on firing out the personal best times, and I believe that over 90% of the events saw S.S.C. swimmers achieve PBs.  Emily Bennett achieved second place in the girls 9 years 25m freestyle, missing out on victory by a mere two hundredths of a second.  Kate Fletcher also gained a second place in her second individual of the gala, the girls 11 years 50m breaststroke, just touched into second by the Worcester B swimmer in a closely fought race.  Hannah Irwin then stepped up to the blocks in the girls’ 10 years 25m butterfly.  Not put off by the fact that she was swimming up an age group, Hannah proved her ability by taking second place in a race she earlier won for the nines.  Fantastic achievement for Hannah, well done! 

Well it was nearly the end of the gala, and I had absolutely no idea where we were coming.  It could have been third; it could quite easily have been sixth, I sort of didn’t want to know, as it almost didn’t seem to matter.  The kids had had such a good time, and everyone was in such high spirits I didn’t want the result of the gala to ruin it!  I was busying myself with my clipboard, trying to figure out where we may have finished in the gala, whilst the swimmers started to swim the last event, the mixed cannon.  This was partly due to anxiety over the result of the gala, and partly due to the fact I just couldn’t bring myself to watch the cannon.  I was too nervous.  I glanced up and spotted we were in second place, ‘excellent’ I thought to myself, didn’t expect us to beat Warley anyway.  Then, I noticed a change in the pitch of the supporters behind me, the screams had become more like wailing, and I was suddenly very aware that all the S.S.C. supporters were on their feet.  Did I dare look at the pool?  Of course I did!  We were swimming past Warley Wasps!  I was on my feet, clipboard/stopwatch/dignity abandoned…shouting at the top of my voice. Then it happened, Dan Sheppard touched in first place.  The team had swum over twelve seconds quicker than ever before, I couldn’t believe it!   

Now I am sure that most of you heard a short time after the end of the gala that Stourbridge B were subsequently disqualified in this event.  You know what…I don’t care!  As far as I am concerned, we showed that we have the best freestyle cannon team in division three of the league.  It would have been nice to have an extra six points at the end of the gala, but seeing as it made no difference to the placings, it really has not been that important.  I am incredibly proud of that team, and every single one of them contributed to that victory!  So here they are - Emily Bennett, Jacob Anson, Beth Hendy, Jarryd Aston-Baugh, Kate Fletcher, Luke Shaw, Becky Irwin and Dan Sheppard. 

The final placings in the gala were announced and were as follows:

 1^st      Warley Wasps                    233 points

2^nd      Worcester B                      184 points

3^rd      Stourbridge B                    163 points

4^th      Nuneaton & Bedworth B      159 points

5^th      Northampton B                  158 points

6^th      Newport                           156 points

This meant that Stourbridge also finished third in the league, and as the top four teams in each division are promoted, Stourbridge ‘Diddy’ B team has been promoted to Division 2 for next year’s competition.  This is fantastic for the club and for the swimmers themselves.  It is going to be tough next year, (I know I said that this year, but now I really mean it) and we need to keep everybody working consistently hard over the next 6 months. 

I would like to make a special mention about a few swimmers in this report.  Firstly, to Lauren Evans, who was possibly the only swimmer not to get her choice of swim on Saturday morning.  A big thank you to her for showing her true team spirit.  Also to the twelve-year-olds in the team, Dan Sheppard, Scott Janes, Jake Sawyer, Jack Whyle, Emma Rhodes, Becky Irwin, Steph Piper and Phoebe Facer, who have just enjoyed their last year in this competition.  We always owe a lot to our older swimmers, who have acted as role models to many of this year’s nine-year old competitors, as well as earning us many points over the series of galas.  Finally I would like to wish a massive good luck to Beth Hickman who swam her last gala with us on Saturday.  Beth has won a place at the Birmingham Royal Ballet School, and will therefore be finishing with competitions for the foreseeable future.  I am sure everyone will join me in wishing her all the best for the future.

Thank you to all the parents for the support you have shown me and I hope that this will continue into next year’s competition and beyond.  Thank you to Pete, Toni, Maria and Glyn for their help on poolside. 

Kids, you’ve done me, the club and all its coaches proud, you should be immensely proud of your achievement.  I hope that this league campaign has been a learning experience for you all, and I hope it has motivated many of you to commit to competitive swimming for the foreseeable future.  I want to see as many of the same faces as possible on the poolside in next year’s galas.

Many thanks,
Becky Simkins
One very happy B Team Manager

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