On Saturday 10th June, as England were beating Paraguay, Stourbridge S.C.’s Ross League team made its way to the final, at Gloucester’s fine GL1 centre. Support for the team was magnificent, and we even welcomed a special supporter, Club Chairperson, Jane Campbell.

The team were all decked out in their bright yellow t-shirts and really looked the part. Whereas all previous rounds of the Ross PGL League had involved only three or four teams, there were 8 competing at the final. They were Gloucester, Ross, Worcester, Ledbury, Abertillery, Cheltenham, Haden Hill and Stourbridge.

Things started well for us with wins in events one, two, four and five. Jon Lapka and Sarah Pearson both won their 13 years 50m butterfly, Becky Irwin won the girls 12 years 25m backstroke a second ahead of the rest and Jake Knight won the boys 11 years 25m breaststroke despite swimming up two age groups, well done Jake!

Grace Rollason achieved our first speeding ticket of the evening in the girls’ 13 years 50m backstroke, recording a time of 37.83. The only other speeding ticket of the evening for a Stourbridge swimmer went to Jon Lee in the boys’ 13 years 50m freestyle, in a time of 31.33. Well done to you both.

Still in the first half of the gala (boy was it a long night!) Kate Fletcher was just touched out in the girls 11 years 25m free to take second place by 7 hundredths of a second. Tom Asprey also took second place in the boys 11 years 25m fly, having swum in the Districts earlier that day in his best stroke, backstroke.

Onto a relay now and the girls 13 years medley team of Grace Rollason, Lara Tipper, Becky Shaw and Sarah Pearson. A lovely swim from the girls to take second place, with the first three teams in this race all within eight tenths of one another.

Next up came a little run of second places from Stourbridge swimmers, Emily Tiano in the girls 10 years 25m free, Dan Sheppard and Phoebe Facer in the 12 years 25m breaststroke and the mixed 9 years free relay team of George Hammersley, Kim Yates, Megan Dudley and Jake Knight. This saw us into the half way point of the gala in fourth place. The points at this stage were as follows:

Cheltenham    163
Abertillery      145
Ledbury         137
Stourbridge    127
Worcester      123
Haden Hill      112
Ross               103
Gloucester       75

It was close between Worcester and us but it was difficult to swim against them as such, as they were on the opposite side of the pool. Moving on and the girls’ 11/u medley team managed a good second place, they were Becky Cole, Alice Maycock, Kate Fletcher and Steph Piper. In the boys 12 years 25m fly Jake Seed swam to take 2nd place, behind a rather bemusing swimmer from Ledbury who did frontcrawl in this race! I was worried Jake would get confused and start swimming frontcrawl too but he stuck it out to finish in second just three hundredths of a second behind the Worcester swimmer!

Unfortunately we then had our only DQ of the night for a swimmer whose goggles came off on the dive and they used their hands to remove them from their face. Swimmers! Don’t do this! If your goggles come off you must leave them, the only stroke you can legally remove them on is freestyle, but even then, its not worth it! Don’t do it!! This cost us 4 points!

Onto the freestyle relays now, and Stourbridge performed well with three third places and one win. The winning relay team was the 12 years girls and they were Becky Shaw, Lara Tipper, Emma Rhodes and Becky Irwin. This was a fantastic swim girls well done. The girls’ 11 years free team came third and they were Kate Fletcher, Steph Piper, Emily Tiano and Becky Cole. The girls 13 years free team also came third; Becky Shaw, Grace Rollason, Lara Tipper and Sarah Pearson and finally the cannon team also came third who were; Jake Knight, Kim Yates, Luke Shaw, Emily Tiano, Tom Asprey, Becky Cole, Jake Seed, Becky Shaw, Jon Lapka and Sarah Pearson.

Final points and positions were:

1st   Cheltenham   336
2nd  Abertillery    311
3rd   Ledbury        265
4th   Worcester     247
5th   Stourbridge 243
6th   Ross              218
7th   Haden Hill     201
8th   Gloucester    156

Other valued members of the team on the night were:

Boys: James Stevenson, Stephen Cole, Josh Evans, Tom Pearson, Callum Faulkner, William Rennicks, Jake Sawyer, Elliott Barnbrook, Scott Janes, Jack Whyle, Tim Wooliscroft and Tom Green.
Girls: Molly Whyle, Beth Hickman, Becky Bradley, Emily Sheppard and Hayley Cussons.

It was a great event for all involved and a well deserved 5th place for the team. Well done to all the swimmers that swam, and apologies to those that had to be left out on this occasion due to the league’s restrictions on numbers. Thank you also to those swimmers that came over from Coventry to swim in the gala.

Thank you to all the parents that came to the gala and supported the team on the poolside and the officials who represented Stourbridge (Richard Stevenson – starter, Anne Pollard – referee, Sian Hickman – timekeeper and Bernard Simkins – timekeeper). Biggest thank you of all though to Maria, Pete and Toni for their help on the poolside, particularly during a rather manic warm up! That’s the Ross League over for another year!

Becky Simkins