On Saturday 4^th March, the B team swam in the second round of the Ross League, at Worcester pool.  Yes, this was our home gala, and there were no other 25m pools available closer! 

First off…big THANK YOU to all the Stourbridge representatives that helped this gala run smoothly!  I think a big pat on the back must go to Tony Seed for his battle with the PA system.  For those of you that were not there, he ultimately used a radio style headphone set, which meant that he could only be heard if he stood in an area of about one metre square, and did not move for the entire gala!  Unfortunately, the aforementioned one metre square was right at the bottom end of the pool by the door where you come in, so not only could Tony not see any of the gala, or the spectators, we had to move the recorders desks down to him. Round of applause for Tony please! 

And so onto the swimming!  Our competition on the night came in the form of Pershore, Ludlow and Wyre Forest.  As with any gala where there are only four teams, things can get pretty exciting, and Saturday was no exception!  It was difficult to be excited at first, as due to the problems with the PA system, no one had a clue where we stood points wise, or where we had been coming in each race.   As the Ross league galas are governed by times and swimming too fast leads to no points, where the swimmer actually finishes in the race is usually not reflective of their actual placing.  However, the PA system was up and running again by event 20, and we found out that Stourbridge were lying in second place after ten events, only one point ahead of Wyre Forest.  Ludlow were out in front, but still only five points ahead of us. 

In the first quarter of the gala we had four wins, two of these coming from ‘A’ teamers, drafted in to help us out due to the usual suspects being unavailable.  In the essence of the competition we swum them in their weakest strokes, but still Jon Lapka and Tom Asprey got us maximum points from their swims, Jon in the 13/u 50m butterfly, and Tom in the 11/u breaststroke.  Well done boys!  The other two first places came from Lauren Gwilt in the 13/u 50m backstroke, a clear winner, and the girls 12/u medley team, who convincingly won their event by four seconds. (Ruth Edwards, Phoebe Facer, Hayley Cussons and Becky Irwin).

 Moving into the second quarter of the gala and the nine year old girsl continued their success from the John Vaughan trophy gala, coming home two seconds ahead of the rest of the field to win their medley relay (Rebecca Bradley, Beth Hickman, Megan Dudley and Molly Whyle).  Next winner was Steph Piper in the 12/u 25m fly.  It was a very close race but Steph held on at the end with a powerful finish to take the four points.  Straight from one win into the next and we had a double victory with the 13/u boys and girls medley relays.  Both teams won convincingly, and they were; Boys: Tim Wooliscroft, Tom Green, Jon Lapka and Jon Lee, girls: Lauren Gwilt, Lara Tipper, Becky Shaw, Sarah Pearson.

On the verge of the half way point now, and a fine win from Phoebe Facer in the 12/u 25m breaststroke, who just held the Ludlow swimmer on the touch to take maximum points for us.  So… the points at half way.  Ludlow still leading with 77 points, Stourbridge second with 75 points, Wyre Forest in third with 69 points and Pershore in fourth with 54 points.  Well, now Mark and I started to sniff victory, with some strong events ahead of us, we saw no reason why we couldn’t take the first spot from Ludlow. 

We weren’t disappointed, into the next ten events and Stourbridge saw no less than five wins and three second places!  Maximum points were won by Tom Green and Becky Shaw in the 13/u 50m breaststroke (Tom swimming up an age group in this competition) and Becky Irwin in the 12/u 25m freestyle.  The girls 11/u medley relay (Becky Cole, Alice Maycock, Steph Piper and Jess Hickman) and the boys 9yrs free relay (Josh Evans, James Stevenson, Stephen Cole and George Hammersley) also stormed to victory.  Special mention here to George who actually dived in well in second place and put in a fantastic leg to take the lead for us.

 Now it started to get interesting, the points were announced and after 39 events, Stourbridge were now in the lead with 109 points.  However, Ludlow were biting at our heels with 106 points and Wyre Forest were not far behind with 95 points.  We rallied the troops and made sure that every swimmer knew how close it was, so we gave it our best shot going into the last part of the gala. 

The swimmers couldn’t have done any better for us than they did in this last section of the gala, with two people trying so hard they went too fast and got speeding tickets!  Becky Cole in the 11/u 25m backstroke and Emily Tiano in the 10/u 25m breaststroke both received speeding tickets, but no worries girls.  We’re pleased you tried your best and hopefully they were PBs for you both! 

First individual places came from Jon Lee and Lara Tipper, 13/u 50m free, Jake Seed, 12/u 25m fly, and Tom Pearson, 10/u 25m breaststroke.  Mention here to Hayley Cussons who although given second place in her race swam her heart out in a really tough race, with the top three girls all within seven hundredths of each other! 

So we were into the freestyle relays now, and were oblivious to the points as no further announcements had been made.  The girls 11/u, 12/u, 13/u and boys 13/u all made it a double whammy by winning their free relays as well as their medley relays earlier in the evening.

 As we went into the last race, the 10 x 1 freestyle cannon, excitement had reached fever pitch, especially as Tony announced that the result could effect the outcome of the gala!  We had a slightly shaky start to the race, especially as Ludlow had some very strong nine year olds, and we were lying in third place after the first four swimmers.  However, Becky Cole and Jake Seed put in two fantastic legs to get us the lead and from there on it was Stourbridge all the way, we won the race by three seconds!  The cannon team were George Hammersley, Beth Hickman, Bradley Windley Bridgewater, Kim Yates, Tom Asprey, Becky Cole, Jake Seed, Becky Irwin, Jon Lapka and Sarah Pearson. 

The final results of the gala were: 

1st   Stourbridge                          160 points

2nd  Ludlow                                 148 points

3rd   Wyre Forest                         142 points

4th   Pershore                              108 points

Other members of the team were Luke Shaw (fab one length fly Luke, thanks for giving it a go!), William Rennicks, Paul Chandler, Elliott Barnbrook, Jake Sawyer, Scott Janes, Dan Sheppard, Jack Whyle, Emily Sheppard and Beth Hendy. 

It was a fantastic gala to watch and Mark and I were very proud of all the swimmers who competed.  As well as some fine wins there was a fantastic team spirit on the night, with everyone supporting their team mates.  Thank you to all swimmers, and lets see if you can pull it out the bag again for the next round, which is at Abertillery!