It was that time of year again, Worcester Winter League final time, a long stretch on the poolside at Droitwich was ahead.  This year the B team had managed to get into the B final, the first time since I have been team manager.  This was fantastic news for the team and swimmers, not so great news for our annual Worcester Winter League pub lunch, but on this occasion I suppose I’ll let the swimmers off, seeing as they did so well.

Heading into the final our closest competition was clearly going to be Perry Beeches A, who had beaten us in the first round.  However, with a full team out this time around we knew we had a better chance of coming out on top, all that was needed were some fantastic performances.

We arrived early and set up camp “around the corner”, with the big guns (Jason and Stew) adorning the area with the club banner and settling in for the day.  After a bit of a motivational team talk (“I’m not interested in the name on the cap, it’s the S that counts”) we were ready to give it our best shot.

Well…what can I say, everyone that swam was phenomenal.  If I went through the gala race by race then this report would be a tad lengthy, so instead take a look at this list of first places for yourself:

BOYS: Matt Jones (13/u backstroke and freestyle), Jarryd Aston-Baugh (11/u freestyle), Joe Horne (15/u breaststroke), Callum Faulkner (11/u backstroke), Jon Lee (15/u butterfly) and George Hammersley (11/u butterfly).

GIRLS: Harriet Warner (15/u freestyle), Hayley Davis-Moore (13/u and 15/u backstroke), Becky Evans (Open butterfly and freestyle), Shannon O’Brien (11/u freestyle), Beth Davies (13/u butterfly), Fran Pinchin (13/u freestyle), Zoe Hunter (Open breaststroke), Ellis Ward-Brennan (Open backstroke) and Becky Shaw (15/u breaststroke).

The relays were just as good with Stourbridge B winning the 11s medley and freestyle relays (Shannon O’Brien, Meg Dudley, Becky Bradley, Callum Faulkner, George Hammersley, Jarryd Aston-Baugh), the 13s medley and freestyle relays (Hayley Davis-Moore, Fran Pinchin, Beth Davies, Joe Birnie, Matt Jones, Tom Pearson) and the 15s medley and freestyle relays (Becky Shaw, Harriet Warner, Fran Pinchin, Beth Davies, Alex Thom, Jon Lee, Joe Horne).

Although the open swimmers didn’t quite manage to win their relays they were second in both and never far behind with some quality one length swims and takeovers coming from Ellis Ward-Brennan, Zoe Hunter, Becky Evans, Sam Rowbotham, Jamie Roome, Jon Lee and Alex Thom.

With Stourbridge B achieving 24 wins and 12 second places in 40 events, victory was never really in any doubt, and the final points were

Stourbridge B               219

Perry Beeches A         170

Broadway                  140

Ross                            106

Oldbury                        105

Perry Beeches B           92.

Swimmer of the gala is quite difficult to choose, so I’m afraid joint honours will have to go to Hayley Davis-Moore and Beth Davies.  Hayley for winning the 100m backstroke, twice, and once by seven seconds. Beth for being such a star, winning her 100m butterfly by seven seconds and for swimming up in the 15s freestyle relay.  Beth went first in this relay and didn’t let me down by doing a cracking split and touching first, despite being a lot younger than some of her competition.

A massive win and justly deserved for the “B” team who have swam so well in all the rounds and have never let me down.  The whole team consisted of quality swimmers who have absolutely nothing “B” about them. Roll on next year….