Little Pershore take on the elite.
27 Jan 2013
Little Pershore take on the elite.
Last Saturday thirty four members of Pershore Swimming Club travelled to Wolverhampton to compete in the annual Stourbridge Club's inter-club friendly gala, taking on clubs three and four times larger than themselves showing determination through to the very last event.
The coaches from the club took the opportunity of selecting a number of swimmers who haven't competed for the club before and even though other clubs were sporting their "A" teams Pershore members set an astonishing 49 personal bests (pb's).
Being a team orientated gala there were plenty of relays for the young squad to get their teeth into with the 9yr girls off to a fine start finishing 2nd in the 4 x 25m medley made up of Olivia Howard (back 22.48 pb), Charlotte Downey (breast 25,45), Tamara Marsden (free 20.90 pb) and Megan Annis (free 17.51). The 9yr boys quickly followed suit taking 3rd place in their relay being Hamish Cross (back 22.10 pb), Luke Betteridge (breast 26.56), Cameron Leech (free 18.15 pb), Patrick Heeks (free 18.83 pb).
The 9 yr old quartets repeated these successes by taking two 3rd places in the 4 x 25m freestyle events with Olivia Howard setting another pb with 19.79 and Luke Betteridge swimming a storming last leg for his pb. With Individual swims and relay races from Tessa Carr (only one hundredth from her pb), Emily Burton enjoyed a good night with a pb in the second breast stroke leg of the girls 15/U medley with 21.08 and 45.66 in the individual 50m breaststroke event. Rebecca Phillips enjoyed the same success in the girls 11/U 50 breaststroke with 53.42.
In the girls open 4 x 25m medley relay both Alex Dobell (back 18.18) and Helen Annis (breast 19.00) set new pbs with Dobell setting herself another in the free style relay with 15.73 whilst in the equivalent boy's relay Angus Jones (back 16.33). Meanwhile team mates Ella Spencer and Drew Jones set pb's in the 15/U backstroke with 38.11 and 38.40 respectively. With Jasmine Taite, Holly Winkley, Melissa Radley, Lizzie Vizard, Megan Reeves, Katie Sharratt all playing their part the girls were well pleased with their evening's swims.
A superb 1st place came from the 9yr olds again this time in a mixed 4 x 25m free relay with Luke Betteridge bringing the team of Rebecca Phillips, Izzie Cumming and Downey home in a time of 1:16.02. The boys 11/U were not to be outdone in their 4 x 25m free style relay taking 2ndplace with Hamish Cross (19.11 pb) Chris Vizard (16.38) Simon Sweatman (14.40 pb) and Josh Sharratt (16.75). With Josh Lane taking a good 5th place in a highly competitive boys 13/U freestyle in 33.66 and together with Jack Betteridge (back) and Benjamin Clarke (free 16.78) setting pb's in the boys 13/U 4 x 25 medley there was plenty of support from team mates Callum Sanderson and Michael Evans gaining pb's themselves in the boy's 13/u 50m back (41.51) and 15/U 50m free (31.03) respectively , All who competed in either individual or relay events more than proved club spirit was there in abundance with evidence many were setting pb's in both.
In the individual events a personal best came almost immediately with ten year old Simon Sweatman taking 1st place in the second event recording 30.39 in the 50m freestyle, followed in the very next event with another 1st place this time in the 13 and under girls (13/U) 50m fly coming the way of thirteen year old Tazmin Pugh in 31.04. Swimming up in the open age group (16yrs and above) Pugh went on to take 2nd place in the 100m backstroke before taking 1st place in the girls 15/U 50m free with 29.60 and 1st once again in the 15/U butterfly 31.86.
There was a great winning performance from Drew Jones in the 13/U 50m breaststroke with a time of 42.11 whilst Josh Sharratt (11) took 2nd in the boys 11/U 50m backstroke and 3rd in the 11/U 50m fly. At the end of the day Pershore just couldn't hold onto 4th place which would have been a great result against the opposition of Stourbridge, City of Coventry and Blythe Barracudas (Birmingham) and just being pipped by Kingsbury (Birmingham) in the final lap. Nevertheless beating opposition of the likes of Camp Hill Edwardians and Perry Beeches was no mean feat and invaluable to the coaches in their help to pick teams for the forthcoming busy schedule of friendlies and league matches.
Ian Pugh, photo.