10 Sep 2010

Pershore Swimming Club's finest hour.

 

Excitement and trepidation filled the Pershore Swimming Club camp as they travelled to Wolverhampton at the weekend for the Nuneaton & District Junior League division three finals. The top six teams from an eighteen strong division were competing for the top four promotion places, the club having only entered the league this year.  It was a tough ask as most of the other teams were three or four times the size and sporting swimmers who had won place medals at the recent British Age Group Championships, but head coach Tom Naughton had felt a vibrancyof optimism eminating from the squad and he knew he could count on them to give of their best.  A new kit was worn for the occasion sponsored by 'Snape Construction' & 'Taylor-Cook Construction'.

 

Once again the the stage was set by Tazmin Pugh when winning the first event the 10/u 50m free in a new division record time of 31.56 her first of three individual records of the day.  Excitement followed only a few minutes later with Tyler Mclean winning the 9yr 25m breast again in a record time of 20.28 with yet another 1^st place and 6pts coming from the boys 11/u 4 x 1 Medley Relay team of Joseph Doyle, Drew Jones; Adam Palin and Michael Evans.  In this first period ten year old Drew Jones above  having recorded 3^rd place in the 50 free went even better to gain 1^st place in his favoured event the 10/u 50m breast recording 46.04.  

 

In the very next event the girls 9yr 4 x 1 Medley Relay Amy Weston, Beth Snape, Jasmine Taite and Hannah Simister surpassed themselves coming 2^nd 1:32.07.  These fine results had placed the club 1^st overall by the quarter stage, though it couldn't be closer with 45pts, City of Hereford 44pts; Blyth Barracudas from Solihull 42 pts; Oldbury 41pts; Tamworth 40pts and Newport ( Shropshire ) 37pts.

 

Both the boys and girls 10/u Medley Relay teams in winning during the next session took home two special divisional relay trophies. The girls made up of Taite; Pugh; Hannah Kenwright and Indi C-Miles, whilst the boys were Doyle, Mclean; Jones and Jack Betteridge.   In this second session Harry Sykes set another individual divisional league record when winning the 12/u 50m Breaststroke in a great personal best time of  37.55.  Two events later in the 10/u boys of Mclean; Doyle; Betteridge; and Jones brought home the maximum 6pts and setting a division 3 league record in a time of 1:08.34. Even the City of Hereford club had obviously come at full strength and continued to record good results and by the half way point had increased their lead to be on 102 pts with Pershore sharing 2^nd place with Blythe Barracudes both on 89 pts whilst Oldbury not far behind on 82pts.

 

With the results still lying in the balance two 2^nd places from Sykes and Mclean in their less favoured free and fly events kept Pershore in the hunt.  It needed a boost and it duly came in the form of Joseph Doyle gaining 1^st place and yet another division record of 40.78 in the 10/u 50m back followed immediately by another record from Tazmin Pugh taking 1^st place in her 50m back of 37.51 five seconds ahead of her nearest rival from Oldbury.   This helped Pershore continue in 2nd place but now sharing with the all conquering division leaders Oldbury on 140 pts just ahead of Barracudes on 137 pts with City of Hereford still in the lead on 151 pts.

 

Coming into the all important last session Angus Jones got the club off to a great start with a 1^st in the boys 11/u breast with 46.72. His brother Drew was in action in the very next event the 8x1 Freestyle Relay (2 boys from each age group) where they gained 1^st place  and another valuable 6 pts.   The last of the individual records on the day came from Pugh when swimming up an age group into the 11/u 50m free setting 31.70 and another maximum 6pts. 

 

With a great 2^nd place from Michael Evans in a time of 35.42 in the 11/u freestyle the spectator gallery knew a few top place positions could just do it.  Once again the boys delivered, this time from the boys 12/u Medley Relay again anchored by Sykes and cheered onto victory by his team-mates in a thrilling finger tip finish against J. Deakin from Oldbury.   In the very last race of the competition although Hereford secured 1^st place finishing with 209 pts on the day the comparatively tiny Pershore club who are renowned for punching above their weight gained the valuable 5pts for finishing 2^nd which meant they also finished 2^nd place on the day on 194 pts just ahead of Oldbury 192 pts; Tamworth 172pts; Blythe Barracudes 171pts and Newport 125pts..  

 

Final positions when taking all the legs into account saw Oldbury taking top spot with 22pts league pts with the City of Herford 2^nd and Pershore 3^rd  both on 21pts and Blythe Barracudes on 20pts, all gaining promotion to division two, whilst Tamworth 19pts and Newport 15pts remain in division three to fight another day. 

 

Apart from Pershore taking more divisional records on the day, some having stood for nine years, than any other club, there were in addition 35 personal best (pb's) from the 51 events from the 28 swimmers and even more heartening was the fact that every relay team recorded quicker times than in any of the previous legs.

 

With the club's well supported annual presentation event later that afternoon at 'Bowl X-reme' in Worcester it was left to club coach Tom Naughton to take breath from all the excitement in congratulating all the swimmers from all four legs on their superb achievement and performances.  There followed the Club Champs presentations followed by pb's and the various swim awards from the last twelve months for everyone in the club with speeches from the junior club captains Katie Sharrat and Harry Sykes and new Chairman Steve Vizard thanking coach Tom and his assistants for their unstinting work during the past year.   

 

It had been a day to remember and coming at the start of the swimming year one not to be forgotten.

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