Clevedon Tigersharks warmed up for a Cotswold series gala at Strode Road on Saturday 14th January by swimming the 200m Backstroke Club Championship. Some impressive performances were headed by a Championship Best Time from Steve Bowen who won the Under 16's title, on the touch from Gary Carpenter, in a time of 2:32.04 minutes.

In the gala proper, an illness ravaged team did well to claim third place, several swimmers getting up from their sickbeds to swim for the team. The gala quickly split into a race for first and second place contested by Cinderford and Lydney and a race for third place between Clevedon and Bristol Henleaze. Thanks to a solid Relay performance Clevedon bagged the third spot.

1st Cinderford 154 points
2nd Lydney 144 points
3rd Clevedon 113 points
4th Bristol Henleaze 105 points

Individual wins went to Tom Riddell, Jamie Gould and Heather Jones. There were no fewer than 8 relay victories.
Personal best times were achieved by Tom Riddell (2), Lindsey Allen (2), Jamie Gould (3), Dannielle Appleford, Bethan Clinton (2), Louisa Arnold (2), Stephanie Reynolds, Paddy Trower (2), Amy Sykes, Dan Lewis, Charlotte Powell (2) and Sam Thornton.

A lot of Clevedon's points were gained by swimmers swimming in a higher age group and the numbers of PB's reflects the effort that was put into all the races.

Graham Feboul