On Saturday 13th May Clevedon Tigersharks competed in the 'B' final of the Cotswold series at Keynsham. Clevedon qualified in first place and so were given the 'honour' of hosting the gala as well as being given pole position in the pool. It would be easy to say that Clevedon won the first two races of the evening and never looked back, eventually running out as winners by 20 points, but this would not do justice to the drama that was to unfold.

Chelsie Kirman and Dan Smith set Clevedon off to a flyer with wins in the first two races, the under 15 100m IM's, and by the tenth race we had an eight point lead. We extended the lead to ten points by the halfway mark, but then started to be caught by a gritty Southwold squad. They reeled us in until the points were level and then Southwold took out a slight lead. Clevedon fears served only to raise adrenaline levels, however, and a streak of winning performances spearheaded by Ben Horner and Laura Neal saw us home, in the final ten races, to a comfortable victory. Clevedon collected the trophy for winning the gala and so the 'B' final of the Cotswold serie shield and celebrated by throwing Chris Neal the team manager into the pool!

Final positions were:-

Clevedon 220
Southwold 200
Street 180
Bristol Henleaze 178
Bristol Central 159
Cirencester 147

There were 8 individual victories and 4 relay team victories from Chelsie Kirman (4), Dan Smith, Bethan Clinton, Matt Morgan, Tom Riddell, Jamie Gould, Stephanie Reynolds, Nick Flower, Dave Stewart (2), Steve Bowen (2), Neil Carpenter (2), Amber Summerell, India Thomas (2), Rosemary Harris, Laura Neal, Ben Horner, Megan Prideaux, Vicky Smith, Ellena Ibal and Gary Carpenter.

PB's were achieved by :- Chelsie Kirman (4), Dan Smith, Heather Jones, Patrick Trower, Bethan Clinton, Matthew Marrs (2), Stephanie Reynolds, Lee Hicks, Jo Cox, Dan Lewis, Charlotte Powell, Jamie Gould and Laura Neal,

Graham Feboul
Press Officer