Clevedon Swimming club found itself stretched to the limit on Saturday 24th June, with two squads representing the club at separate galas. Two smaller than usual teams were selected and many youngsters got their first competitive outings. Clevedon acquitted themselves well at both venues and some blistering individual performances were made.

The 'Four Seasons' junior squad travelled to Burnham on Sea and came second. Final points were:

Burnham 160
Clevedon 129
Bishopsworth 123
Henleaze 95

Individual wins came from Rosemary Harris, William Mathias, Jared Overton, Ryan Neath, Patrick Riddell, Lee Hicks, Sam Thomas and Rebecca Parsons. Whilst winning relay performances came from Aaran Thomas (2), Jared Overton (2), William Mathias, Lee Hicks (2), Noelle Finch, Rebecca Parsons, Olivia Coombes, Heather Jones and Greg Thynne. There were no less than 19 Personal Best Times including some whoppers from Rosemary Harris, Iona Thomas, Jack De Viell, Sam Thomas, and Rebecca Parsons.

Jared Overton, on his debut, and Junior Captain Ryan Neath were named joint Star Swimmers. This gala represented Team Manager Suzi Bowen's last Four Seasons gala before she leaves for University. As always she did a brilliant job and deserves an awful lot of credit for the way in which the junior squad has flourished under her guidance.

The rest of the club travelled to Norton Radstock to take part in an invitational gala against some very strong clubs from all over the region. Clevedon were edged into fourth place behind Salisbury and Cirencester in a very close finish. Norton Radstock made full use of home pool advantage to win the gala. Crucially, to the overall placings, Clevedon had to swim overage swimmers in two of the relays and forfeited the points for these races. Despite the result, a most enjoyable evening was had by all and again some stunning performances thoughout the squad made the trip worthwhile.

Laura Neal, Ellena Ibal (2), Steve Bowen (2) ,Sophie Hicks (2), Elizabeth Warnes, Sophie Feboul and Megan Prideaux won individual events. Relay victories came from Katie Lee, Lisa Hutchinson, Vicky Smith, Megan Prideaux, Sam Thornton (2), Nick Flower (2), Tom Riddell (2) and Steve Bowen (2). PB's were achieved by Polly Tucker, Laura Neal, Steve Bowen (2), Kim Reynolds, Sophie Hicks, Ellena Ibal, Calum Finch and Megan Prideaux.

Elizabeth Warnes deserves a special mention for swimming in the girls under 14 years Freestyle relay, following an injury to Sophie Hicks, at the age of 10! Not only was she very brave to swim against girls twice as big as her, she did extremely well and the team were only beaten into 2nd place on the touch.

Graham Feboul

Press Officer