The most important gala of the year for Clevedon Swimming Club was held at Hutton Moor in Weston on Saturday 8th December. It was the 'A' Final of the National Speedo League West Division 2. Clevedon went into the gala seeded 5th out of 8 and knowing they had a tough task on their hands especially against the 3 top Welsh clubs who were in action. The task looked even tougher after the first two rounds of races as Clevedon tailed the field! Even our top swimmers were struggling to cope against the very high standard of the opposition. 13 year old Amber Summerell was, unusualy, beaten into 3rd place in the Women's Open 100m Breastroke. The winner of this race was 22 years old and is representing Wales in the World Student Games in the New Year and Amber did bounce back 6 races later to dead heat for first place in the 15 yrs and under Breastroke 100m. This was the squad's first and only victory and it came in event 39! However, some hard grafted 2nd and 3rd places and some gritty relay swims put Clevedon back into contention and there was satisfaction at the Club's highest ever league finish when the team ended up 5th. Final Placings were:

Swim Swansea 333
Celtic Sharks 261
Team Torfaen 250
Bristol Henleaze 247
Clevedon 187
Kingsbridge Kingfishers 185
Newton Abbot 173
West Wilts 159

The following swimmers overcame the big match nerves to set new PB's:
Steve Bowen (2), Matt Bray, Elena Ibal, Tom Jones (2), Suzannah King, Guy Prideaux, Harry Thornton and Patrick Trower (2)

Graham Feboul
Press Officer