B Team Victorious in Winter League Final!!!

Words cannot convey just how well Corsham's B team swam tonight, a fitting climax to a Winter league season which began last November at the Link Centre in Swindon. Tonight's final was against three "A" teams from Melksham, Swindon ASC & Westbury, to whom must go equal credit for turning this into one of the tightest galas the Club has been involved in for some years.  Click "Read more" for full story.

Very little separated the four teams at the beginning of the night and to be brutally honest, a win was not expected, given that two of the teams had already beaten us (one quite convincingly) in previous rounds. And while home advantage is always a great leveller, to be honest, I think the B team would have won this wherever it had been held. The determination was there right from the beginning and once the lead was taken after 20 races, the team never looked back. A truly excellent win.

Praise must also go to the team of poolside helpers for their support and for using commonsense to substitute other swimmers when two failed to turn up, albeit one was needed for the the A team. I should also like to praise some of the decisions made by certain swimmers, either to swap a race order or to swim as a substitute. You know who you are; well done! The support received certainly assisted me in my Team Manager role and the smiles, and relief, at the end of the gala made it all worthwhile. The sheer determination was brought home to me by the sight of Emma Boyd wrapped in a space blanket. She had given her all for the team and it was somewhat harrowing to see her suffering. Thankfully she recovered quite quickly and I hope she will her enjoy her Level 2 coaches course at Swindon tomorrow.

Some of our swimmers, particularly the Under 17 and Under 15 boys had more than their fair share of races. They were excellent, particularly as many of them swum up to assist the older age group. Another point worth noting is that some swimmers probably got less races than I would have preferred, but not a single complaint. We were also assisted by the team Mascot, C J Feirn, who came ready to swim (at the age of 8) just in case anyone dropped out.

A few stats for those of you who like that sort of thing: there were no disqualifications (the only team on the night not to have any), the team won 14 of its races, narrowly pipping Westbury who had 13 wins, the average age of the female poolside team was (you must be joking if you think I'm going to even think about putting that one in!) and the coach will be 61 on 5th May.

The team list, in race order, was as follows: Katie Hall, Sally Thomas, Alex Moore, Charlotte Parker, Tom Little, Jake Feirn, Joe Ross, Alex Johnson, Lucy Stanley, Nesta Unwin, Kaliah Barker, Kirsty Stanley, Cosmo Adam, Will Matthews, Callum Pheby, Ollie Johnson, Bridie Meiklereid (Girl's Captain), Hannah Pinsent, Emily Hall, Myles Hickman (Boy's Captain), Oscar Matcham, Steve Worthy, Matt Evans, Stuart Gibbs, Ella Scott Humphris, Elizabeth Renahan, Bobbi Lang, Amelia Lias, Oliver Little, Elliott Berning, Rhys James, George Matcham, Leo Matcham, Maddie Moore, Emma Boyd & Ella Golledge. Well done to you all; the Club is proud of your achievement.

Swimmers of the Gala are Emily Hall and Joe Ross.

Alan Hall