Corsham "B"attle to Third Place

A very grumpy team manager turned up at the Link Centre, having already made five changes, during the day, to an ever dwindling team list. His humour did not improve when one swimmer failed to turn up, meaning that the under 12 boys would miss out on any points for their relay events. This is such a shame for those that do swim but there was little anyone could do about it. So it was left to a very depleted team to carry the honours on the night and without exception, they all swam magnificently. And boy did it make a difference to see us win the first race of the evening!
Having not been able to field a team for the first round of this years summer league, Melksham soon became our main opponents on the evening as Wroughton cruised into an early lead, followed by a much improved Swindon Dolphins team. And as the evening moved along, it became obvious that whatever the outcome, we would not be that far behind Melksham, even without those precious four points from the missing relays. And so it turned out, with a shared third place and 90 points for both teams. As there were so few swimmers, they can all have a mention. So in race order well done to Freddie Sheratt for winning the first race of the evening, a 100 medley relay, Emma Mortimer for improving her time in the ladies 100IM, Elliot Wilson for winning his second 25 'fly and his breaststroke race, Lucy Adams for yet another storming 25 fly, Joe Ross for working so hard all evening and swimming up on several occasions, Olivia Hobden for gutsy performances and again swimming up an age group, Callum Pheby one of only two under 14 boys who swam up & "down" to assist the younger members, Hannah Lias, busy all evening, swimming up an age group and just getting on with the job in her usual quiet and highly effective manner, Oliver Sherratt for magnificent effort as the only other Open boy, Emma Boyd, who never delivered what she promised by getting twice as many (!) points from her 100 backstroke, Mark Edmundson for swimming so magnificently in his first B team gala, Marcus James (sparkie I believe they called him) who tried his utmost on every race, Izzy Ledbury for more sparkling performances in the backstroke, Holly Moxham for another excellent breaststroke and controlled freestyle relay, Robyn Brown for trying so hard in all of her races, Duncan Wilson, my unsung hero for winning his 50 backstroke so comfortably and excellent relay performances, Sam Malling in his first gala for the Club and who had to swim all sorts of races as the other under 14 boy, Rhys James who is improving all of the time and swam some storming 'fly races, Hannah Pinsent, magnificent breaststroke and who swum up to support the open girls, Lucy Stanley who did so well in a range of races and who never stopped smiling, Heather Knight, club stalwart who never fails to give her best and improved to 2nd place in the 100 'fly, Stephanie McPherson who did well in both her own age group and in supporting the open girls, Felicity Birkett who despite her misapprehensions, did so well in her 50 'fly race and finally, but none the less for it, Lucy Cotton who swam some gloriously quick front crawl and who I have to apologise to for not getting her time when my watch decided to pack up. That was about the only disappointment on an otherwise brilliant evening. If I have left anyone out, please feel free to tell me off!
Thanks go to the poolside team who helped me out of my "grumpies", recast the programme, marshalled the swimmers, got us a great lane draw and generally helped to lift our spirits, after the somewhat precarious start. Henrietta, Linda, Penny & Ruth, your support was fantastic and I know the swimmers benefited from your assistance. I only hope we have more swimmers next time, to support those who did so well tonight.

Allan Hall.