Dont put a limit on anything. The more you dream the further you get. Michael Phelps.
Staffs League Final: 25th November – Times and Report
Staffs League 2nd Tier Final : November 2017 Cannock.
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The 2017 Staffs league resumed for BASC at Cannock Leisure centre. After an amazing win in round 3 we had found ourselves in the 2nd Tier Final for the second year running – so before we started swimming we knew we had matched a club record performance with great squad swimming over the first 3 rounds.
The full draw was Womborne, Cannock Phoenix A (Holders of the 2nd tier winners shield), Cannock Chase B, Cheadle , Bilston B and BASC – we went in seeded 6th but had nothing to lose.
The gala format is all races and legs are over 50m – and we get mixed relays rather than the usual all girls or boys – as this is age as at 31/12 it saw kids swimming in different age groups to the upcoming Winter season.
League rules allowed debuts for Annie Llewellyn, George Preston and Matthew Appelbee who joined the club a month or so ago – with Josh Cooper joining the other age 9 kids to give us a fuller team than some rounds after he had debuted in an earlier round.
From race 1 it was clear that all the other clubs had turned up to try and win the Final – most races saw all 6 teams finish within a couple of seconds and we had our moments in terms of winning races.
4 First Places in a very tough final
Ruby Welsford – age 11 50m Back
Harrison Jones – age 11 50m Back
Adam Doughty – age 15 50m Breast
Matthew Appelbee – age 13 50m Free
3 Second Places
Harrison Jones – age 11 50m Free
George Greener – age 13 50m Fly
Dylan Mitchell, Bella Smith, Lana Clamp and Josh Cooper – age 9 medley relay
8 Third Places
Ella Cooper – age 11 50m Free
Finley Brown – age 15 50m Fly
Ruby Welsford – age 11 50m Breast
Adam Doughty, Imeh Tyas, George Stevens and Hayley Brightman – age 15 free relay
Imeh Tyas – open age 50m Free
Tom Mitchell – age 13 50m Breast
Hayley Brightman – age 15 50m Free
Adam Doughty – open age 50m Back
By making this final we had matched our best ever Staffs League Team Performance – back in November 2013 BASC came 6th in the Third Tier Final –that – credit to all swimmers, families, officials, committee and coaches for bringing us so far over the last 2 years.
The overall result was
Chase B 196
Womborne 173
Bilston B 153
Phoenix 152
Burton 137
Cheadle 103
A close gala saw all teams win races and in the end Chase B took the second Tier Final to add to also winning the Top Grand Final on the same night with their A team – BASC managed to beat Cheadle SC for the first time and came 11th in the league as a result of the 5th place on the night.
Highlights of the night included:-
STAR SWIMMER – HARRISON JONES – a first and a second place from his 2 individual races despite the standard of the opposition was a huge achievement by H Bomb!!!
Swim of the night – MATTHEW APPELBEE winning a blanket finish on 50m free in his first gala for the club – a great start to his BASC career.
Huge thank you to Simon, Phil and Ian for the coaching of the team and Craig, Bev, Rob and Chris for the officiating and timing on the night, plus Karen for relay splits.
We now have one week before the Stafford Apex Open meet – and then we have the Grand Autumn League Final at Braunstone.
