Cannock Leisure Centre, 29th February 2020

The 2020 Staffs league got underway at Cannock Leisure Centre only a week after the end of the County Championships and sadly for the first time clashed with the Winter League Round 2 gala. The club did amazingly well to field a full second team for the gala at Cannock.

We all know by now that this league is a massive step up for us a club and this year was no different in terms of judging where we would come due to the reasons set out below:-

• We had the clash with the Winter League
• Kids have moved age groups since the Tier 2 final in November 2019 finals night
• At this stage of the year all our age 9 kids would be new to 50m races and very nervous – with us only taking one age 9 boy we went time only in 3 races
• Due to such a good performance again last year our seeding had given us a very hard draw with the 4 teams who just finished above us last November all with us and plus Dove Valley at full strength – so we went in seeded 6^th but keen for those gaining chances to swim for the team keen to swim PB times

The gala format is all races and legs are over 50m – and we get mixed relays rather than the usual all girls or boys. We have 44 races and it goes quite quickly as the races exclude 100m events.

Staff League debuts went to Rebecca Pardoe, Holly Durkan, Maddie Smith, Edward Williams, Issy Reid, Georgia Hanstock, Evie Harvey, Bella Richards, Lilia Beresford, Charlie Moorby, Evie Phillips, Daniel Spiers, Christian Powlson Walker, Henry Duncan, Harry Preston, Yuri Oliferuks, Finlay Pearson and Ben Crockett – all 4 age 9 kids looked ready to give it a go and try to put the technique learned into practice in a race. With this being a huge record in terms of debutantes in this high level league they all went into races determined to have a real go at swimming against the talent in the other 5 lanes.

1 First Place:

Adam Doughty – 50m Back

3 Third Places:

Issy Reid – 50m back

Daniel Spiers – 50m breast

Bella Smith – 50m breast

5 Fourth Places:

George Stevens – 50m Fly

Adam Doughty – 50m Breast

Amelie Spiers – 50m fly

Dylan Campbell – 50m fly

Edward Frost – 50m fly

The overall result scoring 6 points for a win was :-

STAR SWIMMER – Shared between Issy Reid and Daniel Spiers – both swimming 50m races on new strokes and gaining 3^rd place finishes in a gala that saw swimmers with Midlands times in many of the heats.

STAR RACE  – can only be Adam Doughty winning race 43 in the open 50m back

All debutantes did themselves proud – the smiles on their faces as they came back to the team base was fantastic

The parents cheered them all on in every race – so huge thanks to them for giving the kids the correct level of appreciation

Special thank you to:-

Craig Day and Bev Doughty for refereeing the gala,

Martin Brown and Debbie Preston for officiating and timing

Mary & Andy for all the coaching and advice last night – Andy just a few days after passing his Level 2 Coaching exams!!!