North West Arena League - Division 1 - Round 1 held on Saturday 12th October

Arena League is a national competition swam in regions over three rounds with the top clubs in each region going forward to a national final. On Saturday 333 teams swam in 53 gala’s all over the country. There were over 1200 swimmers competing along with 800 plus Technical Officers, 500 plus volunteers and a 1000 plus team managers and coaches, so pretty big!!The draw for Round 1 could not have been worse for us having to travel to Kendal and then being allocated Lane 6. However when the coach turned up at Garston everyone was very impressed that Selwyns had sent a 69 plate coach which was very plush so we could travel the hour and 40 minutes to Kendal in style.On to the swimming and our swimmers produced an impressive performance on the night up against the Performance Squads of Prescot, Leyland, Satellite and Blackburn along with Buckley. There was Arena League debuts for Olivia Mansfield, Zoe Bradshaw, Katie Love, James Fazakerley, and Oliver Horscroft all of whom swam well considering the opposition they were up against.

Highlights of the gala were Tom Barton winning the Men’s Open 200m IM and 100m Breaststroke, Emily Morris, Rebecca Collier, Connie Urumov and Holly Barden winning the Girls 15/under 4 x 50m Freestyle relay, Holly Barden winning the 100m Freestyle in the 15/under age group and the Open age group, Eric Byrne coming 2nd in the 100m Freestyle and Butterfly in the 13/under age group, Sydney King finishing 2nd in the 15/under 100m Backstroke, Lily Anna Ireland finishing 2nd in the Ladies Open 100m Breaststroke, Criostai Hayden Callen, Tom Barton, Jason Rawlins Williams and Joe Evans finishing 2nd in the Men’s Open 4 x 50m Medley Relay, Sydney King, Emily Morris, Connie Urumov and Holly Barden winning the Girls 15/under 4 x 50m Medley Relay and Libby Manning, Olivia Lee (only 13 years old) Emily Morris, Lily Anna Ireland, Hannah Wain and Holly Barden finishing 2nd in the Ladies Open 6 x 50m Freestyle Relay.

However, for us the outstanding race of the gala was the Mens Open 6 x 50m Freestyle Relay. For those who witnessed this race I am sure they will all say the road trip to and from Kendal was worth it just to be there for under 3 minutes of racing. Looking down the blocks at the other teams there were some big units of men ready to race and looking at our team some of them are only boys, although a couple of them would disagree with me. Anyway we sent Criostai Hayden Callen off first with his split being 26.08, 13 year old Eric Byrne followed with a split of 28.12, after the first two legs we were a couple of metres down but it looked like the other teams had gone top heavy (sending their fastest swimmers out first) Alex Keegan, splitting 27.21, went next and although not losing any further ground he never gained anything, Jason Rawlins Williams, split 26.30, went next and clawed some distance back but it was going to take a massive effort from our big guns, Joe Evans went next splitting 25.13 and gaining more valuable ground back but there was still a lot to do, enter Tom Barton, he absolutely smashed the last leg and took over the Leyland swimmer after the flags and just touched him out although it was that close he didn’t believe he had touched first but he had with a 50m split of 23.75.Final Points1^st Leyland 213pts2^nd Prescot 208pts3^rd Satellite 195pts4^th Garston 161pts5^th Blackburn 150pts6^th Buckley  118pts