Wiltshire County Team Battle to the end!

This weekend saw the annual coming together of all of the County / Sub District Teams in Scotland, England and Wales for the National County Teams Competition in Sheffield. The competition is dominated by Yorkshire and Lancashire every year and this year was no different leaving the remaining 18 teams to fight to stay in division one. Wiltshire is a small county both is size and numbers compared to many other Counties and sub districts in the country and the fight to stay in the top division was always going to be hard. The past two years we have been lucky and managed to hold our position but this year it was not to be and although we had some spectacular swims the County has been relegated to Division two for next year.

However, lead by Team Captains Dean Williamson & Elizabeth Beckett, we can hold our heads high and recount many fantastic performances. Performances not just in the times achieved but also in the guts and determination of some swimmers.

Swimmer of the team must be awarded to Georgina Mason who agreed to swim in the team on Friday afternoon. She suddenly found herself being asked to swim the 100m Fly in the 16/17 year age group. Georgie knew she was going to find this swim very tough against swimmers who were a clear 5 – 10 seconds faster than she was on paper but she threw herself into this swim and not only scored us a valuable point she also swam to a great personal best time.

Stephi Clutterbuck, Aiko Takahashi, Matthew Sambrook & John Branston all found themselves as the slowest swimmers in their events. All four swam outstanding races to record personal best times and in some case rocketed up the finish rankings. Stephi Clutterbuck in particular rising from 20^th to 14^th in a fantastic Breaststroke race.

National Qualifying times were coming thick and fast for many Wiltshire swimmers, Alex Jones, Dean Williamson & Sophie Hawkins all recorded two times each, Elizabeth Beckett, Harry Ash, Steph Bremner & Rachel Williams all pocketed their first times of the 2010 season.

Subject to ratification by the Wiltshire Competition Secretary, Christopher Harber of Bradford on Avon, smashed the County Junior Boys 50m Backstroke record as he swam to an astonishing time of 27.91 (28.61).

The youngest members of the team Niall Westman, Daniella Whiting and Aiko Takahashi who are still just 12 years old all equipped themselves magnificently and swam courageous races to produce great personal best times.

1st time County Team Badges were awarded to:-

Niall Westman, Aiko Takahashi, Daniella Whiting, John Branston, Charlotte Pitts, Katie Pugh, Chris Harber, Sam Greenslade & Matthew Sambrook

5th time County Team Flashes were awarded to:-

Sophie Hawkins & Laura Young

However despite a fantastic effort from all members of the team Wiltshire finished in 19^th place out of 20 and will swim in Division two next year. Consensus of opinion was that we could not have tried or swum any harder and we will return next year to Sheffield to regain our place in Division one.

Thanks to a great and supportive team of and Team Managers, Officials & Coaches, Rebecca Smith, Margaret Smith, Daniel Crowley, Andrew Ryczanowski, Louise Moorhouse, Stuart Bemner & Lesley Leffers.