Saturday saw the second round of the Speedo Western League, Premier Division swimming gala, again held at the new swimming pool in Newport. There were teams representing the City of Cardiff, Bournemouth, Carmarthen, the City of Hereford and of course Bridgend County Swim Squad.
Going into this round Bridgend were placed ninth of eighteen and looking for a good points score in order to qualify for the “A” Final to be held at Millfield Public School on Saturday 9th December 2006.
The format for the League is that all eighteen teams swim in two galas and there then become three finals; an “A” Final involving the top eight teams in the Division with the winners going through to a National Final in April next year, a “B” Final consisting of the next five teams and a “C” Final where the other five teams in the Division compete leaving the bottom two teams being relegated to Division One.
It was thought that this gala was always going to be between Cardiff, Bournemouth and Bridgend with the other two teams making up the numbers; as became apparent following the first event, the Ladies Open age group 200m Individual Medley. Bridgend’s Helen Smale swam an excellent race and finished in third place, behind the Cardiff and Bournemouth swimmers.
From the first ten events Bridgend had one first place finish; the Girls 13/u 4 x 50m Medley Relay which consisted of Bethan Davis leading off with the backstroke, handing over to Sara Lougher on the breaststroke leg, to Bronnie Dunn on the butterfly leg to Victoria Howell on the anchor leg of freestyle. There was plenty of good-humoured and friendly banter between the Bridgend and Cardiff swimmers in between events but when it came to the swimming there was no quarter given.
Matthew Sullivan won two individual events, the Boys 11/u Backstroke and Freestyle and the other individual event winners were Sara Lougher 100m Breaststroke, Bethan Davis 100m Backstroke and Mark Ennis 100m Butterfly, all 13/u age group. The only other first place achieved by Bridgend swimmers was in the Girls 13/u 4 x 50m Freestyle Relay which consisted of Bethan Davis, Rebekah Jones, Hayley Roberts and Victoria Howell, such was the strength of the Cardiff and Bournemouth squads.
At the halfway stage the scores were very close, Bournemouth on 107 points, Cardiff 101 points and Bridgend only one adrift on 100 points. That said the second half of the gala saw it become clear that it was going to be between Cardiff and Bournemouth and that Bridgend would finish more or less unopposed in third place.
The Bridgend coach, Phil Melhuish, had been given prizes by premises at the McArthur Glen Outlet Stores, The Nike Store, The Odeon Cinema and Pizza Hut, Sarn, Bridgend and these were awarded to Bridgend swimmers who had swum faster than in the last gala. First prize, a Pizza Hut voucher, was awarded to Hayley Roberts who swam 2.59 seconds faster in the 100m Butterfly and two Odeon cinema tickets were won by Mark Ennis also for the 100m Butterfly (2.42 seconds). The team event was won by the girls’ 11/u Medley team of Emilie James, Kirsten Watts, Megan Dennis and Lucy Davis, who each received a Nike T-Shirt.
The final scores saw Bournemouth on 180, Cardiff 179, Bridgend in third place on 160 points and Carmarthen were next on 128 with Hereford coming in fifth on 101 points. This was only some five points short of going to Millfield for the “A” Final; instead Bridgend go into the “B” Final, seeded joint first with the City of Exeter and will swim against them together with Keynsham, Carmarthen and Thornbury.
As with most team sports there will always be those who play a bigger individual part but the overall result is because of all those that took part in some small way, as part of the “team”, in both gala’s, and indeed those who will be selected for the final in December. The other swimmers in the team were as follows: Adam Rees, Alastair Richards, Daniel Owen, Cameron Jones, Luke Parkes, Kieran MacKenzie, Josh Thomas, Emma Moran, Ceri Cheeseman, Craig Thomas, Matt England, Hywel Jones, Rob Sullivan, Sam Eagle, Cerys Ruddall, Ritchie Watkins, Craig Robinson, Gareth Pritchard, James O’Leary, Nick Thomas, Lloyd Jerwood and Rhian Thomas
It must also be said that the event would not have gone as smoothly as it did were it not for the backroom staff and officials who once again gave of their time freely. Post gala celebrations saw swimmers and parents engaged in the demolition of several assorted pizzas and desserts.