Sharks Novices swim to second place at Dearne Valley BBQ meet.

The friendly gala at Dearne Valley gave head coach, Kev Dunne, the opportunity to showcase our more inexperienced swimmers and they didn't disappoint, earning a well deserved second place.   

The weather was hot and the leisure centre even hotter with spectators getting a free sauna thrown in for their £2 entry fee. Space was limited with all seating taken up by those in the know before we arrived and viewing of the unusual five lane pool was restricted. Sharks fans shuffled in and out as their excited progeny approached the blocks for their contribution.

Club Stats
swimmers	30
1st	19
2nd	12
3rd	11
DQ	3
PB's	40
Club Records	0

Having been informed the night before that the gala age ranges had changed, we arrived to find that the format had changed too. Instead of a simple relay event it was going to be a full gala, run on the same lines as the Barnsley Minors with 49 events! On the plus side, those swimmers that turned out for us were suddenly given extra swims and more opportunity to show their coach what they were capable of. They were: Natalie Cooper, Jonathon Grayson, Jordan Halls, Katie Latham, Samraj Radford, Jack Richmond, Georgia Cram and Sean Martin. There were quite a few regulars swimming for us to make up the numbers.

Little Hayley Lewis kicked off with an impressive win in the Breaststroke. Declan Neary came next with a strong 2nd place helped by the introduction of a stretch phase in his stroke and cracked a personal bnest as a result.

Anna Laird was uncharacteristically second in her Butterfly, after a disastrous start she couldn't quite make up for it. This was the first indication of problems with the starts. Drawn in lane 1 we were furthest from the starter who had a VERY LOUD air horn for the start but was a bit shy when calling swimmers to their marks.

Katie Latham swam a business like freestyle in her first full gala to come in a creditable third. She was followed by Euan Stirling and Emily Scott who both won their events convincingly. Charlie Cocks continued his recent good form to win his backstroke despite zigzagging a bit - many of our backstrokers would struggle to stay straight in the lane because the roof of the pool was curved which makes it hard to swim in a straight line. Although Chris Watson was experienced enough to swim a very straight race to win his backstroke.

The first batch of team relays kicked off strongly with the 9 year old girls, Leigh Naylor-Adamson, Katie Latham, Georgia Cram and Hayley lewis, winning with a thunderous last leg taking over in third place and 10m down. In fact in this batch of relays there were wins for all the girls teams: 11 year olds Samantha Lockey, Laura Gravil, Isabelle Sterling and Emily Scott; 12 year olds Natalie Cooper, Amy Watson, Anna Laird and Molly Simm, and our open girls Charlotte Squires, Hayleigh Dunne, Harriet Simm and Hannah Blackham who lead from the start and stretched the lead with every leg.

In the second round of individual races Holly Lewis won the 11years Butterfly but was in some distress at the end after breathing water half way home and being unable to breath. Amy Watson won her breaststroke with an impressive start and a strong finish. Queen breaststroker, Charlie Squires, gave us another lesson in excellence winning by a mile. Laura Gravil ignored the bendy roof enough to win a tough Backstroke and Keith Squires hammered home in first place in his freestyle.

In the final set of relays the girls had similar success to earlier with all winning except the 9 year olds who managed a tiring 2nd place. This was made up with success for the Open boys Simon Latham, Sam Rawson, Chris Watson and Keith Squires, who won their medley relay with room to spare.

Going into the cannon it was still possible for us to win the gala if we finished at least three places ahead of Chapletown. It was an exciting race and up until the fifth leg we seemed to be in a good position against Chapletown but they then came back strongly to finish ahead of us, pushing us into a close second place in both the race and the gala overall.

Sharks were intending to hold a return event in September but this has been cancelled because Gainsborough Pool is going to be refurbished. Let's hope they do it properly and actually change the light bulbs so we can swim without miners lamps . .