They still swim in yards at Chapeltown.

A depleted team still managed to surprise us with an excellent 4th Place.                           by Julie Hirst               

Well, what can be said about this venue?  The last time I was here was as a swimmer in the first ever DARTES gala in, well, let’s not mention the year, but FASTSkins and Speedsockets were a thing of the future, although electricity had just been invented (so not THAT long ago, then).  Needless to say, it took some a while to figure out the pool was imperial, not metric…

The amount of effort put on by our swimmers did not reflect on the final result, with SAS in fourth place.  This was disappointing, as we usually do better against these teams, and also as Hannah and Matthews’ dad had made a rare appearance in the crowd, missing the Grand Prix for a change.

Stars on the day were Alex Cook and Charlie Cocks, gaining the only individual first places: Charlie with an absolutely fantastic fly swim.  Charlie, is your mum’s throat better?  All that shouting, bet she was quiet the rest of that Sunday!

All in all, a fast moving gala, all over in one and a half hours.  Unfortunately, no announcements were heard on the balcony, so it’s hard to comment on individual placements and times, but well done to all swimmers for turning up for your team and apologies to anyone missed out.