It's hard cheese for Town's swimmers competing at Cheddar (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

It's hard cheese for Town's swimmers competing at Cheddar

MEMBERS of Cirencester Swimming Club had to face strong opposition in the third round of their 2004 Cotswold League campaign held at Cheddar last weekend.

Points were close after the first ten events with only six points separating all teams, but Cheddar gradually built on their early lead, culminating in a victory with 149 points.

The main battle was for second and third places which Stroud eventually won, finishing second with 128 points to Burnham in third place (127) and Cirencester in fourth place (112).

But in the individual events, Cirencester's Rachel Sherring-ton took first place in the girls' U11s breaststroke while Matt Reynolds was first in the boys' U11s freestyle.

Brian Ingham re-launched his swimming career with two superb efforts to take first place in both the men's open individual medley and open freestyle.

There were also several good second places achieved by Emma Eldridge (U15s backstroke), Tomos Wyn-Jones (U11s fly), James Collingwood (U11s backstroke), Pete Brennen (U13s fly), Emma Davenport (U15s free-style) Christina Shelley (U13s backstroke) and Chris Reynolds (U13s backstroke).

The club's relay teams performed well yet again with six first places and three second places with the U13s boys of Dan Beebee, Charlie Ingham, Pete Brennen, Charlie Allen and Chris Reynolds proving invincible yet again by winning both the freestyle and medley relay events.

This was matched by the U11s boys' team - James Collingwood, Jake Hopegood, Tomos Wyn-Jones and Matt Reynolds - who took first place in both their relay events.

Unfortunately, their efforts were not enough on the night and the team's fourth place, following the second and third place in the first two galas, sees Cirencester fighting for a place in the B final.

They need a very good effort at their next gala in Bristol on April 24. The less experienced have been busy, too, taking part in a MESS (Millennium Emergent Swimmers) gala recently when joining forces with Stroud to send a 'Stroudencester' team to Lydney.

MESS galas give young newcomers an excellent opportunity to experience competition, and the Cirencester contingent came away with a second place following a well-fought battle with Lydney and Cinderford.

Oliver Lockey, Catherine Shelley, Emma Eldridge, David Foxley and Christina Shelley all won their individual events with strong displays.

The Cirencester youngsters enjoyed the atmosphere there and also the camaraderie with their Stroud team-mates.

The County Championships neared their end a fortnight ago with a number of fine performances from many of the club's swimmers.

Dan Beebee, Fabi Collett, Charlie Ingham, Jenny Webster, Tomos Wyn-Jones and Rachel Sherrington all added to their medal tallies with sterling efforts. They now have their sights set on the final weekend of this competition with the club entering several teams into the relay events.

So far, at this year's County Blocks, the following have recorded qualifying times for the Western Counties District Championships as follows:

Fabi Collett (200M IM, 200M freestyle, 200M and 100M breaststroke), Karl Collett (200m breaststroke), Helen Soutter (200m breaststroke), John Drake (200m fly), Dan Beebee (100M freestyle) Jenny Webster (100M backstroke) and Luke Pinnegar (100M fly).