The annual Rugby PERI Sprint meet saw a group of 16 girls and 8 boys take part with six gold, three silver and ten bronze medals being won. In addition 57 personal best times were set.

In the open group Claire Evelyn won the backstroke and freestyle and was third in the butterfly events with Charlotte Errington winning the breaststroke and was third in the backstroke. Lisa Patrick won the individual medley and was second in the freestyle, breaststroke and backstroke in the 14 years age group and Hannah Wilson, 12 years old, won the breaststroke and was third in the individual medley and backstroke. In the 11 years age group Alice Butler won the backstroke and was third in the butterfly, freestyle, and individual medley. The only boy to get on the rostrum was Keiran Woods who came third in the 14 years old individual medley and backstroke. Personal best times were set in all of their events by Emily Young, Paul Harvey, Thomas Moore and Harry Slinger. 

The second round of the Home Counties League necessitated a visit to Wellingborough where stronger opposition had the better of the squad. This was caused to some extent by various illnesses. The swimmers did however set 12 personal best times.

The best individual result came from Elliot Moulder with a second place in the breaststroke in which he set a new personal best time. Harry Simpson had a good night with personal best times in the individual medley, butterfly and breaststroke. Backstroke was the strongest for Kirsten Baggaley, Robyn Varley, Jake Medrek and Alison Reynolds who all set new personal best times. Geirge Hill and Paul Harvey set their new times in the breaststroke while Rachel Bull’s butterfly and Joe Medek’s freestyle proved best for them.

A visit to Dunstable for the Chiltern League saw the team come home victorious having won 14 events, set one new club record and 15 personal best times.

The under 15 years boys freestyle relay team consisting of Thomas Moore, Paul Harvey, David Willcox and Callum Moulder set a new club record of 1m 1.52s and came home first. Other relay wins came from the boys open group medley team, the girls and boys under 11 years medley and freestyle teams, the boys and girls under 15 medley teams, he boys under 15 years freestyle and the girls open freestyle teams.

Individual first were achieved by Edward Young (breaststroke), Sam Balmbra (freestyle), Suzie Boddy (butterfly) and Alison Reynolds and Carl Adamson (backstroke). Edward and Sam set new personal best times with their wins. Thomas Moore set his personal best time in the individual medley with Paul Harvey, Jessica Reid, Rory Dougal, James McLean and Matthew Balmbra setting theirs in the freestyle. Breaststroke proved to be favourable for Kirsty Rice, Harry Simpson, Jordan Smith and Suzie Boddy, all setting new personal best times. Three backstrokers set new personal best times being Suzie Boddy, Sam Balmbra and George Moncrieff. In this league, which is time limited Matthew, George and Rory all swam too fast for the limit and although they set new personal targets didn’t score any points for the team.

The club is applying to become Swim 21 Accredited for teaching and development and will continue to provide their ‘Learn to Swim’ classes to the National Plan. So if you would like to appear in this column in the future but need the necessary training ring Bill Jones on 615749 for details.