11 May 2008 - Junior Speedo League - Round 2

The Thurrock Swimming Club Junior Speedo Team romped away to victory in their second round tie held at Blackshots Pool.

 

Having cruised through their first round to an easy victory, the club faced formidable opposition in round 2. Teams representing Hoddesdon, Cheshunt , Enfield , Runnymede and especially Hillingdon which is a newly formed combined club were all out to snatch the lead.

 

Needless to say, our borough’s talented youngsters, all aged between 9 and 12 years old, were not about to let anyone steal their thunder. Led by their ‘veteran’ 12 year old relay teams , the club took the early advantage with Emma Cassidy, Amy Gore, Amy Beardwell Lacey and Katherine Stephens winning the Medley relay and Gareth Hawkins, Harry Geggus, Sonny Ford and Bradley Clarke doing the same in the boys medley relay, with Thomas Head joining in the winning Freestyle team.

 

The Junior Speedo gala is the first opportunity for the clubs 9 year olds to make their mark in competitive swimming, and the boys team of Kieron Gore, Aaron Bearwish, Mason Riddington and Aaron Clarke are sure to become a force to be reckoned with, winning both their Freestyle and Medley events. With Gore and Clarke also winning their individual events, the boys made a clean sweep of the honours.

 

The girls team of Tillie Geggus, Nicole Mitchell, Gemma Archer Haley and Hannah Phillips also accredited themselves well finishing third in the Medley relay.

 

Because of the age bands in this years Speedo league, Thurrock ’s 11 year old girls team contained no less than 5 girls who have all qualified for this years National ASA championships – the pinnacle of age group swimming. Therefore there was litle surprise that Amy Gore, Katherine Stephens, Melissa Cowell, Georgia Mills and Emma Cassidy stormed away to a clean sweep in all events.

 

In the 10 years boys age group , Bobbie Mccarthy, Salaam Motin, James Day and George Epsly took first place in the Medley relay, adding Jack Mills to the Freestyle line-up to match this success. The boys also swam up an age group to win the 11 years freestyle.

 

There were notable individual victories for 11 year old Joe Brown in the 50m Backstroke and Fly events and 10 year old Chloe Bass in the 50m Freestyle . Chloe joined Rachel Moore, Mollie Merritt and Eloise Lyons to a second place in their relay events.

 

Final Scores were Thurrock in the lead with 267 points with Hillingdon second (219 pts) and Hoddesdon third (160 pts).

 

Team manager Debbie Grix praised her swimmers for another flawless performance and noted their remarkable achievement of winning 33 out of the 49 events. This victory means that Thurrock will qualify for the Area final which will be held on 29^th June. She further thanked all of the Thurrock helpers and officials as Thurrock were the hosts and Essex and Suffolk Water who kindly donated 960 bottles of "97" Bottled tap water which proved invaluable on such a hot afternoon.

 

 

 

Phil Nice