CADS Young Guns Too Quick on the Draw

Top local swimming club, CADS, hosted the first gala of the 2009 Barnsley Minor League at Scartho Swimming Pool on Saturday 24^th January. This league is often a swimmer’s first experience of competitive galas and also, as swimmers can only compete in these galas if they have not achieved a top 8 place at the County Championships in that stroke, it gives them a chance to compete in events they might not normally be selected for.

Four teams were competing on the night – CADS, Barnsley, Edlington and Scunthorpe. A close competition was expected and the gala certainly lived up to its billing.

Victory in the first ten events was shared amongst all the teams and resulted in Scunthorpe having their noses in front with 27 points, followed by CADS and Edlington with 25 points and Barnsley with 21 points.

This pattern continued and after 20 events it was still extremely close with CADS and Scunthorpe on 51 points, Barnsley on 50 points and Edlington on 45 points.

Over the next ten events Barsnley recorded three 1^st, five 2^nd and two 2^nd places and this consistency saw them edge in front of CADS by 3 points and Scunthorpe by 5 points.

The lead then see-sawed over the next few events but four straight victories saw Barnsley extend their lead over CADS to 6 points after 40 events to set up an exciting finish through the final 9 events which were all relays.

With strong relay squads, CADS were hoping to be chasing Barnsley all the way to the finish but in the end, disqualification in three of the final nine events saw Barnsley extend their lead to 12 points and win the gala. The disqualifications were all due to swimmers taking “flyers” where they go too early on a take over.

CADS Chief Coach, Dan Higgon said, “Tonight was a great gala and there were some good swims from the team with our swimmers achieving personal best times in 35 of the 49 events. This shows me that we are making excellent progress.” He went on “I have been trying to get the swimmers to speed up the take overs on relays as this can often make the difference between winning and losing but we were a little too quick on the draw tonight. As it happens we probably would have still come second but it would certainly have been a lot closer”

Final positions were:

1^st Barnsley 140 points

2^nd CADS 128 points

3^rd Scunthorpe 126 points

4^th Edlington 93 points

CADS winners on the night were:

Boys 14 yrs 50m butterfly Terence Yeung

Ladies Open 50m backstroke Francesca Stanford

Boys 12 yrs 4x25m medley relay Jacob Norburn, Toby Bartlett, callum Cook, Ross Martinelli

Boys 14 yrs 4x25m medley relay Terence Yeung, Anton Van Marion, Michael Dzieweczyns, Harvey Webb-Jones

Boys 12 yrs 50m butterfly Callum Cook

Boys 14 yrs 50m breaststroke Anton Van Marion

Mens Open 50m breaststroke Alex Donnington

Girls 12 yrs 4x25m medley relay Molly Unwin, Maisie Legge, Olivia Sullivan, Jessica Brandham

Girsl 14 yrs 4x25m medley relay Hannah Holden, Jasmine Smith, Emily Bartlett-Moore, Hollie Dawson

Boys 14 yrs 4x25m freestyle relay Terence Yeung, Anton Van Marion, Michael Dzieweczyns, Harvey Webb-Jones