Kelly's Heros battle Leander

17th January, 2004

Kelly college are officially Devon’s top swimming team following a tremendous victory  at the Devon Interclub Championship at Plymouth’s Central Park pool on Saturday. The gala featuring 17 Devon swimming clubs went down to the wire and provided exciting albeit nailbiting entertainment for the very vocal partisan supporters.

Kelly started well with a victory by Laura Sprague (11) in the 50m freestyle but very soon it became apparent that the main battle would be between Kelly and the current holders Plymouth Leander. The trophy was in danger of becoming a permanent fixture at the Plymouth club who had won it for an incredible 9 consecutive years but following their recent victories and promotion from Speedo league division one, Kelly were quietly confident that this could be their year.

As the gala proceeded Leander maintained a small lead but wins by Amanda Sanderson in the 15yr  100m Fly and Jack Cockerton(15) swimming up an age group in the Open 100m Breaststroke sparked a change in fortune and the determination of the team was epitomised by Matthew Henry’s approach to his 50m Fly event. Matthew’s lightning start showed that he was going to stamp his name on that event and that’s exactly what he did.

Close racing was the order of the day with only a fingertip separating 13 yr. Holly Yeo’s first place in the 15yr 100m breaststroke from second as she won by 0.03s and Rachel Banfield was victorious by the same margin in the Open 100m backstroke over  a dead heat for second and third between Plymouth and Exeter. Amanda Sanderson’s second win of the competition also had the spectators on the edge of their seats as she came back to win the 15yr 100m backstroke by just 0.1s.

Wins by Matt Slator (Open 100m free), Holly Yeo (13yr 50m Breast), Tom Howe (15yr 100m free) and Jack Cockerton (15yr 100m breast) kept Kelly in the hunt and Laura Sprague then showed her class by winning the 11yr 50m breaststroke with a sub-40s PB. Finally, after event 33 of 37, Kelly took the lead by virtue of a great team swim from the 11yr relay team of Laura, Liam Yeo, Lawrence Oxborough and Annie Tinsley.

The next three team relays provided a fantastic spectacle of swimming with wins by both teams but the Open relay played the most crucial part in the final outcome, as not only did  Kelly swimmers Rachel Banfield, Jack Cockerton, Russell Page-Dove and Jakie Wellman win, but Exeter finished second ahead of Leander. This produced a grandstand finale with only ½ point gap in favour of Kelly going into the last relay. The brilliant strategy behind the swimming order of Tom, Matthew, Lawrence, Laura, Jakie, Whitney Bowrin, Amanda and Matt paid dividends and as the last Kelly swimmer touched ahead of Leander, the noise level which threatened to break Health and Safety Laws heralded new champions by a margin of only 1½ points.

The trophy was received by captains Elaine Reyes and Jack Cockerton amid the appreciation that everyone in the 18 strong squad had given their all. Even those who hadn’t won an event had produced inspired swims, Sophie Stanford (open 100m breaststroke) ,Gregg Shrosbree (13yr 50m breaststroke) and Ben Clarke (13yr 50m free) all played their part in the team’s victory and the support from the coaching and background staff had not gone unrecognised either.

Final top 6: Kelly College 595, Plymouth Leander 593½, Exeter 536, Dinnaton 477, Torridgeside 433 and Newton Abbot 358.