On Saturday 6 June, Worcester made it a remarkable four PGL League wins in five years, defending their 2014 title in brilliant fashion at the league Final in Gloucester.
The PGL League is primarily for swimmers on or just below County level and Worcester Swimming Club’s inclusive philosophy really pays dividends here… enabling the Club to select almost 100 swimmers in the four preliminary rounds and then draw on the strongest team for the Final.
The final points were Worcester 327, Cheltenham 297, Redditch 284, Pershore 279, Stourbridge 233, Wyre Forest 225, Northgate 219, Evesham 216.
Worcester won 15 of the 60 events with Louis Doyle the Club’s most successful swimmer, bagging a brace… 1st in both the 12/u 50m Breaststroke and 13/14 50m Freestyle!
There were also individual wins for Katie Pettit (9’s Backstroke), Daniella Moore (9’s Breaststroke), Lucy Wadley (10’s Backstroke), Megan Williams (10’s Breaststroke), Abigail Knight (11’s Freestyle), Eleanor Niel (13/14 Backstroke), Izzy Trow (13/14 Butterfly), Milo Reed (10’s Freestyle), Jack Sweeney (10’s Backstroke), Henry Halford (11’s Backstroke) and Harvey Lloyd (13/14 Breaststroke).
In the Relays, Worcester unusually only managed two first places. The Girls 11/u Medley team of Amelia Ciancio, Daisy Hill, Natasha Dobson and Abigail Knight swam beautifully to record a fine win whilst the powerful Boys 13/14 Medley team of Adam Smith, James Clews, Harvey Lloyd and Craig Strachan were simply awesome.
The Club also picked up 4 “speeding tickets” from swimmers who swam quicker than the allowed time standard for this level of competition, each of them recording big Personal Best performances: Natasha Dobson (11’s Butterfly), Jacob Smith (9’s Backstroke), Reuben Nawarycz (9’s Freestyle) and Baeli Fern (12’s Backstroke).
Overall though this was a team performance with consistency and strength in depth the key to Worcester’s success again. Every single swimmer in the squad contributed to the victory albeit Shane Mahon and Harvey Cross both deserve special recognition, swimming brilliantly having only been drafted into the team as reserves at the last minute.
The full team was: Katie Pettit, Daniella Moore, Lucy Wadley, Ciara Mahanta, Megan Williams, Grace Rhoden, Lydia Cooper, Amelia Ciancio, Daisy Hill, Natasha Dobson, Abigail Knight, Izzy Trow, Elizabeth Rhoden, Jenny Latta, Grace Dieppe, Daisy Kearley, Eleanor Niel, Lauren Hughes, Jacob Smith, Oscar Barr, Reuben Nawarycz, Jack Smith, Jack Sweeney, Milo Reed, Henry Halford, Ben Harle, Danny Kearley, Shane Mahon, Harvey Lloyd, Baeli Fern, Louis Doyle, Adam Smith, Craig Strachan, Harvey Lloyd, James Clews.