Arena League rd1 WIN WIN BOOM!
14 Oct 2011
Well, what a night that was! For the first time in a few years we won the first round of an arena legaue. In a fantasic night for our team we duked it out with the Cheadle team in what amounted to a straight fight for victory and in the end we managed turn around a 5 point gap to a 5 point win through the end of gala relays including a last gasp win on the Cannon in which the new coach Andy Daybell turn 2nd into 1st in the very last 50m of the race.We won most of our races on the relays which goes to prove what a team effort it was. Comments from a numerous amount of people who've done literally hundreds of galas between them said this was one of the best if not THE BEST they'd been to. The whole team really got behnd every swimmer and that was fantastic, and with a bit of positivity its amazing what happens!
One of our experienced team members: "In the past our good teams won because of the few talented swimmers we had, tonight's result was because it was an outstanding team effort" and this from a swimmer who has been in those teams.
Other highlights included Tom Davies bewidering 5 second PB on the backstroke, swimming in an age group above his own, talk about taking hold of an opportunity and running with it, absolutely incredible.
There were so many swims that were courageous and fighty and deserved credit even if they didn't realise maximum points because every one of those points counted, and thats why you should never ever give in as EVERY POINT COUNTS!
Somebody who did win and this will prove a point was John Edwards, and boy didn't everybody know about it. As he hit the wall, John was responsible for the most exuberant displays of passion/comedy genius of the evening. That was actually John's first ever win at the arena league, at 28, so there you go; that proves it with a bit of determination/work/improvement/luck/hope/genius nothing is impossible.
It'll be even harder next time out, but the gala was a real boost and as a club we need to dig in even more in traning and aim to do it all over again next time out, and even if we don't, if we can say we threw everything at it that will be more than good enough!