Dolphin “A” Snatch Victory in Moonraker Thriller
Event: Moonraker Summer League Finals Venue: Trowbridge (A Team, Division 1), Link Centre (C Team, Division 4) Date: 19th September 2009
With the overall winner of the Moonraker Summer League decided on cumulative points from all three rounds, Swindon Dolphin “A” went into the final contest last Saturday needing to win by at least 18 points over league leaders Trowbridge “A” in order to claim the title.
The odds were stacked against a Dolphin victory with the 50 event final taking place at Trowbridge’s home pool and with a largely unchanged line-up from the team that finished runners-up to the hosts in the second round.
Dolphin made a solid start to the meet with six wins from the first ten events and started to chip away at the 18 point margin needed for victory. The run of good form continued with wins in the majority of races, although it was not until event 43 that they had turned the 18 point deficit into an eight point advantage. Trowbridge, however, were far from finished and pulled off some terrific first places over the next four events to pull back to within 3 points of Dolphin. The title would therefore be decided on the outcome of the final three wins and with two clear victories for Dolphin, the trophy was theirs for the second year running.
Moonraker A Team Captains Liam Herbert and Kath Baker
Chief Coach, Louise Clayton commented “I was pleased with the quality of swims overall and particularly the way many of our wins came from maintaining strength in the second half of the race”.
It was clear that this good back-end speed played a major part in the Dolphin victory and must surely be a sign of things to come with the first of this season’s open meets only weeks away.
Final gala result: Swindon Dolphin A 126, Trowbridge A 104, Bradford on Avon 69
Overall Division 1 result: Swindon Dolphin A 323, Trowbridge A 318, Bradford on Avon 257
The Link Centre meanwhile played host to the Division 4 final with Dolphin “C” team in action against Wootton Bassett, Wroughton and Melksham. A noisy and enthusiastic crowd watched the four teams battle it out with Wootton Bassett clear victors ahead of Wroughton with Dolphin “C” a creditable third.
The meet was the ideal opportunity for many of the development squad swimmers to get in some early season practice before making their assaults on next year’s county and regional qualifying times.
Final gala result: Wootton Bassett 162, Wroughton 144, Swindon Dolphin C 108, Melksham 85
Overall Division 4 result: Wootton Bassett 482, Wroughton 439, Swindon Dolphin C 363, Melksham 158
