Meet Report - Barnsley Minor League Round 1
Last Sunday at Dearne Valley leisure Centre the club ticked off a significant milestone by competing in it’s very first Barnsley Minor League fixture and in turn re-establishing meaningful competitive swimming for all swimmers throughout our growing club.
Coincidentally this weekend perfectly demonstrated the full spectrum of opportunity available at Doncaster DARTES, with our National (and some Regional) squad athletes over at Ponds Forge at a level 1 meet hoping to log early qualifying times for this summer’s Nationals, whilst at the same time swimmers from each of our 5 squads combining to form the club’s team for the BML fixture. Swimming for all! From National level to local ‘grass routes’ racing! Well done to everybody involved.
So, to the BML, following a few corrections to the score card the final points were as follows with DARTES taking 2nd spot behind local club Edlington – Congratulations to the Stingrays on a deserved victory.
Edlington 118
Doncaster DARTES 96
Knottingley 74
5 DQ’s on the day hit us hard which is something which we need to learn from fast for the next fixture in June. Of those 5 events, had we not been DQ’d we would have scored an additional 13 points. On top of this our 10 yrs boys team were left a swimmer short due to a mid-week call off which meant that they were unable to compete for points in either of their relay events, seeing an additional 6 points go begging. Both are areas we can easily and quickly fix for the next time around which should help us to push Edlington for the top spot!
The main take away from the gala however is how fantastically well all of our swimmers performed and how great it was to be part of a vibrant league competition which appeared to be enjoyed by swimmers and parents alike. It is always difficult to pick out individual performances in a team environment however the following particularly stood out to me;
Not strictly an individual performance, but the 5 young members of our Academy Squad (yes I am a little bit biased!) really stood up to be counted in what must have been a noisy and intimidating atmosphere for them. You wouldn’t have known it though as Emily-Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Debenham, Charles Mclean, Gregorz Pradon and Charlie Kershaw all took it in their stride and competed like seasoned pro’s! Charlie Kershaw (9) even swam up an age group (or two) in the 12 years relay events. Well done all, I’m proud of you.
For the girls Lucia Mclennan and Jess Moore posted several impressively dominant individual event performances whilst contributing to strong relay and cannon showings. Both girls should take lots of confidence from their swims and look to build on them for the rest of this season – I’m sure there is much more to come.
Finally, a big thank you to Victoria Debenham, Amy Mclennan, Danielle Gillani and Harry Ainslie for volunteering your time to assist in officiating and managing the gala. We couldn’t do it without you.
The next BML fixture is on the 25th June and is our home gala at Rossington. Please get the date in your diary and confirm your availability as soon as the meet is opened on the app. We will need lots of volunteers to assist on the day so please drop me a message or grab me for a chat at the pool if you think you may be able to help.
A copy of the results, times and splits can be found here >>> /ddsc/UserFiles/Image/QuickUpload/bml-time-splits-12-03-23_001899.pdf
Adam
