EVERY year after the individual Devon County Amateur Swimming Association's Championships and Age-groups, an Inter-Club Championship is staged, whereby 18 of the top clubs in Devon come head-to-head in a team competition.

This year, 17 clubs entered and Kelly College hosted the event for the first time in their history. Kelly are a small club compared with most of the clubs in Devon so this was a big challenge and the swimmers really rose to the occasion.

Kelly won 14 of the 37 events with seven second places and seven third positions.

This is an occasion when the swimmers are encouraged to 'let their hair down' and make as much noise as they can, but even with this licence, some great swimming was seen.

Kelly had one winner in the 11 and under age-group, Joshua Lake in the 50m breaststroke (39.41).

The boys showed the girls the way in the 13 and under age-group with Jack Cockerton, 50m breaststroke (33.71) and 50m backstroke (31.30) and Jack Williams, 50m freestyle (27.23) winning their events.

In the 15 and under age-group the girls came back with a clean sweep, winning all four events, Jemma Coates, 100m breaststroke (1.17.31), Elaine Reyes, 100m freestyle (1.00.47) and Sarah Thomas, 100m backstroke (1.07.43) and 100m butterfly (1.06.35), while the boys had Jonathan Wills 100m freestyle (56.38) their sole winner.

The open events again saw the girls in control with Samantha Calcutt 100m freestyle(59.37) and 100m butterfly (1.05.34) and Rachel Banfield 100m backstroke (1.05.25) taking first place.

Of the five relays Kelly College won two, the mixed 13 and under with Whitney Bowring, Jack Cockerton, and Brikitta Batten, with Jack Williams swimming a superb anchor leg to bring the team home just .13 of a second in front of the next team.

A similar thing happened in the mixed open relay of Rachel Banfield, Russell Page-Dove, and Samantha Calcutt, with Rob Pratt, team captain, putting in an amazing anchor leg to overtake two teams and touch first.

This event was an exciting and challenging day for all concerned and at their first attempt Kelly College came second overall, being sandwiched between two big city clubs. First was Plymouth Leander (571), second Kelly College (533.5) and third Exeter City (501.5).

l Louise Amery, aged 15, of Kelly College, recently made the transition from swimmer to triathlete. Last weekend she made a successful debut at the Chester Triathlon by coming first in the Youth Age Group. The triathlon consisted of a 200-yard swim, four-mile bike ride and a one-mile run, which Louise completed in 25 minutes.