THANKS to a joint funding effort by Meadowlands Pool, West Devon Borough Council and Tavistock Swimming Club, there are now four diving blocks available at every training session for Tavistock Swimming Club swimmers.
Tavistock Swimming Club raised funds by having a fun night in December with raffle prizes generously donated by the following Tavistock area businesses and individuals: Meadowlands Pool (Manager Rob Whitehead), The Rock Inn at Yelverton, Mr and Mrs Barnes, Bookstop, Lakes Pharmacy, Kaleidoscope, Scruples, Mrs Langton, Calstock Post Office, Mrs Jarman, Cornish Arms, Acorn Florists, Rita Lewis, Natural Nomads, Mainly Stationery, Boots, Woolworths, Roland Bailey, MacDonalds, C J Down, Photo-Stop, Mrs Coleman, Steps, Morwellam Quay, The Wharf, Ayres Sports, Whizkidz.
The blocks will give the swimmers the enormous advantage of being able to practice starts and relay take-overs. They were only previously able to do at one session per week. Thanks were also expressed to Mrs Brenda Alexander who put in many hours of work to make the swimming club a set of much needed backstroke flags.
Tavistock Swimming Squad put in a tremendous effort in their first gala of the year on Saturday when they travelled to Bath to compete against strong opposition from Bath Dolphins, Blackwell, Chard, Torridgeside and Truro.
With some of the opposing teams from the premier and first divisions, Tavistock were faced with an insurmountable task and found themselves chasing the other teams in many of the races and finishing in sixth position overall.
However, all was not lost as their training and determination paid dividends with many personal best times achieved. With the 10/under events unusually all being 50m and the 12/under all 100m, credit must go to the younger, less experienced swimmers who took these distances in their stride and gave 100% effort.
Due to the age grouping, many of the Tavistock squad were swimming up at least one age group, sometimes a few age groups up to the opens.
Gareth Williams had a terrific swim in the men's open 100m fly, taking an early lead which he maintained to take Tavistock's only first place.
Team captain Richard Freedman swam a personal best to second place in the boys' 16/u 100m free, narrowly missing first place by a couple of hundredths of a second. Rebecca Mills, 12, was just beaten into second place in the 12/u 100m fly as was 12-year-old Caroline Ball in the 14/u 100m fly, both girls having excellent swims.
A strong swim also gave Gareth third in the men's open 100m free. Christopher Ralph achieved a Western Counties qualifying time swimming in the 16/u 100m breast.
April Holbrook, representing Tavistock for the first time, swam well in two of the 10/u relays. Greg Barnes produced an outstanding personal best time in the 12/u 100m free, taking a massive 16 seconds off his previous best time.
Other personal best times: Richard Freedman 6sec pb 100m breast; Hannah Ball 3.5pb 10/u 50m back; Rachael Kelly 1.4pb 14/u 100m back, Freddy Luesby 7.3pb 14/u 100m free, William Crocker 1.4pb 14/u 100m free, Tom Crocker 6.6pb 10/u 50m fly; Rufus Gould 1.4pb 10/u 50m free; Holly Chinn 0.4pb 16/u 100m fly; Michael Best 2.5pb 14/u 100m breast; Megan Fell 5.3pb Open 100m free.
Head coach Paul Chinn felt the squad performed extremely well against stiff opposition, illustrated by their improved times. Assistant coach Rachael Warnett said there was good team support on poolside, especially from the younger swimmers.
Squad members: Richard Freedman (captain), Megan Fell, April Holbrook, Caroline Ball, Hannah Ball, Joshua Stevens, Rebecca Mills, Jake Broome, Jessica Barnes, Rachael Kelly, Jason Butler, Lisa Butler, Gareth Williams, Ellen Megicks, Adam Browner, Alice Warnett, Christopher Ralph, Freddy Luesby, William Crocker, Tom Crocker, Francesca Gould, Greg Barnes, Alison Kelly, Sebastian Lee, Sam Broome, Millie Chinn, Rufus Gould, Kirsty Best, Caroline Tuck, Marc Kerswill, Holly Chinn, Amy Warnett, Michael Best.
Anyone wishing to join the swimming club can contact head coach Paul Chinn on 810168 for further information.