Match Report: North Lancs ‘B’ Team – 12 March
From our poolside reporter, Jayne Elliott
On Saturday 12th March the Senior B team travelled by coach to Blackpool to compete in the second of three events in the 2022 North Lancashire Swim League.
Having finished 4th in their first match in January the team were keen to equal – or better – their first performance.
Round 2 saw them compete again against four ‘A’ teams from Ormskirk, Clitheroe, Lancaster and Garstang, and against B teams from Preston and Blackpool Aquatics.
The fact that Leyland manage to run two teams in this competition is a fantastic achievement – but also incredibly demanding on time for Team Managers, the Chief Coach and a dedicated – and much valued – group of volunteers. It does however give the opportunity for as many of our swimmers as possible to compete in team competitions and to represent the club.
The North Lancashire event consists of 38 races comprising 50 metre individual races and 4 x 50 metre medley and freestyle relays with a mixed 4 x 50 metre medley cannon starting proceedings and a 6 x 50 metre freestyle cannon relay bringing the competition to a noisy end!
We saw some great swims and although the team only picked up one individual win – and no team relay wins – there was some good, consistent swimming with every point won counting towards the final score.
The results sheets again showed up an impressive number of personal best times across all the age groups.
Over 38 events Leyland swimmers clocked up an impressive 26 pbs between them with pbs going to Adam Jacobs, Olivia Robinson, Hailey Ballantyne, Brandon Davies, Kyle Mckenna, Jemima Buglass, Jessica Monk, Finlay Metcalfe, Leo Taylor, Jameson Hall, Oscar Arkwright, Amy-Jo Worden, Jamie Weetman and Natalia Lawton-Jimenez.
Star of the day was Kyle Mckenna who has struggled since November with injury. Kyle swam 25. 42 in the Gents Open 4 x 50 metre freestyle relay helping secure third place and then won the individual Gents Open 50 metre freestyle in another impressive time of 25.77 before getting a pb swimming the breaststroke leg in the Gents Open 4 x 2L Medley team in a time of 33.03 before then swimming 25.97 in the Mixed 6 x 2 length freestyle cannon.
A special mention also goes to Mia Ascroft who wasn’t originally picked for the team. Mia kindly offered to miss training on Saturday afternoon and travel with the team to help as a marshall only to find out that the team were a swimmer down and she needed to bring her costume!
Overall team managers Vicki Pickup and Paul Ascroft, and Head Coach Gillian Rankin were again delighted with the team’s performance against some tough competition.
The final result is still to be officially published but the B team finished again in a well-deserved 4th place.
1st – Preston B 248 points
2nd Ormskirk 219 points
3rd – Clitheroe 200 points
4th – Leyland B 173 points
5th – Lancaster 165 points
6th – Blackpool B 148 points
7th – Garstang 133 points