LEDBURY and District swimmers were in action at the eight-lane Gloucester pool over the weekend.

On Saturday the B team swam their PGL league final and on Sunday four A team swimmers, Thomas Stokes, David Middleton, George Parsons and Patty Holloway, were worthy ambassadors for LADASC. All swam well and recording pb times as part of the Worcester County team competing in an inter-county gala.

There were plenty of exciting races in the league final, as expected, and in many cases the swimmers were too close to separate without the use of the electronic timing.

Ledbury got off to a good start with the swimming but not the points. They suffered two speeding tickets within the first eight races when the 10-year-old medley relay swimmers Daniel Adair, Charlie Green, Chris Harwood, William Brown, Isabel Massey, Amelia Butler, Alice Quigley and Katherine Berry surpassed themselves and, with particularly fast breaststroke and butterfly lengths, exceeded the limited time allowed.

Alison Pudge (13/u), Michael Adair (10/u) and Leah Heath(10/u) won their individual butterfly events with new best times for Michael and Leah, who are still only in the nine years age group.

Chris Harwood (11/u) and Odge Davey(13/u), also swimming in events a year older than their age group, were winners in the freestyle, both with new best times. Jenna Clark (12/u) was another Ledbury winner following a superb breaststroke in a new personal best time.

Amelia Butler swam her fastest ever in the 10/u backstroke taking over a second off her previous best time but collected a speeding ticket. Rory Green won the 10/u breaststroke.

Cheltenham took an early lead with teams from Ludlow, Worcester, Ross-on-Wye, Glouc-ester, Wyre Forest and Stourbridge all chasing hard in every race.

Mid-way through the gala Ledbury were placed second with Ludlow seven points behind, a position they held until the final nine events, the freestyle relays.

Even a last-minute change of team could not make the 10-year boys slow enough not to exceed the time limit and that final speeding ticket allowed Ludlow the extra points to push Ledbury into the bronze medal position by one point.

Coach Viv Jones said: "The team performed well with 17 new best times recorded. Although the graded times makes the outcome of the galas somewhat unpredictable it gives the less experienced swimmers the opportunity to participate and hopefully be inspired by enjoying team swims.

"Unfortunately, we were missing some swimmers who have won their races in previous rounds. One of these was Ruari Smith Cooper, who has recently suffered a broken elbow, and having being instrumental in our success at all the other galas, was bitterly disappointed not to be able to swim the final. Following surgery we all wish him a speedy recovery."