LEDBURY & District ASC began the year with an impressive win in the first round of The Wyvern League at Monmouth.

This year's team captains, Lucinda Houghton and Luke Rycroft, led the team of 40 swimmers to victory scoring 274 points. Hereford were runners-up with 231 points, Monmouth 209, Ross-on-Wye 191 and Cwmbran 139.

With only a week of training from the Christmas break and missing five top squad swimmers, the team were determined to make up for any lack of fitness with sheer determination and enthusiasm. Some excellent dives and gutsy sprints helped win 16 of the 21 relays.

Representing the team for the first time as part of the nine years squad were Gemma Laing, Leah Heath, Katie Oliver, Rosie Owens, Michael Adair and Billy Wilce. Nerves and excitement were difficult to control but with team-mates William Brown, Daniel Adair and Harry Wilce all four relays were swum well with the boys winning both their freestyle and medley races and the girls finishing fourth. But most important there were no mistakes, so no disqualifications.

In the individual events there were 23 new personal best times including much sought after county qualifying freestyle times for Arron Almond (50m), David Middleton (50m), Alison Pudge (50m) Eloise van Vuren (50m) and Susan Pudge (100m).

Although finishing third in the backstroke, Rhys Davey, Chris Leitch and Patty Holloway all swam new, faster county entry times. Annabelle Wilce was just outside her best time but quick enough to win the 13/under 50m backstroke.

In the breaststroke events both Luke Rycroft (15/u) and Chris Tedds (11/u) led their race from start to to finish to both add valuable points for the team and enjoy personal achievement, gaining best times. James Middleton (13/u) Emily Klimek (13/u) and Rose Parsons (11/u) also swam new personal bests.

Ledbury swimmers showed well in the butterfly events with superb wins over 50 metres for Hannah Bloxsome and Thomas Stokes in the 13/under age group, both improving their county entry times.

The 15/under swimmers, Amy Tyler and Luke Rycroft, were under pressure but fought hard to keep at the front only to lose ground in the final 10 metres to finish a worthy second with new best times.

Joe Bloxsome showed consistency in the 25m butterfly sprint as he competed in both his own age group, the 10 years and also the older (11/u). Winning both, he contributed a welcome 12 points to the Ledbury score sheet. Also scoring a double in the 10 year age group 25m sprints, David Middleton stormed ahead to win the freestyle in a very fast 15.78 seconds and the backstroke in 19.25, both personal best times.

Caitlin Clark won the girls' freestyle, Patty Holloway the backstroke and Lucy Stokes and George Parsons won breaststroke races. All the swimmers recorded personal best times.

As always, there was much excitement surrounding the selection of the cannon relay consisting of the fastest boy and girl freestylers in each age group for the final event. The swimmers are selected from the times of their earlier gala performance.

It was a thrilling task for Gemma Laing to start the race in her first team gala, she proved her worth finishing slightly ahead of the other girls. Representing the nine years boys, William Brown swam a fast length in under 19 seconds to hand over to the 10-year-olds, Caitlin Clark and David Middleton. Having both won their individual freestyle sprints, they were confident in being able to extend the lead to enable Eloise van Vuren and George Parsons keep ahead of the strong Cwmbran team.

In the 13/under age group, Hannah Kirby and Tom Stokes knew they couldn't be complacent as Cwmbran had winning swimmers in both this and the oldest age group. They kept on the pressure to give the captains, Lucinda Houghton and Luke Rycroft the opportunity to stay relaxed at the take over to avoid any possibility of disqualification and enjoy the winning cheers of their team and supporters.