LEDBURY & District swimmers had a busy weekend resulting in very mixed fortunes.

Ten top juniors were competing in the prestigious Coventry Open Junior meet on both Saturday and Sunday with the intention of acquiring or improving their Midland District qualifying times.

As always the swimmers were very supportive of each other but in such a vast pool, with few spectators, the atmosphere was sadly lacking, making it extremely difficult for the competitors to feel geared up for an exciting race.

Disappointment set in early when in the first event, the 400m Individual Medley 11-year-old Thomas Stokes swam to a national qualifying time only to suffer a disqualification due to stroke technicality in the butterfly.

James Middleton finished fourth in this age group with a much improved personal best time, Patrick Blake was 5th as was Rhys Davey in the 12 years age group. James was disappointed not to improve on his best event, the 200m breaststroke but was pleased to reap the rewards of improved stamina with another personal best in the 400m freestyle.

George Bennion had a successful meet, he was the winner of the 10 years 200m breaststroke with a new improved Midland District time, 10th in the 400m freestyle with a new pb, second in the 200m butterfly, second in the 200m Individual Medley in new personal best, all of which put him into second place for the overall best in age group.

The Ledbury girls, Emma Fitzpatrick, Hannah Kirby, Annabelle Wilce and Charlie Scott Wilson agreed that the experience of swimming in the long course pool was beneficial despite being disappointed with their performances.

The best swims came at the end of the programme on Sunday with Luke Rycroft, George Bennion and Rhys Davey all achieving personal best times in the 200m IM with the added bonus of both George and Rhys gaining their District times.

Head Coach Viv Jones said: "This has been a perfect opportunity for the swimmers to practice for the district championships which are held at this pool in June.

"We were very fortunate to have funding from Unsung Music which allowed us to take over 40 swimmers to Bath University for a training session in their 50m pool, a fortnight ago.

"All district and national events are held in 50m pools and with five swimmers at districts and one in the nationals they are at a distinct disadvantage by being not used to that size."

Meanwhile on Saturday night other LADASC swimmers were determined to be a success at a friendly team fixture against Newent and Cinderford.

With a weakened junior side, it was the responsibility of the older swimmers to create as many points as possible. LADASC Masters coach, Helen Evans and ex-captain Jamie Dunn ably led the open oge group swimmers, Hywel Pothecary, Thomas James, Laura West and Sarah Bethell to victory in seven of their 10 events.

In the 14/u category, Luke Rycroft and Rachael Lea were individual winners, Richard Hill made his debut team performance in the relays and along with Mark Hinton, Ruari Smith Cooper and Arron Almond, netted maximum points to the team.

Hannah Bloxsome and Arron Almond won the 12/u 50m fly races, Annabelle Wilce was the backstroke winner and Alison Pudge won the breaststroke. With the addition of Jessica Hunt these girls also won both their relay events.

The youngest swimmers faced very tough opposition with only Patty Holloway (backstroke) and Olivia Hunt (breaststroke) winning their individual races and with team mates, Caitlin Clark and Lucy Stokes taking top points in the freestyle relay. Reserve swimmers, Jonathan Lea, Iain Docherty and John Vince all swam extremely well under pressure and helped boost the points.

As always the final event was the cannon race with double points.

Caitlin Clark and Joe Bloxsome got away well but with close competition from both opponents, Alison Pudge and Arron Almond had to work hard to keep an advantage for Lucy Bennion and Luke Rycroft representing the 14/u age group. A superb dive by Helen Evans increased the lead to give Jamie Dunn a comfortable finish and the all important points.

The gala concluded with Ledbury 106, Cinderford 94 and Newent 46.