LEDBURY and District SC swimmers retained the Penguin Pairs Trophy for the third consecutive year winning 45 of the 58 events against teams from Ross-on-Wye and Beaufort.

The gala consists of 25m sprints and two-man relay teams. It provides the opportunity for the 9/u swimmers to experience their first individual races and for some swimmers their first team selection.

The more seasoned team members, Hannah Bloxsome (butterfly), Heather Farmer and Ruari Smith Cooper (backstroke) started the gala in style with wins in their races, before a rather nervous Emily Klimek stepped on the block for her debut swim in the 10/u breaststroke. With great support from the team she started well and focused on the finish, steadily pulling away from the opposition to take first place with a new personal best time.

In the youngest age group 9/u Lucy Stokes and David Middleton were totally focused for their individual freestyle races and both demonstrated perfect race skills to finish first and establish new personal best times. Other freestyle wins went to Jessica Hunt and Patrick Blake in the 10/u age group, both with new pb's, Alison Pudge and Ruari Smith Cooper (pb) in the 11/u and a great win in the 12/u from a much improved Susan Pudge also with a new best time.

The youngest swimmer was eight-year-old Caitlin Clark who improved her Club Championship record breaking 25m butterfly time from last week to win the 9/u race in a fast 19.54. Joe Bloxsome was the winner in the boys' race. Other butterfly success went to Arron Almond (11/u) Hannah Bloxsome (11/u and 12/u) and Katie Batley (10/u).

Charlie Scott Wilson was superb in her breaststroke, demonstrating a powerful dive she led all the way and picked up a new pb. George Bennion was the winner of the 10/u breaststroke with James Middleton winning the 11/u and both in personal best times.

Also swimming in the 9/u age group Patti Holloway and Liam Almond enjoyed their individual backstroke races, working hard on a good start and counting their strokes to finish correctly at the wall they were both rewarded with personal best times. Victoria Watkins (10/u), Thomas Stokes (10/u) and Annabelle Wilce (12/u) were all backstroke winners.

Notable swims from Amber Watson, Emma Fitzpatrick, George Parsons, Olivia Hunt, Bradley Smith, Olivia Powell and Richard Jones all helped to pile up the points leaving Ledbury the champions with 213 points, Ross-on-Wye 183 and Beaufort 102.

Coach Viv Jones said: "I was pleased we retained the trophy and proud of all the team especially the 9/Us and those selected for the first time. Many of the swimmers had the opportunity of swimming a different stroke which was reflected in the achievement of pb's in a third of the races. All our swimmers consistently have to work at their race techniques during training and at this gala it was this discipline that really set us above the other competitors."