WORCESTER Swimming Club began their Speedo League campaign with an extremely tough Division One gala at Stechford.

With the teams including last year's winners City of Coventry and runners-up Perry Beeches, the swimming was of the highest standard with race victories hard to come by.

Oddly for Worcester, the highlight of the evening came in the final event.

Gordon Reeves, Chris Reeves, Jon Baylie, Dan Baylie, Richard Istead and Andy Lowe won the men's open front-crawl relay, narrowly beating a Coventry team that included internationals.

The only other relay team to record a win was the outstanding girls 15 and under squad.

Hope Weaver, Gabrielle Allen, Hayley Weaver and Zoe Turner cruised to first place in the medley.

The star of the show for Worcester, though, was undoubtedly Greg Everest with a brace of wins in the 11 and under age group.

Having won the 50-metre butterfly in a staggeringly quick 34.85 seconds, Everest also snatched a second victory in the 50m breaststroke, his least favourite discipline.

Then, joined by team-mates Luke McCluskey, Thomas Lane and Chris Hallam, who was second in the 50m freestyle, he only narrowly failed to make it three wins.

The boys were just edged out by a powerful Coventry team in the medley relay but there were three other individual wins for Worcester.

In the 13 and under 100m backstroke, Sammy Payne had too much class for her rivals.

In the 15 and under breaststroke, Dominique Allen put in a strong sub-one minute 20 second swim for a comfortable win.

By contrast, in the 15 and under 100m backstroke, Hope Weaver had to maintain her elegant stroke right to the finish to snatch

a finger-tip win.

There were many other fine swims and, for so early in the new season, lots of personal best times.

Although not recording wins, Emma Thompson (11 and under

backstroke), Nicole Gasic (11 and under breaststroke), Hayley Weaver (15 and under butterfly), Chloe Naughton (open butterfly) and Gordon Reeves (open backstroke) all caught the eye.

The final points tally was City of Coventry 255, Perry Beeches 217, Calverton (Notts) 181, Worcester 166, Halesowen 138 and Wolverhampton 88.

This leaves Worcester with much to do if last year's success of fourth in the league is to be repeated.

But the coaching staff were rightly pleased with the swimmers' strong showing against the Midlands' top teams.