LEDBURY swimmers enthusiastically began their 2006 fixtures at their home pool on Saturday when they competed against, Hereford, Cwmbran, Chepstow and Ross-on-Wye in the first round of the Wyvern Junior League.

As defending champions, they were anxious to get maximum points and showed their determination by winning nine of the first 10 events.

With some great performances, maximum winning points came Gemma Laing and Daniel Adair in the 10 years' 25m backstroke, Katie Batley and Thomas Stokes in the 13/u butterfly and Rose and George Parsons in the 11/u 50m breaststroke, with all six recording personal best times.

This gave LADASC an 18-point lead over closest rivals, Hereford. A succession of wins in the freestyle relays from both the boys and girls in the 9s, 10/u, 11/u and 13/u plus the 15/u boys' team helped boost the lead to 26 points after 20 events.

Team captains, Annabelle Wilce and Richard Jones were on hand to encourage the younger swimmers, especially the squad of Laura Quigley, Leah Heath, Sally Fitzpatrick, Gemma Laing, Alexander Middleton, Ben Butler, Billy Wilce and Michael Adair, who convincingly won both their freestyle and medley relays in their 9 years age group.

The team maintained their lead over the next 10 events, Patty Holloway won the 11/u two lengths' backstroke with a strong swim resulting in a new improved time by over two seconds. Tom Stokes was also a backstroke winner in the 13/u age group and Gemma Laing enjoyed her second win of the gala in the 10yrs one length freestyle. With notable swims from Alice Quigley, Alice Parsons, Katherine Berry, Rosie Owen, Eloise van Vuren, Hannah Kirby, Jenna Clark and Emily Docherty, the girls showed well in the medley relay races, winning in the 9/u, 11/u, 13/u and 15/u age groups and a close second in the 10 years.

The boys were equally impressive with good form showed by Jake Kirby, William Brown, Odge Davey, Chris Leitch, George Bennion, Rhys Davey and Arron Almond to bring the total of winning relays to 16 out of 20 races.

Although holding a comfortable lead, the swimmers battled on with some exciting breaststroke races. Twelve-year-old Emma Fitzpatrick swam a gritty 100m race against the older girls in the 15/u category to win by a touch whilst 15-year-old Luke Rycroft was over a quarter of a length ahead in his event. Eleven-year-old Lucy Stokes, also swimming in an age group higher (13/u), was a clear winner of the 50m race in a new personal best time and James Middleton won the 13/u boys event. Freddie van Vuren swam a hugely improved time to win the 25m race in the 10 years category.

In butterfly, Joe Bloxsome (11/u) was quick off his block for the 25m sprint, using strong kicks he emerged ahead from the dive and held onto that advantage to win the race.

David Middleton (11/u) was a clear winner in his 50m freestyle as was Thomas Stokes (13/u), winning his third event of the gala.

As always, the entire team were keen to lend vocal support to the cannon relay swimmers in the concluding event. It was a nerve- wracking moment for eight-year-old Laura Quigley, swimming for the first time for this A team, to get the race off to a good start. A good take-over by Michael Adair, followed by a fast length kept LADASC in touch with the leading team, Hereford and slightly ahead of Ross-on-Wye.

Gemma Laing and William Brown were the 10-year-old swimmers, both swimming strongly and increasing the pressure on the Hereford squad.

Superb swimming by Caitlin Clark and David Middleton pushed Ledbury into the lead with 13/u swimmers, Emily Klimek and Tom Stokes working extremely hard to give the final swimmers, Hannah Bloxsome and Richard Jones sufficient lead to romp home with a comfortable win.

The final scores were: Ledbury 289, Hereford 242, Ross 189, Cwmbran 165 and Chepstow 147.