The first of the 3 diddy galas this year was held at Bridport on 18th April with competition from Yoevil, West Dorset Warriors, Bath, Warminster and Frome it was clear this was going to be quite a hard first gala.

Every one swum very well, we had 6 firsts with individual wins from Emily Clutterbuck, Natasha Dale, Sophie Sutton, Thomas Letchford & Andrew Stevenson. The 11 year old boys, Brady, Dylan, Thomas and Matt also won the medley relay. Unfortunately we sustained 5 disqualifications during proceedings.

The final points for the gala was as follows:- 1st Yoevil (224), 2nd West Dorset Warriors (204), 3rd Bath Dolphins (195), 4th Trowbridge (168), 5th Warminster (104) and 6th Frome (103).

All enjoyed the gala, for most of the 9 year olds it was their first ever gala and they all performed and behaved very well.

Next gala on 16th May was a bit nearer home at Bath, but this one looked really tough with completion from Swindon SX3, Southwold, Keynsham, Bath and Thornbury.

We were short on swimmers especially in the 12 & U boys where we only had Jorden Edwards and Jamie Towner meaning we would have to swim 10 and 11 year olds up in the relays and some of the individual events. The 12 year old girls got us our first win in the medley relay, well done to Emily, Rebecca, Emma Davis and Emma Moxan.

Emily quickly followed this up with another win in the individual butterfly . Charlotte Stubbs got our final win in the 10 year old backstroke. We only had two disqualifications this gala and every one swum very well with some big improvements by many of the swimmers especially in the younger age groups. The final places and points were as follows:- 1st Swindon SX3 (255), 2nd Southwold (192), 3rd Keynsham (173), 4th Bath Dolphins (165), 5th Trowbridge (163) and 6th Thornbury (64).

It had been very close between us and Bath all gala and unfortunately being disqualified from the Cannon at the end cost us 4th place. It was a great performance from all to close the gap to Bath from 27 points down to 2.

For the last of the 3 galas we were back at Bridport on 20th June against some familiar competition from Bath (again!), Keynsham, Soundwell, Bristol Central and Tornadoes of South Dorset. Having been beaten earlier in the year by Keynsham and Bath and knowing that Soundwell were very strong it looked like another 4th place was on the cards.

Thankfully no one had told the kids and they all swam out of their skins, putting in their best performance of the year by far. The first of our 8 wins came in the 4th race with the 10 year old boys of Will, Michael, Tom and Daniel dominating the medley relay. Emily Clutterbuck took another convincing win in the butterfly.

Jordan Taylor then had two well deserved wins for the 9 year olds in the breaststroke and butterfly, Chloe and Emma Davies then won the freestyle and backstroke respectively. The 10 year old girls had a dominant win in the freestyle relay, well done Charlotte, Ellie, Sophie and Chloe. Our final win was an absolutely outstanding performance by all in the cannon.

There were truly outstanding performances by all the swimmers but none more so than Dylan who took over 4s of his p.b. in the breaststroke, fantastic swimming. After a little discussion it was announced that we had drawn for first place with Soundwell, but as they had more wins than us they were given the win.

After studying the results the Soundwell head coach noticed that the points had not been deducted for the 10 year old they declared and swum in the 9 year old relays. This resulted in a win for us, the trophy was handed over on the bus and it was chips for all on the way home.

The final positions and points were as follows:- 1st Trowbridge (192), 2nd Soundwell (186), 3rd Bath Dolphins (183),4th Keynsham (171), 5th Tornadoes of South Dorset (149) and 6th Bristol Central.