Bideford bay slsc: March 2011

The long winter of stillwater training culminated this weekend with the National Nippers and Youth stillwater events taking place at the Cardiff International pool, or at the Pwll Rhyngwladol Caerdydd as the Welsh would say.

Before we get down to the nitty gritty firstly a massive thanks to everyone involved in the competition, especially team manager of both the Nipper and Youth team Paul Tobin and Mr time keeper himself Jeff Spencer who spent something in the region of 20hrs on poolside over the two days. Thanks also to Paul Coles, Stan Pyle and Mr.Chavasse for their efforts. And finally a massive thanks to all the parents that came along and gave their all in support of the kids.

After the 4:30am departure time hopes were high for a good day with the nippers and we weren't disappointed. After a mega effort from all of the competitors and a huge haul of medals we finished an amazing fifth out of 17 teams! The top five placings are below,

Woolacombe SLSC 1559 points

Portreath SLSC 1254 points

St.Ives SLSC 1181 points

Saunton SLSC 942.25 points

BIDEFORD BAY SLSC 922 points

Sunday morning started early again with the added bonus of the clocks changing to leave us all with an hour less in bed. Never the less the twelve strong youth team all arrived on time (we all know how hard that is for teenagers!) for the eight a.m warm-up. The standard at the contest was very high this year and for many of our competitors it was their first time of competing at a national level. Undeterred by this everyone put in a top notch performance and the day was thoroughly enjoyed by all. At the time of going to press there were no results available for the youths but they'll be posted as soon as they become available.

Once again well done to everybody for a fantastic weekend and thanks to the team at SLSGB for organising the event.

One last quick thanks to everyone that has been helping out at the training session this winter as all your hard work is paying off!