Skipton Cruise to Title

This Saturday saw the final round of the Pennine Shield Galas for 2006. This year's series has been decided over three legs rather than the traditional four, this change was due to cancellation of the Bingley leg and complications with obtaining pool hire and a suitable date for all the teams involved. Skipton went into this final leg with a commanding lead of 235.5 points from Bingley's 200.5, Ilkley's 154 and West Craven's 127. This lead was the result of convincing wins in the first two rounds held at West Craven, in April and Skipton in June. As the evenings competition got underway with the backstroke section it looked unlikely that Skipton would face a serious challenge for the title, with the Skipton swimmers taking six of the first eight events and 29 points from a possible 32, with Megan Horbury, Joe Stapleton, Olivia Porter, Kelly Bucke, James Smith and Sam Westcott all collecting maximum points for their club. As the event moved into the Breaststroke section, Lucia Gardner, Rachel Casper, Ally Gannon and Rachael Scrivin all continued to expand Skipton's lead by showing a clean par of heels to the opposition and winning their respective events. The young Skipton squad were keen to display their, well-practiced technical skills in the Butterfly events and further extended their lead, with Kieran Belk, Lucy Shearer, Philip Foster-Dennison also recording maximum points. With 82 points on the board already and still the freestyle events and relays to come the shield was destined for the Trophy cabinet at Craven Pool and the Skipton swimmers could relax and enjoy the racing. Lucia Gardner and Sophie O'Hara were also joining the growing list of maximum point winners in the freestyle and in the relays the teams all worked well together ensuring still more points in the bank without risking disqualification from over-eager takeovers. Although there were many wins for Skipton on the night there were also some excellent team performances the most notable being with Annabel Howarth who collected two fine second places competing in the next age group up along with Emine Karsli. Ally Gannon and Rachael Scrivin although more experienced were also competing above their age group and also collecting maximum points in their favoured events. Chris Brier made sure of a careful second placed finish in his breaststroke event to ensure no further damage to a broken finger and Paige Almack representing the team for the first time showed a competitive edge and competed well, narrowly missing second place in a closely fought breaststroke event. By the end of the evening Skipton had collected 125 points on the night, to give an overall total of 360.5, with Bingley in second on 299.5 Ilkley in third on 230 and west Crave in fourth on 195. Throughout the series the young Skipton team have performed to a high standard, they will need to need to continue to work hard in training to maintain this level in the hope that they can take this form into next seasons campaign.