LEDBURY swimmers were celebrating a brilliant team effort on Saturday night when they won the final round of the Wyvern Junior Swimming League to win the shield and the gold medals.

Having won all their previous rounds the team knew the trophy was theirs and although encouraged by their team captains, Lucinda Houghton and Luke Rycroft, to enjoy the gala and make as much noise as possible they were never complacent resulting in 21 personal best times and a winning margin of 34 points.

Throughout the league the 9 years squad have been impressive. Winning all their relays, Leah Heath, Sally Fitzpatrick, Gemma Laing, Katherine Berry, William Brown, Dan Adair, Michael Adair and Ben Butler added a valuable 24 points to the scoresheet.

The 10 year age group swimmers set a fine example with winning swims from Joe Bloxsome (fly), George Parsons (breaststroke), David Middleton (backstroke & freestyle), Rose Parsons (breaststroke) and Patty Holloway (backstroke).With the addition of team mates, Lucy Stokes, Alice Parsons, Charlie Green and Chris Leitch they also won both their freestyle and medley relay events.

George Bennion (11) was a key participant winning all three of his individual events, breaststroke, backstroke and butterfly with two new personal best times and contributing to the success of the 11/under relay teams, in which Chris Tedds also put in notably improved swims.

James Middleton was a clear winner in his 50m breaststroke event and together with, Iain Docherty, Thomas Stokes and Arron Almond won both the freestyle and medley relays in the 13/under age group.

Midway through LADASC had secured a 20 point lead from their closest rival, Hereford with Monmouth swimming well to keep in bronze position.

Although gaining new best times, Emma Fitzpatrick, Alison Pudge, Luke Rycroft, Eloise van Vuren, Thomas Stokes, Josie Rycroft and Alice Parsons could not finish fast enough for the top points.

There was particularly strong competition in the top age group, 15/under but the Ledbury girls proved to be the best in their medley relay. Lucinda Houghton started the race well with a strong length of backstroke to give a very determined Rachael Lea the opportunity of staying level with the Hereford squad and with a tremendous length of butterfly from Amy Tyler, anchor freestyle swimmer Lucy Bennion had just sufficient lead to be first to the touch.

For the cannon relay, swimmers are selected from the fastest times in each age group performed on the night with the youngest going first. Gemma Laing and William Brown showed they had earned their selection creating a lead right from the start. The 10 year olds were represented by Alice Parsons and David Middleton who rose to the exciting atmosphere adding to the cheers with fast lengths to give Eloise van Vuren and George Bennion some 6 metres gain.

Alison Pudge and Thomas Stokes were the 13 year old swimmers, both too experienced to make errors they were spot on with their take-overs and swam well to increase the lead for the final swimmers, Lucy Bennion and Luke Rycroft who although confident of not being caught put in 100 per cent effort to win the race, the gala and the league in great style.

The final scores were, Ledbury 265, Hereford 231, Monnow 209, Ross-on-Wye 159, Cwmbran 135 and Chepstow 91.

All the 36 swimmers were presented with a gold medal and received the shield, last won by Ledbury in 2001.

The captains expressed their appreciation on behalf of all the squad to the team managers, Jane Hinton and Andrew Heath and team coaches, Kevin Bloxsome, Marion Ainge and Gill Bethell.

Head coach Viv Jones said: "'The team have performed consistently well and enjoyed the competition. We will be sorry to lose some of our older age group swimmers including captains, Lucinda and Luke next year."