THE Worcester club continued its excellent 2014 by securing a place in the West Midlands final of the National League.

This is the most prestigious club competition of the year and competing in the Premier Division, the standard of swimming is exceptionally high The successful Worcester team now look forward to a final at which they will compete against the best of the best including for City of Derby with double Commonwealth and European 100m breaststroke champion Adam Peaty.

Round two saw Worcester renew its rivalry with Bicester plus 2013 league champions, Boldmere, who proved worthy runaway winners on the night.

With a place in the final for the top two teams only, it was always going to require a special effort and the Worcester swimmers duly obliged, stepping up on an excellent round one performance.

In the end, it came down to the narrowest of margins with Worcester pipping Bicester by just one point for that invaulable second place.

The final points were Boldmere 248, Worcester 178, Bicester 177, Stourbridge 152, Chase 148, Long Eaton 142.

Worcester victories were hard to come by with just five, all in the under 13 age group.

Olivia Fletcher continued her rich run of form with a remarkable one minute 2.91 seconds to win the 100m freestyle, while Sophie Davis produced a stunning personal best of 1.22.52 to win the 100m breaststroke.

Unsurprisingly, the girls were unstoppable in the relays, taking both the medley and freestyle. Jenny Gearey, Amy Owens, Charlotte Hall and Ellie McGinnes combining successfully with Fletcher and Davis to dominate.

The only other Worcester win came in the boys under 13 100m freestyle where Kai Gooden-Morris led all the way to record a personal best and earn his team six vital points There were many other fine Worcester performances too, highlighted by George Glover (2nd u11 50m breaststroke), Lucy Clayton (2nd u15 100m breaststroke), Megan Willetts (2nd open 200m individual medley and 100m backstroke) and Robin Williams (2nd open 100m butterfly.

There was also the excellent u11 boys squad of Daniel Day, Tom Cox, Max Rice, Sam Hartley and Isaac Shepherd who finished second in both the freestyle and medley relays.

Overall, Worcester finished 1st, 2nd or 3rd in exactly half of the 50 events, but based on top three places alone, the team would have finished well behind Bicester. It was strength in depth that sawWorcester eventually squeeze home narrowly ahead of the talented Bicester squad.