ONCE again Ledbury swimmers were centre stage at the Worcester County Champion-ships for 9-year-old relay teams and 10-year-old individual swimmers, held at Wolver-hampton on Sunday.

Although a minority, Ledbury parents made themselves heard as they cheered the success of two winning relay teams. Having enjoyed recent success in league galas, Ledbury's hopes were high for the boys freestyle team and although having an unfortunate draw, swimming in a slow heat, they remained focused and went all out for a time to secure their place in the final.

Lead swimmer, James Middleton showed nerves of steel as he held his mark, completely still, concentrating on the start signal, he kept abreast of the other seven lanes to hand over to George Bennion who attacked his length with immense energy giving Patrick Blake a slight lead to build on, which he duly did with a strong swim to enable anchor swimmer Thomas Stokes to swim the fastest length and collect the much coveted gold medals.

The girls' freestyle team, Emily Docherty, Kate Docherty, Katie Batley and Jessica Hunt, were clearly inspired by this performance and in the following final swam far better than expected to be rewarded with bronze medals.

The mixed medley relay brought unexpected success with 32 teams entered and some of the bigger clubs being represented by as many as six teams, the two teams from Ledbury seemed an unlikely threat.

Showing determination both the A and B teams secured places in the fastest eight to go through to the final. Thomas Stokes who has recently been awarded the County Top Boy shield in his age group put Ledbury A into the lead on the very first length with a terrific backstroke swim, Kate Docherty took over with breaststroke and fought gamely to hold the lead handing over to George Bennion for the butterfly just a split second behind Reddiitch A. With a huge dive and strong underwater kicks George emerged in front and powered down the pool to give the freestyler, Jessica Hunt sufficient lead to swim a confident and fast length to victory.

Ledbury B finished 7th following great swims from Bradley Smith, backstroke, Katie Batley, breaststroke, Patrick Blake, fly and Emily Docherty, freestyle, finishing in 7th place. Both Ledbury A and Ledbury B teams reached the final of the mixed freestyle relay finishing 4th and 7th.

In the 10 years individual events, Ledbury were represented by Ruari Smith Cooper, Amelia Watkins, Heather Farmer, Hannah Bloxsome and Alison Pudge.

Seeded 4th on the programme in the 50m freestyle event Alison knew she had to swim up to her best time to be in the medals. Following a new PB in the heat she went into the final with confidence managing to keep with the leaders, reducing her time once again to battle into 2nd place.

Hannah Bloxsome was disappointed with her start in the heats of the butterfly event but happily had the chance to make amends in the final when she swam a second faster, winning the bronze medal in a new personal best time.

Heather Farmer swam exceptionally well in her backstroke event, with a strong turn and stroke counting into the finish she knocked over two seconds off her submitted time to win 5th place in the final.

Coach Viv Jones said: "This has been a great gala for us, following recent swims, I was hopeful the boys would win medals in their freestyle relay but to get gold was so exciting and then for the mixed medley team to match that was more than I dared dream of! The individual entrants swam well and amongst all those big clubs it's such a thrill to see Ledbury swimmers on the podium.

"All these young swimmers are conscientious in attending training three times a week and deserve the success, I am very proud of them and am sure they will get a lot of pleasure from their swimming for years to come."