There were many strong individual performances. However, it was the overall team spirit and support that drove the Warriors on towards success, and all swimmers were as always a credit to their Club. 

Warriors of Warrington deservedly won the evening with a huge 73 points, winning a total of 15 events out of a possible 30, followed by Pioneer 79 and Horwich in joint 2^nd on 53 points.

Lewis McGhee managed a fantastic 10 1^st places whilst the following swimmers gained a top 3 finish in all the events that they entered: Joshua Cartledge, George Hill, Ryan McGhee, Caitlyn Shingler and Alex Watkinson.

Ewan Miller (15) swam brilliantly and came away with two Bronze medals firstly in the Boys 15/U 400m and on the following day in the Boys 15/U 1500m Freestyle swimming personal best times in the process.

Caitlin McNicholas (16) swam her way to two finals in the Women’s 50m and 200m Breaststroke events and Michael Ross (15) also qualified for two finals in the Men’s 200m Backstroke and then the  Men’s 200m Individual Medlay.

Making up the quartet,  James Ross (14) finished 13^th in the Men’s 200m Breaststroke final and swam a total of four personal best times over the course of the meet.

In a packed arena, Warriors swimmers were competing against some of Scotland’s best swimmers and were a credit to themselves and the Club. 



Caitlyn Shingler, 9, gave a great performance throughout the competition.  She competed in five events and finished 2^nd in the 50m Breaststroke and 200m Backstroke, 3^rd in the 50m Backstroke and 100m Individual Medley and 4^th in the 200m Freestyle.

James Forrest,  9, came 3^rd in the 100m Individual Medley and 4^th in the 200m Freestyle whilst Brett Takemoto, also 9, came 3^rd in the 200m Backstroke.

Caitlyn’s hard work gave her fantastic results and meant that she was awarded with 3^rd place in the BAGCAT points for the girls 9yr old age group meaning she was awarded a trophy to take home after all the hard work.

Well done to all the swimmers that took part and hopefully we will be entering the gala again next year.



Highlights of the day were Adam Ravenscroft’s 2 Gold in the 100M & 200M Breaststroke with a Silver in the 50M Breaststroke, Oliver Houghton taking Gold in the 50M Backstroke backed up with a bronze in the 100M Butterfly and Hugh Takemoto winning Warriors 5^th Gold medal in the 200M Breaststroke and collecting a Silver in the 200M Freestyle.

All the swimmers gave their everything and did the club proud with their excellent behaviour throughout the long weekend.

Special congratulations go to Leah Evans who gained precious NQT’s in the 100M Butterfly and 200M Butterfly.



The Final rounds of the arena league took place at the weekend with Division One in Bury and the Premier Division over at Liverpool Aquatics.

The Premier Division had to face tough competition again with all the teams taking part pulling out all the stops.  With 10 1^st place wins, 2 2^nd place and 6 3^rd place finishes the swimmers had to work extremely hard for those all important points.

Our first win came once again from the Boys 15/U Freestyle Relay team consisting of Sean Muscroft, Ewan Miller, David Richardson and Aaron Kirchin Brown.  Further wins came from, David Richardson in the 15/U 100 Back swimming a long course NQT, Oliver Houghton in the 13/U 100 Back, Leah Evans in the 15/U 100 Butterfly, Catherine Parker in the Girls Open 100 Back again swimming a long course NQT, Scott Hathaway in the Boys Open 100 Back, Sean Muscroft in the 15/U 100 Free, Adam Ravenscroft in the 15/U 100 Breast, Andy Bushell in the Boys Open 100 Free and finally the Boys 15/U Medlay Relay Team made up by David Richardson, Adam Ravenscroft, Ewan Miller and Sean Muscroft.

All that’s left for us to do now is to wait and find out whether we have been able to do enough to reach the National Arena Swimming League at Sheffield in April 2012.

Final Points

1^st  City of Liverpool 279

2^nd Prestion 275

3^rd City of Salford 272

4^th Stockport Metro 266

5^th Warriors of Warrington 220

6^th Southport 192

7^th Cockermouth 183

8^th Carnforth Otters 110



The team put up a great fight against some of the swimming club’s first teams and came away a proud 5^th place.

Individual winners on the night were Catherine Ross (Girls 13/U 50 Breast), Tim Almond (Boys open 100 Breast),  James Ross (Boys 15/U 100 Breast), Michael Ross, Tim Almond, Craig Ward, Daniel Green (Boys open medley relay and freestyle relay)

In all we had 17 top 3 finishes. Well done to all the swimmers.

Final Points :

1^st Winsford 201

2^nd Blackpool  198

3^rd Alsager  195

4^th Everton  173

5^th Warriors  139

6^th Stoke Cosacss 138



Jack Ravenscroft took the first Gold medal for Warriors for the 100m Freestyle and such was the level of competition that Matthew Crawley with a time of only 0.83 seconds slower took the Bronze. Throughout the two days many people won medals, Alex Watkinson (10) won 3 Golds, Imogen Young(10), Jessica Burke and Liam Roscoe each won two golds. Quite a few swimmers won a single Gold medal with multiple Silver (S) medals these included James Bushell (3S), Thomas Ditchfield (3S), Matthew Domville (2S) and Jack Ravenscroft (2S) and Fiona Healy and Joseph Webb rounded off the gold medal winners with one each.

In total over the weekend, Warriors won 15 Gold  Medals,  27 Silver and 34 Bronze medals. Medals were awarded for the top 6 places and Warriors achieved 132 top six finishes.  Five of the swimmers also got given speeding tickets which you may think are a bad thing but in swimming, as it means you’ve gone too fast, its a great thing.  Imogen Young, Alex Watkinson, James Bushell and Matthew Domville each received one speeding ticket whilst Matthew Crawley got two.

Congratulations to Phoebe Allanson (Knutsford Vikings) and Oliver Brown (Northwich  Asc) who won the top girl and boy awards respectively with the most individual points tally. The top visiting club award went to Preston Swimming Club who brought an impressive 24 swimmers to the competition.

Every swimmer in this competition deserved a medal for their efforts and behaviour in victory and defeat. They are a credit to themselves, their parents, their towns and clubs.

Two parents, close to tears told me that they had been to this event for the last six years and enjoyed every year but because their son is now 16 they will not come again and they will greatly miss the family atmosphere and welcoming Warrington people.

Next year will be the 40^th anniversary of the Warriors of Warrington Club co-inciding with the 2012 Olympics year so if you would like join the fun contact Warriors on www.swimwarriors.org.uk

Collecting a total of 24 Gold, 33 Silver and 18 Bronze medals our swimmers took their marks and gave a strong performance across all age categories.

Individual medal winners included Caitlin Shingler, George Hill, Lewis McGhee, William Camden, Anya Richardson, Catherine Ross, Hugh Takemoto, Matthew Sullivan, Shannon Campbell, Aaron Hill, Jacob Wass, Ashleigh Wrench, Alicia Pierce, David Richardson, James Ross, Daniel Wass, Rebecca Coy and James Cox.

With a fantastic overall performance, 14 year old David Richardson was awarded Top Boy in the 12 and over category and because of the fantastic team effort, Warriors of Warrington won the Top Club of the Meet.

Once again, all of the Warriors swimmers represented the club and town brilliantly and look forward to a well earned Christmas break!

•  WOWSC Results

Over at Manchester, 15 swimmers aged between 13 and 16, faced some tough competition in the open championships.

Brendan Spencer and Catherine Parker had an excellent weekend.  Brendan Spencer reached two finals, 50m Butterfly and 100m Butterfly.  In the 50m Fly Brendan finished in 5^th place which meant he won a Gold medal in the Junior age group and in the 100m Fly he finished 6^th and took home a bronze medal in the Junior age group.

Catherine managed to qualify for three finals in all her backstroke events, 50m, 100m and 200m Backstroke.  She finished 4^th in the 100m and 200m and finished 5^th in the 50m. 

Aimee Harvey also managed to qualify for the 200m Butterfly final and finished in 6^th place.

To round of the competition there were four NQT’s gained with the first of the competition seeing Bethany Young getting her first NQT of the year in the 200 Freestyle.  Kathleen Dawson went on to aquire three NQT’s over the weekend in the 200 Freestyle, 100 Butterfly and 100 Backstroke.

• WOWSC Results