The Paul Chatley Shield Relay Gala
Saturday 24 th November 2007
GLORIOUS IN DEFEAT!
For the third successive weekend Dartford District had swimmers out on a Saturday evening. Well done swimmers! A big thank you goes to the dedicated Mums and Dads who have made this possible with their support.
The fifth running of this popular relay gala was supported by Greenwich , City of Rochester , Larkfield, Eltham and Whiteoaks swimming clubs and what a tremendous water fight it was.
Consisting of only relay teams from the ages of 10yrs to Open standard we saw a near full strength Dartford team. An astounding 16 first places and 12 seconds were not quite enough to keep Whiteoak off the top place who pipped us into a very close second by a mere 14 points. The ultimate accolades though, were the powering victories in the first and final ‘total' team relays. Fantastic spirit shined through in the last ‘cannon' where Dartford finished half a length ahead after a very tiring evening.
As is usual, with such a glorious team effort, it would normally be biased to highlight individual performances but credit must be given to the Girls U/12 squad of Sally Nicholas, Miren Elphick, Georgina Ladley , Saffron Salih and Ellie Thomas who never lost a leg and the colourful ‘mixed open' team consisting of Rebecca Farrell, Victoria Storey, Rebecca Smith, Jaime Binder, Andrew Ghagan, Robert Dutton, Jonathan Green, Matthew Hall and The Mighty ‘H' Bomb, Helen Grey who went on the next day to become Great Britain's fastest master over 1500m at Enfield!
The shield was presented to our neighbours and friends, Whiteoaks by Paul Chatley. A good night was had by all.
Keep Swimming………..!
Kevin ladley