This year with the help of Goldline Travel, Beccles Kingfishers Swimming Club took on a new level of competition for the club and entered into the National Swimming League for the first time.

This year with the help of Goldline Travel, Beccles Kingfishers Swimming Club took on a new level of competition for the club and entered into the National Swimming League for the first time.

A great performance at Corby meant that Kingfishers finished another year with plenty of silverware, on a high, and looking forward to next season's National League.

The competition was held over three rounds and gave the club a chance to visit teams further afield, with visits to Market Harborough and Corby, as well as coming up against national teams and international swimmers.

The first outing was, however, a local visit to Thetford pool with the round draw including 20 other East Midlands teams, placing them against Thetford, Great Yarmouth, St Ives and Lincoln Vulcans.

This round proved to be a big learning curve for the coaching team and also showed they are not a team to be taken lightly, finishing only four points behind fourth-placed Lincoln, with some impressive swimming.

Most noteworthy was Will Pye, who notched up the club's first win in the competition, followed by another impressive swim from Jenny Beevor, who also gave the club its only other individual first place of the night.

Round two saw the club take on some of the biggest teams in the league, as they were picked to make the long journey up to Market Harborough, where they came up against round one winners St Ives for the second time, along with City of Peterborough, Market Harborough and South Lincoln.

Learning from the first round, a team of 32 made the trip up the A14 and secured five individual first places, with great swims from Robert Thurtell, Jenny Seaman, Alex Eames-Bayton and again William Pye.

Also adding to the team were Zanna Yallop, Eleanor Chick, Dalton Yallop and Bonnie Birch, bringing extra depth in the relays.

As a result, the team finished the night with 48 more points than they had in the first round.

Results: St Ives 227, Peterborough 221, Market Harborough 187, Lincoln 183 and Beccles 172.

For the last round, 20 changes were made to the team as they travelled to the new Corby International swimming pool.

Another 30-strong team then set about taking on Corby, Newmarket, Daventry and Newport Pagnell.

This time everything went to plan, with seven individual first places and seven relay first places.

It was the girls who led the way, with strong swims from Louise Shepherdson, Rhianna James, Nina Bircham, Jenny Seaman and Ellen Nelson, all gaining new personal best times - followed by the boys with Ross Barnshaw, Robert Thurtell, Matthew Seaman, Dalton Yallop, Elliot Fenn and Richard Clarke.

Again Bonnie Birch, Rhys Spencer, Dominic Harris and Matthew Doran brought extra depth in the relays, along with Philippa Doran, who produced two great finishes to secure the club two first places.

There were also great swims from Nina Howell and William Pye in the backstroke, Steven Kirby, Tamara Spooner and Eleanor Veasy in the freestyle, Amber Bircham, Thomas Taylor, Melissa Bygrave and Sophie Podd in the breaststroke and Alex Eames-Bayton, Eleanor Mcgrath and Jacob Barber in the bufferfly.

Beccles finished top on 220, with Corby close behind with 213, and Newmarket third on 203.

An excellent display by Kingfishers who finish the year with another success and looking forward to next season's National League.

If you are a keen swimmer and would like to know more about the joining a competitive club, then call Tim on 07727125427 or email tim.kingfishers@hotmail.com who will pass on details of trials to be held in early 2010.