ON Saturday a team from Beccles Swimming Club swapped their 25 metre pool for the 50m one at the Norwich UEA. Apart from a handful of swimmers it was their first taste of swimming the Olympic distance and it was against some of the best in Norfolk, Suffolk and Bedfordshire.

ON Saturday a team from Beccles Swimming Club swapped their 25 metre pool for the 50m one at the Norwich UEA. Apart from a handful of swimmers it was their first taste of swimming the Olympic distance and it was against some of the best in Norfolk, Suffolk and Bedfordshire.

They were not fazed and the travelling Beccles faithful were amazed at just how well they performed.

The younger swimmers led the way with the 11 and unders picking up seven out of the nine first places that the team produced. Nina Bircham and Nathan Harris won the backstroke, Jenny Beevor and Dalton Yallop the butterfly and Eleanor McGrath the freestyle. Jenny Seaman in the U13 age group came first in her butterfly race and Alex Eames-Bayton pushed right to the end to win the U15 freestyle race.

Also bringing in the points for the U13 age group were Sophie Podd in the breaststroke (second) and freestyle, Louise Shepherdson in the backstroke (fourth), Robert Thurtell taking on breaststroke and butterfly and Chas Lees in freestyle and backstroke after having to swim up an age group.

In the two older age groups the pairing of Thomas Taylor and William Pye were back in force for the boys U15 age group, William picking up second place in the backstroke.

The new trio of Eleanor Veasey, Amber Bircham and Alex Eames-Bayton did well, Eleanor finishing a strong third in her freestyle race and Amber putting in a strong late swim in the open freestyle.

In the open age group Hollie Holland took charge of the girls with a great swim in her butterfly and backstroke races and the old pairing of Douglas Olley and Jonny Harrison did battle for the boys, Jonny getting a strong fourth in his backstroke and Dougy had an outstanding finish against the big guns in his butterfly to finish third.

It was a night high on team spirit with an end result that surprised all against very difficult competition. The night's results finished 1 Deban 273, 2 Biggleswade 227, 3 Beccles 209, 4 Dereham 186, 5 Mildenhall 159, 6 Norwich 154, 7 Lowestoft and Oulton Broad 132 and 8 Great Yarmouth 131.