City of Hereford club getting established in Nuneaton Junior League (From Hereford Times)

City of Hereford club getting established in Nuneaton Junior League

2:30pm Wednesday 25th July 2012 in Sport

CITY of Hereford Swimming Club have continued to enhance their reputation by beoming established in the top flight of the Nuneaton Junior League.

After gaining promotion last year with a thrilling win at the Division Two final, Hereford’s task soon became apparent when the draw for round one of the new season pitched them against last season’s league champions, and fourthplaced nationally, Boldmere ‘A’, a club five times the size of Hereford.

However, with Piers Lemar and Charley Dallow finishing first and second respectively in the 10-year freestyle and wins for the 11- year medley relay team, Jack Lewis in the 10-year boys’ breaststroke Harriet Aldous Fountain in both the 11-year and 12-year girls’ backstroke, Hereford eased up to secomd place.

Further wins for Dallow, Lemar and Aldous-Fountain during the remaining 25 events left Hereford on 202 points, behind runaway leaders Boldmere on 269.

In the second gala at Leamington Spa, Hereford were drawn against Worcester County rivals Worcester ‘A’, Stourbridge ‘A’ and Oldbury as well as Nuneaton and Stratford Sharks.

But the city club again started well with the 11-year boys — Nathan Wallace, Jake Portis, James Bilbao and Lemar — taking top spot in the freestyle relay.

Lemar and Aldous-Fountain won their backstroke races and success for Aidan Webb in the nine-year backstroke helped Hereford to third place behind winners Stratford but ahead of all their county rivals.

The third round provided the toughest opposition yet with league leaders Northampton ‘A’, Coventry ‘A’ and Leicester among Hereford’s rivals.

But eight first-place swims, one each to Piers and Hugo Lemar and the remainder shared out among the 11- year girls team made up of Aldous-Fountain, Dallow, Bethany Roberts, Amy Barrall and Grace Eddy who won both the freestyle and medley relays, and three out of their four remaining events gave Hereford an excellent fourth place, just three short of Coventry ‘A’ in third.

“We had much anticipated this season to be a struggle against avoiding relegation but the results were so outstanding we had avoided that through the first round result alone,” said head coach Alex Dallimore.

“It is an amazing position to be in, out of our county only Redditch (many of whose swimmers train with City of Birmingham) and Halesowen are above us.

“This shows the leaps forward the club is making.”

Andy Boucher, age group development coach, added: “The swimmers have trained very hard for this and deserve the results they got.

“We need to continue to build on this because it is clear that for such a small club we are able to develop a high level of skills and talent.”

To join the club, email alex.dallimore@swimhereford.

co.uk