Chairman hails '˜special night' for Sutton Swimming Club

For the first time, Sutton’s A team and B team won their respective galas in the Notts Sports Centre League. And it was made an even more praiseworthy achievement by the fact that the B team were competing against three clubs’ A team swimmers.

It also justified the club’s bold decision last year to enter a B team in most of the local gala competitions. “We did it in order to provide increased opportunities for more of our swimmers to compete regularly,” said Quinn.

“Running a B team meant that we required more volunteers to assist with the running of galas, and needed more trained officials to meet the minumum requirements to host galas.

“While we can always utilise more volunteers, we have just about managed so far, and this has helped improve the depth of our competitive squad, with some B team swimmers going on represent the A team on a number of occasions.”

The A team made a strong start to their defence of the league’s First Division title and had taken a slender lead by the tenth event. From then on, they never looked back, racking up 19 wins and 18 second places in the 49 races to achieve a total of 197 points, 33 in front of runners-up Sherwood Colliery and 50 clear of third-placed Calverton and Bingham, with Hucknall Falcon fourth. Among several fine individual performances, senior swimmer Russ Golubs stood out, winning all six of his races.

The B team landed a gala in Division Three, amassing 143 points, 23 clear of runners-up Arnold, with Ilkeston third on 116 and Portland fourth on 103. One of the team’s managers, Marianne Etherington, commented: “It was an absolute pleasure being poolside, with all the swimmers demonstrating real focus from start to finish.”