Sixth place for the RASCALS is no mean feat as we easily qualified for the Clyde Coast Finals. We were not far behind Milgavie & Bearsden, who I regard as a Swimming Club like ourselves and not a “Swim team” with all their resources.

And it was a tremendous performance from our Girls Team at Ayr. Very close to the best team we could field but with one girl ill, it meant moving swimmers around to cover as there were no last minute replacements. In the Girls team it is very hard for some good swimmers to win a place, as the group are extremely competitive and we have some of the best young girls in the West District. Three years ago, when we had one of the strongest boys squads, we had a very weak girls team. How quickly things change!

The boys swam their best, however, this series has be dogged by lack of strength in depth, illnesses, swimmers not turning up and a defection to another Club. This has led to some swimmers swimming an outrageous number of swims for their age, leading to an average performance instead of the we know they can achieve. Massive numbers of points have been dropped from this alone, when we know we have some very good boys.

It was remarked how good our swimmers techniques were, and how we still need more work on Starts and Turns despite the good work done at Denny.

We now need to look at next year and already we look strong with good up and coming seven year old boys and girls, some of whom will still be in the 8 and unders next year. These youngsters already have the experience now to build on. All other swimmers will move on a year and the oldest age group will drop out. Of the older swimmers the four girls and one boy are swimming at District Level. Of the age group moving up to 11 one girl is already at District Level and we have one in the age group below that too, who is still too young.