RTSC Gala Reports

Saturday 27th September - Essex League Division 2 - Rochford

Romford Town's B Team kicked off their Division 2 campaign with a gritty third place finish at Rochford's Clements Hall Pool on Saturday evening. With four of the five teams in close contention for most of the night, this made for an exciting competition. There were some last minute withdrawals from the Town Team, so the result could have been even better.

The Girls U/11 Freestyle Relay team of Sophie Ward, Bethany Moore, Laura Brooks and Ellie Perriera got Romford off to the perfect start with a closely fought win in the opening event. Zoey Littlechild was unlucky to only finish 2nd in the Girls Open 50 metres Butterfly missing out on another close finish, before Sam Whitehead powered to a win in the Boys Butterfly event to make it 2 wins in the first four events. Littlechild later added a 3rd place in her 100 metres Freestyle swim.

Joshua Rogers' PB in the U/13 50 metres Backstroke brought him 2nd spot and this was followed by a strong swim from Gabby Wallace for 3rd place in the Girls U/15 100 metres Breaststroke. In the Boys U/15 Breaststroke event, David Ward's dogged finish chalked up Town's third win with a time of 1min 22.95secs.

Laura Brooks added more points to the Romford tally with a 2nd place over 50 metres Freestyle and this was followed by a 3rd for Sam Allsop in the boys U/11 event.

Tom Toolis, Jamie Harrington, Sam Whitehead and Lawrence Goodacre took 2nd place in the Boys Open Medley Relay and Joshua Rogers, Conor Toolis, Billy Bass and Sam Allsop come in 3rd in their U/13 Freestyle Team swim. The U/13 boys were also 3rd in their Freestyle Relay event.

There was more excitement in the Boys and Girls U/15 individual Freestyle events, though despite close tussles both Louise Harrington and Lawrence Goodacre had to be content with the runner up place.

Nearing the half way point of the evening Tom Toolis was again in action, stepping up an age group to take the Boys Open 100 metres Backstroke with some style. He was back in the water almost immediately as he lead out in the Boys U/15 Medley Relay Team and the quartet that included David Ward, Andrew Ward and a busy Lawrence Goodacre, romped to victory. They later did the double in the relay swims with 1st place in the Freestyle event. Toolis later completed the formality of a win in the U/15 Backstroke event to make it four wins from four swims.

There were more valuable points in U/15 age group as the Girls Relay Teams of Isabel Allsop, Gabby Wallace, Louise Harrington and Kariena Tubbs finished 3rd in both their Medley and Freestyle swims.

Billy Bass battled through to 2nd place in the Boys U/13, 50 metres Breaststroke and Jamie Harrington, substituted in the Open 100 metres Breaststroke added a creditable 3rd.

There followed a flurry of points for Romford with a win and a 2nd place for Kariena Tubbs and Andrew Ward in the respective U/15 butterfly events and three 3rd place finishes from Conor Toolis (U/13 50 Freestyle), Bethany Moore and Sam Allsop (both U/11 50 Backstroke).

The Harrington family contributed further to the Town points score as both Jamie and sister Louise took 2nd and 3rd in their respective 100 metres Freestyle and Backstroke events. There were 3rd places for Laura Brooks and Conor Houlihan in their U/11 Breaststroke events before lily Rose Fancourt stepped up to snatch Romford's last individual win of the evening in the Girls U/13 50 metres Butterfly.

The Boys Open Freestyle Relay Team of Lawrence Goodacre, Sam Whitehead, Tom Toolis and Jamie Harrington rounded off a gripping evening of swimming with another winning display.

Final Scores:

1. Rochford 184
2. Braintree 157
3. Romford Town 152
4. Canvey Island 141
5. Harwich 101

Well done to all