4 Nov 2007 - 2nd Div team pipped for top spot at Arbroath

A day after our victorious Premier League triumph, it was back down to Arbroath with our 2^nd Div team. Here too, we were hopeful that a good result would keep us in contention going into the last gala.

 

A few of our regular 2^nd Div swimmers were not available due to prior commitments as this was a rearranged gala postponed from earlier in the year, but we were fortunate enough to have good back up and were short of just the 11/12 boys team.

 

Only four points separated top place from fourth, so the possibilities were numerous as to the way this one would go ? Aberfeldy were not in a position to field a team so it was just the top four teams competing.

 

Things were very even as the medley relays unfolded with St Thomas taking an early one point lead over Monifieth with us a point further back. Montrose struggled to field relay teams and were a full 20 points adrift even at this early stage.

 

Montrose got into their stride early in the individual rounds as they and St Thomas put the greatest number of points on the board. St Thomas had opened up a handy 9 point gap which looked ominous for our hopes.

 

The second round of the individual swims saw us narrow the gap to the St Thomas lead to 7 but this went back to 10 as the next individual round finished.

 

The last individual round saw the gap narrowed again to 7 and with both ourselves and St Thomas both missing one relay team each, it looked like a tall order to turn it round. Even although we were looking at narrowing the lead that St Thomas had, we were aware that we ourselves only held a narrow 4 point lead over Monifieth for 2^nd spot.

 

There were some great performances in the relays and although we fought for every point in some exciting finishes, we fell just short by 5 points.

 

St Thomas have put themselves in a strong position now and are firm favourites to take the league. We can have no grumbles, we did our best but at the end of the day were beaten by a better team.

 

We’ll see if we can finish on a flourish next week at Montrose and who knows, the unpredictability of this league may yet let us steal this one at the finishing post.

Fingers crossed !!

 

Full result

 

1^st        St Thomas        162 (5)

2^nd        DCA                157 (4)

3^rd        Monifieth        148 (3)

4^th        Montrose         104 (2)

 

Aberfeldy deducted 1 point for not fielding a team

 

Overall positions after 4 of the 5 galas

 

 

1^st        St Thomas        17

2^nd        DCA                14

3^rd        Monifieth        12

4^th        Montrose         10

5^th        Aberfeldy        5