Since the last report, Tenby swimmers have been taking part in several events in Pembrokeshire and a little further afield. The 2007 Dyfed Junior League competition is underway, and the first round galas have been held. The annual Pembrokeshire Team Championships have also taken place. As part of the Pembrokeshire Aces, we once again hosted a visiting swim team from Sunday's Well Swimming Club in Cork, Ireland, and finally for this edition, we have a brief report of the Tenby participation in the 2007 Swansea Valley Open Meet.   Competition Results   Round one of the Dyfed Junior League took place in Pembroke, on April 21, and an eager and enthusiastic team of our younger swimmers took part. Tenby were up against teams from Llanelli, Milford and Pembroke. The competition takes place over two rounds followed by an A and B final, so at this stage of the competition the main aim is to make sure that we qualify for the A final. Team manager Steph Amos picked a powerful squad, and Tenby eased to a convincing victory with the final scores after 61 events being Tenby 204 points, Pembroke 137, Llanelli 122 and Milford 121. The Tenby swimmers who competed in individual events were: Nicholas Allen, Lewis Bridle, Eleri Canton, Dominic Ciccotti, Bethan Davie, Gareth Davie, Daniel Davies, Ffion Davies, Sarah Davies, Luke Dedoncker, Jacob Griffiths, Elliot Hoad, Edward James, Sophia James, Jodie Jenkins, Myles Johnson, Jacob Knox, Talia Merriman, Casie Paxton, Georgia Pool, Jade Rowell, Hannah Saunders, Kiera Slack, Niamh Slack, Josh Thomas, Madison Vickery and Sydney Vickery.  This group were ably supported by a further selection who were on hand to boost the relay teams. Head coach John Amos was very pleased with the way the team performed. So well done everyone! The annual Pembrokeshire Senior Team Championships took place at Pembroke, on April 29, and once again the Tenby team came away with the silverware. This competition is for age groups from 11/U up to the Open category, so unsurprisingly the Tenby team comprised most of our more experienced competitors. Teams from Tenby, Haverfordwest, Pembroke and Milford took part, and from a team of talented individuals there were some notable performances from Lloyd Delahunty, who reduced his 100m butterfly time by over 10 seconds, Rebekah Gwyther, 9.6 seconds off her 100m backstroke time and Henry Whittaker who made a nice gain in the 100m breaststroke. There were some other good individual swims in what was a very strong overall team performance. Once again, well done to everyone who took part! Over the Bank Holiday weekend, the biannual visit of the Sunday's Well Swimming Club from Cork, Ireland, took place. They actually visit Pembrokeshire as a whole, rather than just the Tenby club, and during the course of their stay, the swimmers are hosted by various families from across the county. As the primary club, the onus tends to fall on Tenby to look after most of the visitors, and a great weekend was had by several of our members families with the Irish visitors. The main purpose of the trip is of course a swimming gala, and this took place in Pembroke on Sunday, May 6. Up until this year, the gala was always between Pembrokeshire and the Irish team, however, to spice things up this year teams from the Celtic Sharks and Carmarthenshire were invited to attend. Without boring the readers with the detail of the events, after a titanic struggle, the Pembrokeshire team emerged as victors with SWSC in second followed by the Celtic Sharks and Carmarthenshire. The day's proceedings were topped off with a disco and party, before our swimmers said farewell to their new friends at the Pembroke ferry terminal on the Monday morning. We are sure that the friendly rivalry will continue at the reciprocal trip to Ireland next year. The most recent gala covered by this report is the Swansea Valley Open which took place last weekend. This is basically a junior competition for swimmers aged 13/U, and was an ideal opportunity for some of our less experienced team members to gain further understanding of how to compete at these bigger events. As is the case with all open meets, this is a competition for individuals rather than a team event, and a group of 15 Tenby swimmers entered. For various reasons, several competitors withdrew, so in the end the following 10 competitors made the trip: Thomas Baker, Lydia Dilks, Safia Rooney, Emma-June Vaughan, Rebecca James, Edward James, Myles Johnson, Gareth Davie and Bethan Davie. From your reporter's perspective, it is really great to be able to bring you news of the exploits of a group of swimmers, who baring one familiar name, don't often appear in the race reports. We hope this is a start of a new trend! The one experienced campaigner amongst the group was Bethan Davie who picked up gold in the 11/U 100m breaststroke, silver in the 11/U 100m freestyle, and bronze in the 11/U 200m IM. Beth was on top form and produced some great times, the outcome of which is detailed in the club news. Thomas, Lydia, Safia, Emma-June, Rebecca, Edward, Myles and Gareth, all had some great swims and without exception, delivered some great new PB times. From feedback received, they all thoroughly enjoyed themselves. We are delighted to hear this, and hope to see you at more opens in the coming months.   Forthcoming Events   May 18-20 - Swim Swansea Long Course Open Meet, WNP Swansea. Starts today! We have a good entry and a lot of swimmers new to the Long Course event format. Should be a great weekend. Good luck everyone! Sunday, May 27 - 2007 Pembrokeshire Sprints, Pembroke Leisure Centre. (Huge Tenby entry. We are expecting a fab day). Saturday, June 9 -           Amman Valley Sprints. Saturday and Sunday, June 16 and 17 - WASA Last Chance qualifier at WNP, Swansea. (Closing date 21st May). Last chance of achieving a UK national's time this year!  Saturday, June 23 - Dyfed Junior League Round Two at Tenby. Check noticeboard for selection details.  Sunday, July 1 - Dyfed Junior League Final. TBA. As always keep checking the noticeboard regularly for more details, and always ask for advice if you are not sure what to enter. Team manager, Steph Amos, has started to help you out with the decision making process when it comes to gala entries. A list of suitable events for each member is now highlighted on the notice board. Just put a tick next to the events you would like to try.   Club News   As a result of some fantastic swimming at the Swansea Valley Open Meet, Bethan Davie has now qualified to swim at the British Age Group Championships at Sheffield at the end of July. Beth dipped under the 100m Short Course Breaststroke time by more than two seconds, and will be also trying to qualify for further events at the Swim Swansea Long Course Open Meet this weekend. Lewys Canton is also very close to the times in the 200m and 100m freestyle, and we wish him the very best of luck this weekend. We will be there cheering everyone on! Steve Davie has recently completed a WASA assistant development coach's course and now hopefully can tell the difference between a butterfly and a flutter-kick, or a bomb-dive and belly-flop! Steve reports that this introductory course was actually very informative, and recommends that anyone with an interest in helping out at the club should enquire about forthcoming teachers and coaches training courses. The more qualified people we have available in the club the better! The new club backpacks have been selling like hot cakes since their introduction, so much so that the initial stock has just about been exhausted. Don't despair, a further batch has been ordered and should be with us in a few weeks. Also on order is a new batch of club hats with our swimmer's names printed on the side. Many of you have decided to purchase new or additional hats, and judging by the requests for what is to be written on the sides of the hats, your reporter is going to have to learn a whole load of new names to refer to everyone by for the next press report! After years of great swimming for the club, Dan Brown recently decided it was time to hang up his trunks and goggles for the last time. (Well maybe leave them festering at the bottom of his swim bag!). However, after a few weeks chilling out, we are delighted to inform you that he has realised that he can't live without us and is now back in training!

S. D.