Penultimate swim gala

Going into the gala in joint second with Worksop, the pressure was on Retford to do well.

In and evening of highs and lows there were some outstanding performances, most notably from Tom Atkinson, who notched up an incredible five individual wins from seven events.

His first win, the 15/U 100m IM saw him finish almost three seconds ahead of second place Worksop.

Tom claimed two further wins in the first half in the 15/U 100m breaststroke and 15/U 50m butterfly, along with a win from Emma Davies in the 13/U 100m Breaststroke.

By the halfway stage the points were very close with Sherwood taking the lead on 102, Retford in second on 99, closely followed by Worksop on 96, Mansfield on 95 and Newark trailing on 66.

With everything to swim for, Retford battled hard with Atkinson again leading the way with strong wins in the 15/U 100m backstroke and the 15/U 100m freestyle.

Davies, also in good form, took the 13/U 100m IM and 100m freestyle events

Cole Hewitt and Natasha Utley added to the victory tally by winning the 50m butterfly events in the 11/U age group.

The first of the relay events – the boys 11/13 yrs 100m medley, saw the strong quartet of Cole Hewitt, Oliver Taylor, Samuel Templeton and Tom Johnstone touch just ahead of Worksop to claim first.

Tension was mounting with only four events remaining and Retford and Sherwood leading jointly on 184 points and Worksop on 178.

But Sherwood took two firsts in the final two events and Retford suffered two disqualifications, making the final points of the evening: 1st Sherwood 206 points; 2nd Worksop 198 points, 3rd Retford 191 points; 4th Mansfield 180 points; 5th Newark 119 points