PREMIER Division Poole booked their ticket to their third consecutive National Arena League West final with second place in round two at Bristol.

They started as they meant to go on with junior internationals Jazz McCrea and Jacob Peters taking second places in the women’s and men’s 200m individual medley (IM).

They then held second place behind perennial national finalists City of Cardiff for the rest of the 50 events.

Men’s captain Peters’ IM time of 2:05.81 was a four-second PB and knocked two seconds off Martin Littlefair’s Dorset record from 2012.

The world junior finalist went on the win the men’s 100m butterfly by two seconds in 54.22 before coming second in the 100m freestyle (51.56).

McCrea was second in the equivalent women’s events.

Max Looker was involved in four wins, taking the 11/u 50m backstroke and butterfly and joining Liam Duffy, Charlie Meek and Xavi West for maximum points in the medley and freestyle.

Duffy and Meek were second in the 50m breaststroke and freestyle respectively.

Robbie Hemmings added a sixth win in the 13/u 100m backstroke.

Poole’s 19 second places included David Smith (13/u breaststroke), Oli Fairman (15/u backstroke and butterfly), Jess Richens (open breaststroke) and Ben Cutbush (15/u breaststroke).

While Poole were swimming at Bristol, assistant coach Jan Hutchings was at the Swim England Awards in Birmingham, where the club were named runners-up for the Performance Club of the Year title.

“It was a humbling and immensely proud moment,” said head coach Barry Alldrick.

Amy Brown led the scoring as Swim Bournemouth came fifth at Bristol in what was new head coach Matt Heathcock’s first outing with his new club.

Brown won the 13/u 100m breaststroke and backstroke before stepping up an age group to win the 15/u breaststroke.

Milo Treloar made it an SB double with victory in the boys’ 13/u breaststroke.

Second places came from Millie Sleeman and Freddie Hodgetts in the girls’ and boys’ 11/u 50m butterfly, Drew McGregor in the 15/u 100m breaststroke and the girls’ 13/u freestyle relay.

“We always knew it was going to be tough for our young team so we focused on trying to swim faster than in round one, which we did in 30 of the 34 individual races,” said assistant coach Sam Woodward.

“Morale was at an all-time high.”

Result: 1 City of Cardiff 272, 2 Poole 204, 3 City of Bristol 169, 4 Weston-super-Mare 155, 5 Swim Bournemouth 148, 6 West Wilts Force Five 102.

• Isaac Ellis led the way as Seagulls came fifth in their Division One second round gala at Weston-super-Mare.

He won the 13/u 100m backstroke and butterfly and joined Ed Jaszek, Lawrence Elliott and Dan Staples to win the medley relay.

In the boys’ 15/u age group, Jacob O’Hara won the 100m backstroke and James Richardson the breaststroke while the team of Sonny Chamberlain-Hyde, Richardson, Miles Ward and Sam Small took the medley relay in that age group.

Result: 1 City of Cardiff B 267, 2 RCT 263, 3 Paignton 230, 4 Swansea B 198, 5 Seagulls 192, 6 Bath Dolphin 191.

• Poole B continued their surge towards promotion from Division Two at the first attempt with another convincing win at Exeter, where they won 25 of the 50 races and were second in another 16.

Ollie Weston, Grace Camm and Ryan Openshaw were all double winners and there were also wins for Will Longhurst, Arron Hopkins, Poppaea Bramwell-Reeks, Holly Chandler, Liam Openshaw, Teagan-Mae Graham and eight of the 12 relay teams.

Result: 1 Poole B 261, 2 Tiverton 194, 3 Kingsbridge 173, 4 Bridgewater 163, 5 Soundwell B 132, West Wilts Force Five B 114.

• Izzy Hepburn contributed two junior medals to Poole’s tally of 13 at the South West Winter Championships – silver in the 400m IM in which she carved 10 seconds off her PB and bronze in the 200m breaststroke.