POOLE regained their Dorset Novice League (DNL) title after fielding two teams for the first time.

The Poole Yellow team finished 20 points clear of nearest challengers Wareham & District in the final at Littledown to end the three-round league programme as the only team with a 100 per cent record.

It was Poole’s fifth title in six years after missing out to Ringwood Seals last year. Seals were sixth this time.

Poole coach Becky Brown said: “It was an opportunity to give all our youngsters their first taste of competition and we fielded more than 50 swimmers across the two teams.

“We tried to select teams as evenly as possible. Kids at that age don't really understand the concept of A and B teams and we wanted to build team spirit and morale. It worked really well.”

Individual winners for Poole Yellow were 14/u swimmers Liam Duffy in the 50m backstroke and Betsy Vavasour in the girls’ butterfly, Abigail Chevis in the 11/u freestyle and Simone Khambekhar in the 11/u backstroke.

Wareham came second in both final and league table with individual wins from James O’Leary (11/u freestyle), Ruby Williams (14/u breaststroke) and Zoe Golding (backstroke).

Seagulls achieved their best DNL result of 2017, finishing fourth in the final and fifth in the league despite incurring six so-called “speeding tickets” – points deductions for swimming faster than the cut-off times designed to restrict team selections to novice league standards.

Their seven individual winners were George Honor in the 11/u breaststroke and 10/u backstroke , Zoe Cox (12/u breaststroke), Freddie Fox (14/u freestyle), Hughie Jackman-Jones (10/u fly) and Thomas Lawrence (14/u fly).

The Poole Black team went into the final unbeaten but incurred six speeding tickets, finishing fifth on the day and fourth in the league.

Individual winners were Alyssa Sanders-Jones Doble (12/u fly), Lucy Gibbs (11/u breaststroke and fly), Jess Huggins (10/u freestyle) and Carter Stuhlmacher (14/u breaststroke).

Result of final (at Littledown): 1 Poole Yellow 212, 2 Wareham 192, 3 Tornadoes of South Dorset 190, 4 Seagulls 180, 5 Poole Black 166, 6 Ringwood Seals 159, 7 West Dorset 146, 8 Blandford 129.

B final result (at Dorchester – subject to revision): 1 North Dorset Turbos 97, 2 Clayesmore 95, 3 Bridport Barracudas 90, 4 Weymouth 73.

Final league placings: 1 Poole Yellow 38, 2 Wareham 34, 3 Tornadoes of South Dorset 32, 4 Poole Black 30, 5 Seagulls 27, 6 Ringwood Seals 23, 7 West Dorset 21, 8 Blandford 18, 9 North Dorset Turbos 14, 10 Clayesmore 13, 11 Bridport Barracudas 10, 12 Weymouth 9.