Another trophy in the Seagulls cabinet (From Bournemouth Echo)

Another trophy in the Seagulls cabinet

8:25pm Wednesday 17th March 2010 in

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Seagulls added another cup to their increasingly crowded trophy cabinet when they became the first champions of the new Dorset Novice League – and there may be even more silverware on the way.

Despite dividing their squad to compete in two leagues on the same night, the Christchurch and New Milton club managed to extend their unbeaten run in the West Hampshire Novice League as well as securing the Dorset title.

This success comes just three months after Seagulls’ top squad became Division Two champions of the National Arena League West.

They have now won nine out of nine league galas since October and also have a 100 per cent record in all three Dorset junior water polo leagues.

Age group coach Lee Druce said: “To win one novice league and stay top of another on the same evening shows what a healthy pool of talent we have.

“Our teams included 14 swimmers who had never competed before and they did the club proud.”

Littledown was a cauldron of noise and excitement for the showdown between the league’s top six teams – and Seagulls didn’t have it all their own way.

After 11 events West Dorset Warriors had a two-point lead and only six points separated the first five teams.

By the halfway point Seagulls were three points ahead and in the second half they extended this to 23 over runners-up Wareham Water-Rats.

Darius Perkins and Emma Godden were both double winners for Seagulls, Perkins winning the 11/u and 12/u 50m freestyle, Godden the girls’ 11/u 50m butterfly and freestyle.

Brother and sister Luke and Chloe Roxburgh produced a family double with wins in the boys’ and girls’ 50m breaststroke and there were also breaststroke wins from Sam Chesworth and Megan Fletcher in the boys’ 11/u and the girls’ 13/u categories.

Ten-year-old Liberty Denman won the girls’ 10yrs 50m freestyle.

Seagulls won six of the 12 mixed relays, while Ella Perkins, Eve Goldsack, Daniel Morley and Maria Hoare all incurred so-called ‘speeding tickets’ for swimming faster than the cut-off times, designed to deter clubs from selecting more advanced swimmers.

Six of Wareham’s 10 wins came in the 12/u age group, including girl-boy doubles from Emily Haysom and Harry Whitmarsh-Bauer in the 50m butterfly and Ellie Holmes and Ryan Hessell in the backstroke.

Other individual winners were Connie Woodworth in the 14/u 50m backstroke, Jack Daniels in the 14/u 50m freestyle and Josh Prior in the 11/u 50m backstroke.

Wareham also won three relays and picked up four speeding tickets.

For Poole, speeding tickets outnumbered points-scoring race wins by six to five.

Joseph Miles had one of each, his ‘scoring’ victory coming in the 14/u 50m breaststroke (48.64).

Other winners were Shannon Riggs in the 11/u 50m breaststroke (52.8), Francis Gurr (14/u 50m fly 41.09), Jordan Lansborough (12/u 50m freestyle 40.29) and Nathaniel Gordon (11/u 50m fly 51.07).

Other speeders were Charlotte Offer, Zhenyou Lim (twice), Maya Franquira and the 11/u freestyle relay team.

Bournemouth SC had the distinction of being the only finalists not to collect a speeding ticket.

Their only winner was Harrison Penfold in the 14/u 50m backstroke in 41.69.

Second places came from Megan Cocker in the 11/u 50m breaststroke (53.19), Mason Penfold (10yrs 50m free 45.53) and 10-year-old Adam Selby (14/u 50m breast 48.64).

Dorset ASA competitions secretary Ray Honeybun said the new league’s aim was to provide an opportunity for swimmers not normally selected to represent their clubs in a county competition.

“The time limits give all the Dorset clubs a chance to take part against each other on a more even basis,” he said.

“We would like to thank the clubs and parents for their support.”