SOUTHERN Junior League champions Ferndown Otters came face to face with reality when they took on the champions of five other leagues in the national semi-final at Grays, Essex.

Some of their opponents have more 12-and-under swimmers to pick from than the entire Ferndown membership.

Otters had to settle for sixth place but were only eight points adrift of Nottingham Leander, whose most famous senior swimmer is Rebecca Adlington.

Alan Wong provided two of Ferndown’s three wins in the 11/u backstroke and freestyle as well as a second place in the 12/u butterfly.

Christy Cole secured an excellent win in the girls’ 11/u breaststroke.

The 9yrs boys managed second places in both their relays and individually from Matthew Collins in the freestyle and debutant Kelvin Wong in the breaststroke.

The 11yrs girls’ freestyle team also came second.

Result: 1 Leicester Penguins 206, 2 Hillingdon 188, 3 Thurrock 180, 4 UEA Norwich 180, 5 Nottingham Leander 138, 6 Ferndown Otters 130.

Less than 24 hours earlier, Christy Cole was again among Ferndown’s winners in the Hants and South Coast Junior Cup at Woking.

She won the under 12 50m breaststroke.

Other individual winners were Clodagh Dear in the u/14 100m backstroke, Mikey Kingsley in the u/14 100m freestyle, Paige Chasty in the u/13 50m backstroke, Alex Price in the u/12 50m butterfly and Spencer Wilks in the u/11 50m breaststroke.

Otters also won six relays.

Result: 1 Haslemere 268, 2 Woking 254, 3 Ferndown 246, 4 Bracknell 213, 5 Beau Sejour 174, 6 Hart 142, 7 City of Southampton 124.

Christchurch and New Milton Seagulls achieved second place in the Hants and South Coast Junior Cup’s Division Two final at Waterlooville – their highest-ever placing.

Individual winners were Maisey Gormley in the girls’ u/11 50m freestyle in 35.88 and Ross Broadfield in the u/12 50m breaststroke in 46.87.

Megan Chapman lowered the club record she set in the first round as she came second in the u/14 100m breaststroke in 1:22.72.

Christian Tai set his fifth club record in as many outings when he recorded 39.13sec in the u/11 50m freestyle.

Head coach Barry Alldrick said: “This is a great result – eight places higher than we finished last year.”

Result: 1 Basingstoke 288, 2 Seagulls 255, 3 Eastleigh 240, 4 Fareham 233, 5 Havant & Waterlooville 227, 6 Alton 220, 7 Gosport 196, 8 Chichester 163.

BOURNEMOUTH Dolphins finished more than 200 points ahead of host club Poole to retain the trophy in the annual Poole Masters Open Meet.

Poole were second, although they won three of the four relays, and Ferndown Otters third.

Dolphins’ former GB international Alex Savage provided some class swimming in the 18-24 age group, winning the 50m butterfly in 30.61, 50m breaststroke in 37.22, 50m freestyle in 29.28 and 100m individual medley in 1:10.17.

Towards the other end of the age spectrum, Jean Howard-Jones, 66, recorded four individual and two relay wins for Poole in her first competition since winning three European masters titles in Cadiz last month.

Overall result: 1 Bournemouth Dolphins 468, 2 Poole 263, 3 Ferndown 156, 4 Ruislip & Northwood 92, 5 Cardiff 89, 6 Christchurch & New Milton Seagulls 84, 7 Littledown 63, 8 Weyport 52, 9 Kings Cormorants 30, 10 W Dorset Warriors 26.