Ledbury & District swimmers were celebrating yet again on Sunday following an intensive weekend of competition when they won of the Top Club Trophy at the Gloucester open meet.

Accumulative points for the top eight in each event, in each age group from the 10/unders to the 15/overs, were awarded to the 23 participating clubs.

This culminated in an amazing 966 points for LADASC. Runners-up were Tewksbury with 601 points and Cheltenham third with 383 points.

During the weekend which consisted of three sessions per day, Ledbury swimmers won 83 medals and recorded 139 personal best times. Ten-year-old Jonathan Lea won eight medals which put him joint third in the top boy competition.

Ledbury showed exceptionally well in the butterfly events collecting 14 gold medals over the three different distances.

Winners were: Lucy Stokes (10/u, 50m & 200m); David Middleton (10/u, 100m & 200m); Joe Bloxsome (11yrs, 100m); Amy Jones (12yrs, 200m); Katie Batley (12 yrs, 100m); James Middleton (12 yrs, 200m); George Bennion (12yrs, 100m & 50m); Hannah Bloxsome (13yrs, 100m & 200m); Arron Almond (14yrs, 200m); Lucy Bennion (15yrs, 50m).

With this being a graded meet there was an upper time limit for all events. In the butterfly both Thomas Stokes and David Middleton went too fast, thus earned no points or medals but were awarded a certificate. Patty Holloway, James Middleton, George Bennion, Caitlin Clark and Lucy Stokes were also recipients of 'speeding tickets' during the weekend.

George Bennion was the winner of the most gold medals for Ledbury. In addition to his success in butterfly he won the 100m freestyle and both the 100m and 200m breaststroke events.

Also winners in the breaststroke were 10 year olds, Jonathan Lea (200m), Christopher Harwood (100m) and Alice Quigley who swam greatly improved best times to win both the 100m & 200m.

Lucy Bennion also won the 200m event in the 15 years age group. Out of the medals but delighted with new breaststroke personal best times were, Isabel Massey, Katherine Berry, Amelia Butler, Lucy Stokes, Emily Docherty, Jenna Clark, Kate Docherty, Hannah Kirby, Anna Bird, Hannah Norman, Freddie van Vuren, Daniel Adair and Sam Cotton.

Many of the backstroke races needed the benefit of the electronic timing system to decide the winners across the eight lane pool.

It was a relief for 10-year-old William Brown to get it right and win the 200m gold medal. In the same age group Jonathan Lea and Caitlin Clark won the 50m races and team mate Alice Quigley was the first to the wall in the 100m race. Emily Docherty and Odge Davey both swam well to win the 50m sprint in the 12 years age group.

As always the freestyle events attracted the largest entry but Jonathan Lea, Caitlin Clark, George Bennion proved too strong for the opposition in the four length race, while Joe Bloxsome and Eloise van Vuren won the eight-length race and Eloise also won the sixteen lengths, 400m in just over six minutes, a new best time. Lily Lowe was the silver medallist in this event also with a new best time.

Fourteen-year-old Richard Jones was pleased to keep adding on points for the top club trophy, and swam faster than ever before but was understandably frustrated to be nudged out of the medals, finishing in fourth place in a total of five events.

The youngest swimmer for LADASC was nine-year-old Fred van Vuren, who excelled himself in the 100m breaststroke to win the bronze medal and gain personal best times in all his swims.

Head Coach Viv Jones was presented with the cup.

She said: "This has been a very successful meet for all of our 37 swimmers. Amonge the elation of winning medals and swimming best times there were a few poor swims with a couple of disqualifications. Although disappointed now I am sure they will ultimately help those concerned to bounce back with perfected techniques. This graded meet has given some swimmers their first opportunity to compete in an Open Meet and we will definitely look forward to defending the trophy next year."