The Swimming National League competition pits the best swimming clubs from across Great Britain against each other in a range of events and age groups. Throughout the qualification rounds, club programs from the West presented their finest and best, but – like the Chelsea defence at the New Camp - were time and again turned back by the Millfield armada. 

The preliminary rounds lead us to the Ponds Forge Aquatic Centre in Sheffield, and the Premier League Final of the 2009 National Swimming League. Many said that we would finish fifth behind a club with over 300 members – but they were wrong.

Others pontificated that we would finish fourth – behind the force from the North – but they were wrong. The Millfield swimmers rose to the occasion to finish in a credible and unexpected third place.

This result fell amongst a plethora of amazing individual performances – including a meet record from Tristan Slater and individual wins to James Chater, Abigail Houston and Lucy Titchin and a win to the Girls 13 and under Free relay.

The last two events on the program are the Men’s and Women’s 6 x 50m Free relays – aptly named The Cannon. These relays are Open events (meaning that Olympians can – and did – compete) and are a clear demonstration of the depth of a swimming program.

Our women’s team - consisting of Haydn Maclean, Bex Heavyside, Chloe Hart, Lucy Titchin, Kim Rowles and Liesje Van der Velde.

Our men’s team - consisting of  Karl Botha, Adam Strawford, James Disney-May, Tom Green, Ross McAuliffe and James Clarke.


Both teams, quite literally achieved the impossible, won their respective events and did so in National Record Time – an outstanding achievement. You can re-live the excitement of the event by clicking on the video links above.

A huge thank you

to all of the parents who came along and supported our swimmers on Sunday – the atmosphere was electric, and no doubt this enabled the great performances from Mighty Mighty Millfield!