ANDOVER swimmers first league outing of 2001 saw the local squad take on teams from Eastleigh and Ringwood in the annual Hants & South Coast League's Gemini Trophy Gale at Eastleigh.

All three clubs had swimmers in action in two lanes but Andover was decimated by sickness, injury and clashes with other events and so had to include a number of pre-junior squad swimmers.

All the youngsters swam superbly, posting a total of 33 individual and 41 relay personal bests (PB), with the Andover 'A' string in fourth placed and the 'B' side propping up the rest in sixth place.

In the mixed relay events Andover's 'A' quartet of Darren Randall, Emma Oliver, Gemma Sims and under-16 swimmer Adam Hayter came home a splendid second in the 4x50m freestyle with Randall and Hayter both recording new best times whilst the 'B' team of Adam and Lisa Hayter, Emma Oliver and Simon Taylor came third in the medley race, with Taylor clocking a PB.

In the 16 years and under age group the 'A' team of Adam Hayter, Rebecca Sherlock, Lisa Hayter and Mark Bugg was second in the 4x25m freestyle race, with PB's from Lisa and Bugg. All the other relay teams found the going hard but most of the swimmers posted new bests during the races.

In the 'A' team individual events Emma Oliver was top performer by winning the ladies open 100m butterfly and backstroke races, and finishing second in the breaststroke whilst Gemma Sims weighed in with second place in the 100m freestyle. In the men's open events 15-year-old Adam Hayter came home an excellent second in the 100m butterfly with a PB of 1:13.45s.

In the under-16's age group Mark Bugg had tremendous second placings in both the boys' 50m breaststroke and freestyle, with yet another PB of 39.82s for the breaststroke, whilst the busy Adam Hayter went one better when winning the 50m backstroke.

For the under-14's Gareth Roberts was yet another swimmer to post a PB when finishing second in the boys' 50m breaststroke event in41.82s, with Charlotte Crosby going one better when winning the girls 50m backstroke. A shortage of swimmers left the under-12's group with too much to do but in the under-11's section Alice Sims underlined her potential with a splendid second in the girls 25m butterfly and followed it with yet another second place in the 50m backstroke with a PB of 45.68s.

For the 'B' team notable individual swims came from Gemma Sims and Adam Hayter with third places in their respective 100m butterfly and backstroke races whilst 12-year-old Charlotte Crosby came home third in both the under-14's 50m breaststroke and under-16's 50m backstroke as did 14-year-old Lisa Hayter with a PB of 41.04s in the under-16's 50m butterfly. In the under-11's age group Sophie Sherlock posted a PG of 29.26s for third place in the girls' 25m butterfly.

During the gala further PB's were also recorded by Jessica Lovelock, Michelle Roberts, Patrick Allen-Walker, Thomas Griffiths, Chris Page, Samantha Crosby, Victoria Kenyon, James McEwan, Virginia Allen-Walker, Louise Mitty, Lauren Salkeld, Callum Hurst, Robert Lovelock, Sarah Curtis, Alec Sherwood, Katie Atherton and Matthew Hurst.

Gala result: 1st Eastleigh 'A' 267pts, 2nd Ringwood 'A' 196pts, 3rd Eastleigh 'B' 176pts, 4th Andover 'A' 163pts, 5th Ringwood 'B' 148pts, 6th Andover 'B' 82pts.