INVERCLYDE Masters hosted their 20th annual swimming gala this month at the Waterfront in Greenock.

The event was once again a resounding success, not just in terms of personal and team achievements, but also in recognition of all the hard work which goes into pulling off such an enjoyable and accomplished swimming meet which is an achievement in itself.

Despite initial hiccups with faulty timing equipment, broken lane ropes and a delayed start, once it got going there was no holding back.

Overall 31 clubs from all over Scotland took part plus a team from Carlisle and Derby, with a total of 157 competitors aged from 16 to 80 years of age.

As usual the gala started with the 800m — which is 32 lengths of the pool — there was a record number of entries this year with 61 swimmers competing which covered most of the age categories.

This event produced a new British record by Audrey Cooper, of Silver City Blues (Aberdeen), who completed the swim in a time of 11.01.29.

Audrey competes in the 60-64 year age category (H), whilst her team-mate June Falconer, who swims in the 50-54 year category, broke the meet record for her age group (F) in a time of 10.11.50.

Janet McLean of Carnegie also broke a meet record for her swim in age group 40-44 years (D), with an identical time of 10.11.50.

Saturday warm up began at 8.15am with the rest of the day and remaining 16 events running smoothly. There were more Scottish records broken during the day and special mention must go to Inverclyde’s own veterans — Bruce Cook and Joe Phillips — who each broke the Scottish record in the 50m breast stroke and the 50m freestyle respectively.

Commiserations to Joe who missed out on a British record by only a fraction of a second.

Rachel Keir, of Silver City Blues, also took a new Scottish record in the 200m freestyle in category A (25-29 years) but the outstanding swimmer of the day must surely go to Sandra Lea of Inverness who swims in the L category (75-80 years) and who broke the Scottish record in the 100m Freestyle, 100m and 200m back crawl, 50m Butterfly and the 100m and 200m individual medley.

This year Inverclyde’s own team had a record number of 42 swimmers competing, testament to the growing popularity of master swimming in the area.

There were many first time competitors who, after initial nervousness, enjoyed themselves and put in good overall performances.

Their swims proved vital when adding their individual scores to the overall total.

Congratulations also to all other younger team members, including Gina Allan, Carla Findlay, Katie McAuslan, Mark Meahan, Aidan Grant, Calum Dyer and Garth Finch who achieved great results, with a number of personal bests (PB) being recorded. The club look forward to more of the same from them in the future.

The evening prizegiving ceremony and ceilidh was held as usual in the Port Glasgow Town Hall where the overall age group and club winners were announced.

Inverclyde’s male swimmers did well with success in the age group categories from Bruce Cook (L), Fred McLaughlin (G), Campbell Cromar (F) and Kevin McLaughlin (A).

For the females Audrey Galloway won the age group for category (F) but special recognition must go to Sarah Ward who took third place in her age group (C).

Sarah, who is often an age group winner, had a very special handicap this year as she is expecting her second baby in three months’ time.

Before everyone let their hair down to the ever popular ceilidh band The Picts, the overall team was announced and this year for the very first time it was Inverclyde who won with an outstanding overall score of 1,133 — 239 points ahead of closest rival Silver City Blues.

Special thanks to all team sponsors, Inverclyde Council, Inverclyde Leisure, Inverclyde Community Development Trust and Inverclyde Sports Council for helping to make the event a great success.

Special thanks to the Cairngorm Brewery of Aviemore for their continued support of Inverclyde Masters Swimming Club.

Thanks also to special guests, Councillor Rebecchi, who came along to the evening ceilidh and presented the medals and trophies to the winners, and to Jim Bristow, chief executive of Inverclyde Community Development Trust.

Inverclyde would also like to thank South Ayrshire Swimming Club for once again providing the electronic timing for this event, which was crucial to the success of the gala Anyone interested in joining Inverclyde Masters should come along to one of their training sessions, which are held in the Greenock Waterfront on Saturday and Sunday mornings from 8 until 9am and on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 8.30 to 10pm.