THERE was an early start and some late glory for 40 swimmers from Preston Swimming Club when they travelled to Chester to compete in its centenary gala recently.

The gala was organised to celebrate 100 years of swimming at the city's baths in the centre of Chester and all the clubs invited to attend have a long history with Preston being able to trace its roots back to 1884.

Chester entered two teams with Barrow and Wrexham completing the starting line up.

The competition was unusual as it contained a mixture of conventional relays combined with more light-hearted fun events.

The competition started well for Preston with good results in the 8 x 1 length mixed medley relays for the ten year, 12 and under, 14 and under and 15 and over age groups.

These served as a warm up to 24 fun events that charted significant events in history from the last 100 years.

Among the most memorable events were a tribute to the suffragettes, the swimmers carrying (and sometimes sinking under the weight of!) a placard saying ' votes for women' and a tribute to Charlie Chaplin in which the swimmers had to carry a walking cane, wear a bowler hat, a jacket and a silly moustache.

Rock around the clock, the 50's skirt doing its best to slip off at every opportunity.

Even the coaches had to take part in their own race, being attacked by persistent 'sharks' (swimmers with sharks fins on their backs! ) on the second length.

At half way through the event Preston were leading Chester by a single point and the volume level of the supporters became deafening as each race was hotly contested.

In true 'it's a knock out' fashion each team could play two jokers, one for a girls event and one for the boys, this doubled the points for those events.

An inspired decision to play the girls joker on the winning 12 and under 'Star Wars' race and on second place in the 15 and over boys double armed backstroke race was the key to Preston finishing the gala six points ahead of the nearest Chester team.

Paul Davison and Rebecca Dobson received an impressive trophy on behalf of their team-mates which now has pride of place in the club's trophy cabinet!

The day out was finished off with an Edwardian tea, tables groaning with sandwiches, sausage rolls, cakes and jelly. Superb organisation, friendly competition and lots of laughter made the day a memorable one for the swimmers, supporters and coaches of Preston swimming club.