WYRE Sharks, the local area swimming squad made up of competitive swimmers from Newton Hall, Fleetwood and Blackpool Swimming Clubs, started the National Speedo League competitions with a good result.

The A squad competed at Warrington in the Premier division and came a solid third behind the huge City of Liverpool team and Warrington.

Individual wins from Lisa How in the ladies 100m individual medley and 100m butterfly and Justin Worthington in the 10 and under 50m backstroke coupled with wins in the relay squads for the 9/11 year boys and 15 and under boys freestyle events. Final positions: City of Liverpool 253 points, Warrington 216, Wyre Sharks 'A' 192, Ulverston 151, Aqua Bears 140, Hoylake 88.

Meanwhile, the B squad competed at Everton Park, Liverpool in the second division with the youngsters competing well, particularly the 11-year-olds where Emma Seddon won the girls 50m backstroke.

Joshua Ross won the same event for the boys and Andrew Foster won the 50m breaststroke, with the girls freestyle relay squad also picking up maximum points.

Lauren Davis won her event for the 13 and under 50m breaststroke and swam up an age group for an excellent win in the 15 and under 100m breaststroke.

Final positions: Ramsbottom 267 points, Wyre Sharks 'B' 181, St Helens 173, Preston 'B' 167, Sandbach 141, Neston 114.

The next round of the leagues are on Saturday, November 6 when both teams can build on solid starts.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.