National Arena League Final – So Close & Yet So Far

The 2009 final of the North West National Arena League Second Division took place on Saturday 12th December at the Salt Ayres Pool in Lancaster. Following tremendous performances achieved in the first two rounds of competition expectations were not surprisingly running high – even though we knew that we’d be without the gladiatorial presence of Darren Mew who was competing at the European Shortcourse Championships in Istanbul.

Despite having to swim many of our swimmers up one or more age groups - we so nearly achieved what would have been a truly incredible goal - promotion to the first division. To have done so we needed to come in the top three in the final - but in the end had to settle for 4th place behind Gateshead & Wickham, Ulverston and Hoylake - in a league of 20 teams.

Up until event 18 we were never outside of the top three but we became somewhat derailed by  Helena Kocourkova’s controversial disqualification in the Open Ladies 100m Butterfly for wearing two suits and the subsequent loss of 8 points.  From thereon we appeared to allow the pettiness of this disqualification to affect our performances. 

The final points were as follows:

1st	Hoylake	289
2nd	Ulverston	255
3rd	Gateshead & Wickham	254
4th	Ellesmere College Titans	224
4th	Warrington Warriors	224
6th	Alsager	211
7th	Chorley Marlins	167
8th	Liverpool Penguins	149

 

Commenting on the Final, Titans Head Coach Jon Pardoe said “I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who took part in this years Arena National League Campaign - both swimmers and supporters alike. The atmosphere and team spirit throughout the three rounds of competition was excellent and I am exceedingly proud of what we have achieved in such a short space of time. We undoubtedly have some first class young swimmers with huge potential and we live to fight another day. Make no mistake - next year we’ll be back with a vengeance”.