Keeping the magic of Christmas alive two local swim clubs came together at South Holderness Sports Centre to host the Southy Dolphins Christmas Cracker Gala.

The Pocklington Dolphins joined South Holderness Swim Club at South Holderness Sports on Sunday 17th December.

The sports centre looked great and was ready to greet their guests You could feel the magic in the air not only because Santa was poolside but because this is the gala the swimmers look forward to for the full calendar year .

The medals brought further inspiration with each swimmer hoping to clinch their favourites and all swimmers had turned up to do their very best. The medals:

1st Santa 2nd Snowman 3rd Present

And an awesome set of 4th, 5th & 6th medals for certain age groups

The swimmers were happy in the gym keeping warm with various activities. With Tracey on the mic and the wonderful supervising helpers from both Team Dolphins and SHSC we were all set. The first call went out and was not heard due to the sheer excitement of being at the Christmas Cracker! So with assistance from Pocklington’s head Coach’s fantastic whistling we were off!

The swimmers lined up eagerly and focused on their races with Billy, Kev and Jill lining them up and keeping poolside in order. Amy did a great job getting them start ready and the proceedings began!

The Pocklington Dolphins showed what a great team they are and swam with the elegance of their name sakes and the SHSC swimmers stepped up in home waters to take on the challenge and put on their best performance for the races ahead .

All the judges, time keepers and starters gave their brilliant support to make the Christmas cracker go off with a cracking start!

Proceedings ran smoothly and the results came through to the hall much to the swimmers delight. They eagerly went to the medal tables to collect their rewards

The first session closed with a buzz of happiness in the hall and more swimmers arrived and the rest kept themselves loosey goosey as one of our swimmers would put it

The second session began and the Christmas magic was definitely in the air as both clubs swimmers really hit off and were amazing again gaining PBs and winning more medals.

A few DQs were observed across the sessions but let’s analyse those and improve for the next swims

There was so much going on and I have done some stats below to sum it all up

All PBs are amazing and gaining them this close to Christmas after a long year and at the end of the school term is even more epic. I’ve done a summary of all PBs. Please note they are across 50m and 100m and their respective IM races:

There were lots of “New” times recorded throughout the day so well done, swimmers for taking on those races and nailing them!

Every PB is fantastic but some special mentions to:

Scarlett () for getting over 40 sec PB

Liam () for getting over 30 sec PBs

Kaelan , Joey , Sophie Rob , Freyr (x2) , Billy , Charlie , Amelia , Cole , Madison , for getting over 10 sec PBs

There also some PBs very close to 10 secs well done Bruno , Caydence , Chloe, Macey –

All PBs are valuable and it was great to see these being gained today

Please see both team’s top 3 positions;

You might have thought Santas reindeer had arrived in the gym as it sounded like bells ringing but no the sparkles and clinkage was from the swimmers wearing their medals proudly around their necks. It brought a sparkle to the end of the day and the swim calendar for 2023.

Thank you to the medal table volunteers for all your help throughout the day you did an amazing job and brought magic to the swimmers faces when they received their medals.

Further highlights of the day have to be:

The great behaviour observed by both clubs you were brilliant and really helpful when we were looking for swimmers – Thank you

The SHSC Rhoades sisters decided they were mermaids and chose not to swim, any of their races actually wearing goggles but they got through so well done but tighten up those straps!

The buffet was much appreciated by the swimmers and was brilliant thank you to all for your contributions.

It was a long day and as always I would like to thank the judges Carol and Teagan, Steve, Paul and Karl. And all others from both clubs for your support with our you we could not run these galas.

Unfortunately a few SHSC swimmers were stricken with the end of year lurgy and we wish Grace, Imogen and Robert speedy recoveries and hope Hayley’s shoulder feels better soon. Also best wishes to any absent Dolphins today.