HALTON SC were in action last weekend competing in the Liverpool Echo Cup Final held at Everton Park.

Having performed extremely well in the two qualifying rounds, Halton entered the prestigious final ranked in first place, securing one of the favoured lanes, lane 4, and hopes were high that they could better their 4th place that they finished in last year.

At one of the most exciting galas of the year for the junior swimmers, the parade came first with the children sporting hats, banners, flags, horns, drums and face paint.

After the excitement of the parade and the warm up was complete it was time for the action to begin.

With Southport bringing their A team to the gala it was always going to be tough to finish in first place as they have won the competition for the last twelve years. It was always going to be a case of who could finish in the runners up spot and so it proved with Southport winning the first six races out of eight and the theme continued throughout the event.

With Southport gradually easing away, the fight for second place intensified with Everton, Halton SC and Ormskirk Otters battling it out.

Halton kept up the pressure with a number of first place finishes with Joshua Howard Hughes, Alfie Mather, Reuben Sumner, Rhys Croasdale and Ben Clayton all performing particularly well but this was not about individuals as the whole team fought together to give Halton their best ever finish in this exciting gala, finishing in the runners up position.

Halton finished with eight 1st place finishes, four 2nd and ten 3rd places.

This was a marvellous result considering the very young inexperienced team, some of whom were taking part in their very first Echo Cup competition.

Halton’s boy and girl captains Joshua Howard Hughes and Emmie Brownlow picked up the runners up trophy.

Final positions were 1st Southport SC (319pts), 2nd Halton SC (246pts), 3rd Everton SA (236), 4th Ormskirk Otters (227pts), 5th Prescot SC (186pts), 6th Crosby (185), 7th Liverpool Penguins (177pts), 8th Hoylake ASC (171pts).

Members of the girl’s team who secured Halton their best ever position were;

L Galligan, S Buckley, E Brownlow, J Smith, C Neil, R Pritchard, A Pearce, K Fedjunina, H Forsyth, B Howard-Hughes, O Nield, R Bakewell, I Harrison, I Bullen, M Priest

The boy’s team were;

J Howard Hughes, B Clayton, A Mather, G Winckles, R Croasdale, S Hyland, R Sumner, A Brettel, S Shurie, E Griffiths-Moore, T Brettel

Well done all.

If you want your child to become part of Halton SC’s exciting future please email the club secretary on secretary@haltonsc.com.

Your child will need a swim assessment and these take place on the first Monday of the month at Kingsway Leisure (second Monday after bank holidays) from 6.30 pm.