A small group from several Reading SC squads made what has become an annual visit to the Littledown pool for the open meet hosted by Bournemouth Dolphins – whose swimmers the Evening Post-sponsored club can expect to come up against more often from the autumn onwards, when the Dorset club moves from the old Western District to the new Southeast Region.

Reading's best swim of the two-day meet came in the very first male event, with a brilliant effort from 18-year-old Daniel John to win the open 200m butterfly. John has been one of the club's top performers in the event for years, and his time of 2:17.10 represented a great return to form and a reward for hard work put in with coach David Wittig.

Taking the event by almost a full second from City of Southampton 's 24-year-old Chris Jones, the time was John's best for three years and almost three seconds quicker than the swim which won him the overall bronze medal at the Berks and South Bucks ASA championships just before Easter.

Rebecca Alderson, 15, was Reading's other medallist, taking her year's 50m breaststroke silver late in the meet in a time of 36.49 in a field of 16, and a number of other swims across the weekend pleased the RSC coaches in attendance – for example a 50m freestyle PB from 16-year-old Sofija Matich described by County Squad coach Clive Alderson as "a textbook swim".

These included solid PBs from both Louise Tayler-Grint and Lisa O'Brien early on in the 100m IM, and one of a number of recent close finishes between 13-year-olds Vanessa Wood and Naomi Herring in the same event.

Herring just had the edge this time in 1:20.12 to 1:20.70 as the pair placed in the top half of a 40-plus field in one of the meet's most popular events. The girls beat their entry times by eight and seven seconds respectively, and Wood's effort was all the more commendable as only two events earlier she had swum a PB by some 15 seconds in the even more demanding 200m breaststroke.

Sunday's top Reading male swim again came in a butterfly event, this time over 100 metres. Daniel Jackson beat his entry time by just over five seconds in placing fifth in a field of 20 in the 14/15 category. Jackson was another to pull out a further PB after a short rest, lopping over two seconds off his 100m free entry time in 1:03.41.

Herring and Wood also repeated their good form of day one, both securing big 200m backstroke PBs, with Herring also cutting five seconds from her previous best in the 100m fly and Wood improving her 100 free entry time by over two.

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