A small group of swimmers from Reading SC’s County Squad broke new ground for the club over the weekend, with a visit to the impressive Parkside pool for the City of Cambridge Open.

One of the country’s best 25-metre venues, the now five-year-old pool put Cambridge on the short-course swimming map in 2002 when the city was chosen to host the British short-course championships.

The squad returned with 11 medals - five gold, one silver and five bronze - and nine PBs.

Rebecca Alderson was Reading’s top performer and one of three medallists from the Evening Post-sponsored club. Alderson, a member of the club’s Speedo League A team and 100m breaststroke winner at the club’s 2004 championships, took Saturday’s 14-15 years silver in that event in 1:18.76 but gave her best performance in the 100m butterfly. A time of 1:13.57 won the gold by a narrow margin from the home club’s Charlotte Haines, secured by Alderson swimming a much faster opening 50 metres, with the third-placed girl some five seconds back.

Alderson was also among the medals with a bronze in the 100m individual medley – which at one length of each stroke can only be swum in 25-metre pools - and placed fourth in the 200m backstroke, seventh in the 100 free and eighth in the 50m free.

The 50 placing took her into the "skins" elimination races, where she moved up one place in the seedings into the second heat, but ironically her 28.93 wasn't bettered in any of the subsequent heats.

Hannah Lamb was another rostrum swimmer, in the meet’s toughest event. Lamb’s 4:56.15 took the bronze in the 16/17 400m freestyle in 4:56.40, almost identical to the time which also placed her third in Reading’s own club championships back in October.

Beth Ayerst placed sixth in the same age group, just over 5:03, and the pair placed sixth and seventh respectively over 200 metres. Ayerst missed a medal by one place in the 100, with Sofia Matich fifth.

Lamb took home the 100m fly gold as only swimmer in her age group to tackle it, with the event also bringing Lisa O’Brien’s top performance of the meet, fifth in a field of seven in Alderson’s age group.

Reading men’s captain David Thomas won his 17/18 200m back in a PB on the same basis as Lamb’s gold, but one of the beauties of competitive swimming is that heats are swum across all age groups so both had to do it the hard way within the overall field.

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