Friday got off to a relatively low-key start as the girls rattled through the 50m freestyle heats. Several names cropped up which became prominent across the weekend, including Newbury's Megan Crook (10) and Lily Glover (11) with silvers and Lizzy Grey from Tilehurst who won the 13s group.

Adenais Vachon of Farnham began a great meet for her as fastest 14-year-old, going on to take a silver in the final.

Emma Harris was highest placed for the hosts, joint second in the top age category en route to a bronze in the final and her eventual "skins" triumph.

Reading's next best-placed were Nicole Ryan, fourth 10-and-under but fastest nine-year-old, and Livvy Paige, fourth in a field of 10 in the next year up.

The boys' 50 also saw great PBs from Reading swimmers who went on to feature strongly.

Alex Cawthorne, the top all-rounder at the county championships in his year, went on to secure a landmark first ever national time in the 200 breaststroke and warmed up for it with a winning margin of well over two seconds in the 10 and under group.

Barnaby Kempster was third fastest 12-year-old, Alex Binns missed a medal by a quarter-second in the 14s and Chris Boyce was 0.07 behind Wycombe's Joshua Alfred in claiming a silver in his first meet as a 15 year-old.

Mark Harris set the scene for his own "skins" win the next day, and York-Peter Kloeppel was sixth in the grand final.

As a complete contrast, boys and girls swam both the 800 and 1500 freestyle, with the added spice of mixed heats.

Until quite recently the 1500 was swum only by boys, but this year the girls' field was bigger, while no Reading boys tackled the longer distance.

Rachael Mills, in her last meet as a 14-year-old, swam both. Mills made a characteristically aggressive start but was overhauled by the very impressive Vachon in the 1500 although still second overall in 18.04.29. Reading's Louisa Herring, up from Portsmouth University, recorded 18.24.26 for a clear overall bronze.

Mills proved her powers of recovery by following up her recent Berks and South Bucks 800 bronze with a big PB of 9.17.67 as she finished second to Harris in the overall ladies' field.

County champion Harris, on 9.05.47, beat all the male swimmers comfortably, with only Daniel Harkin of Witney and Bracknell's Chris Brook among the boys ahead of Mills.

Reading's three boys in the 800 all slashed their previous bests. David Mills, just inside 11 minutes last time out, cut this to 10.34.65.

Barnaby Kempster chopped his 9.55 to 9.40.38 and was fastest 12-year-old by 20 seconds and James Tichband, 14, marginally quicker than Kempster beforehand, got very close to the 9.30 barrier and was third in his year on 9.31.38.

Friday's eclectic mix of events also included the longest breaststroke distance, 200 metres. The hosts were sparsely represented in the girls' heats. Jennifer Taylor in 3.00.81 was the fastest and made reserve for Saturday's final which was won comfortably by Tilehurst's Lizzy Grey in 2.51.24.

Reading put three into the men's' grand final - all three fastest in their respective age groups heats. York Kloeppel topped the rostrum in 2.27.66 ahead of Black Lion's Jon Lane and Birmingham University's Chris Flower, with Chris Boyce fourth and Callum Willcox fifth.

The event also brought probably the highlight of the whole weekend for the home club as Alex Cawthorne achieved a landmark of a first ever national qualifying time.

Cawthorne, whose birth date makes qualifying particularly difficult, needed to swim inside 3.00.95 from a 3.05 entry time and absolutely slaughtered it. His 2.57.28 would have won the next age group up comfortably. Under the complicated rules for the youngest age group at nationals the swim also secures him an entry to the 100 breaststroke, for which there are no separate qualifying times.

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