Sunday saw a group of hardy Otters head to the Middlesex Masters Meet at Enfield swimming pool. Not put off by the fact that the pre-organised mini-bus was an hour late due to a puncture, they made it just in time to start the proceedings with the 200 Free. All who swam in this event made a fantastic start, despite having to warm up in the paddling pool with water that barely came up to even my legs.
 
200 free
First up was Lesley Davies who swam a great race and gained the first medal of the meet. Then came the long awaited moment that Ruth Morrison was to step back into a swimming pool and she posted a respectable time resulting a bronze medal. Next up was the 4 way clash between Matt Staines, James Palmer, Michelle Senecal and Gina Hobson. Matt stormed to victory and claimed a bronze medal in his age group. He also proved that with a great performance like that, who knows what he could do with more training?! Both Gina and James got gold’s and Michelle, a silver. Other fantastic performances were posted by Rob Williams (who not only won his age group, but also got a masters pb), Flavio Rusconi (bronze medal), Tony Ray (bronze) and Adam McCarthy (who was making his second appearance for Otter).
 
50 Breastroke
In this next event, Ruth Morrison stormed home to a silver medal in the 25-29 yrs age group. Also to mention was the competitive heat between the self-confessed 'breastroke haters' Gina and Michelle. It was Gina who emerged victorious this time, posting a new lifetime pb. We will surely make a breastroker of her yet! Lesley also claimed another medal in this event. Enrico Hahn stepped up to take bronze in his age group despite strong competition and Matt just touched the pad before James, making it a silver and gold in their age groups respectively.
 
50 Butterfly
With the Otter points table starting to build up, Michelle, Gina and Nicola Charlesworth (her first meet for Otter) went head to head in this race. It was so close between Gina and Nicola but it was Nicola who emerged victorious. She took silver in her age group while Gina took gold in hers. Meanwhile, Michelle picked up a silver too. In the men's event Flavio swam a strong race, taking the bronze and Adam was just pipped into 5th place in the 25-29 age group. Matt and James continued their strong swims with more medals.
 
100IM
Things were starting to get interesting in this race. Some of the team were just getting started while others were dropping like flies. Anna Ochocinska made her Otter debut and put in a great swim to get a silver medal. Well done Anna! Lesley claimed another gold medal and Enrico and Flavio had a tight race with Flavio just touching first to make it an Otter 3 and 4 in the 25-29 group. It was also becoming a tight competition between James and Gina. At the start of the meet they challenged each other to who could get the lowest overall time when all times were added together. Matt was initially in the competition too but found himself quite far ahead of the pack after attaining his nippy time in the first event.
 
50 Back
A smaller contingent took on this event but Gina proved her backstroke talent by gaining another gold medal. The girl was on fire. Enrico also had a great swim, gaining a silver medal, Matt got another gold, Tony received a bronze and James not only got a gold but whipped a second off his pb in a bid to take Gina down.

50 Free 
The last race of the day didn't disappoint despite the build-up of some serious lactate, with great swims from Gina, Lesley, Matt, Enrico, Adam and James.

Relays
Arguably the most crazy part of the day were the relays and again the whole team proved that Otters really are the elite. The whole team stepped up to swim the punchy 4x25 swims, most having to swim for 2 age groups and more. Needless to say there was a great deal of running up and down the poolside trying to establish a) which team you were in b) which heat you were in and c) which lane you were in! It definitely kept us all on our toes!
 
The relatively small Otter team came a close 4th at the end of the competition but all in all, a great meet with some fantastic performances all round. The Gina - Matt- James competition ended up with Matt winning, James second and Gina third but there was only less than a second in it between James and Gina. Well done guys!
 
The end
The team were able to make it back onto the mini-bus in time for what turned out to be a spectacular tour of our country's capital. We enjoyed it that much that we have all decided to buy property on Bishop's Avenue in Hampstead. Anyone got a spare 60 million?!
 
Lastly, thanks to the whole team for working so hard and to Steve for a fantastically well-organised event.

P.S. You may have noticed that I have failed to mention myself in this report. That is because I am not sure I deserve a mention until I work out the difference between 15 and 25m backstroke.
 
Reporter : Lauren