While Sunday July 8th may have been an unsuccessful day for some in the UK, it certainly wasn’t the case at the Wotton Pool Swimming Gala. Despite other sporting attractions, continuing poor weather, and a change of time from previous years, the gala was once again well attended by a variety of ages (spectators included those from 1 to 90, and most intervals in between swam too!)  and abilities, with much fun had by all. Certainly the prayers to the sun gods worked (to some extent) and there were patches of sunshine breaking through the clouds throughout Sunday evening. The quality of swimming was once again very high, with some very impressive team times being posted on the board. The barbeque and hot drinks were also hugely appreiciated by swimmers and spectators alike. Fastest team swim went this year to the “Old Parts”, clearly being spurred on by stiff competition from the young’uns in pink shorts. The family swim was won this year by the intrepid Whitwam family swimmers: all that training is clearly paying off! Wotton Scouts and The Panda Patrol both won prizes for fast junior swims, while the Dave Faller Cup for the best young effort, determination and courage went to brothers Scott and Gavin (aged 5 and 3) for some steely swimming, both managing 4 lengths! And if you’re not much bigger than 3 foot tall to start with, even a length of Wotton Pool is a great achievement, let alone, the 240 ft they swam, and they did it grinning. Thank you everyone for coming out on a damp weekend to swim, time, record, lifeguard, race, cook, eat and cheer. Once again, a real highlight of the season. Miss Minnow.