Basildon Phoenix Swimming Club turned in a tremendous performance against some of the top south-east clubs in the prestigious Barking sprints.

Killerwhales, Romford and Thurrock were all in attendance at the event, but the fledgling Phoenix club made 33 finals, winning seven and placing in six.

Top honours went to Bonnie Maxwell in the 10-year-old girls. Bonnie won two titles in the freestyle and breaststroke events, before rounding off her day with second places in the butterfly and freestyle.

In the same age group, Danielle Janes was sixth twice (back and free), while Fay Gunnet was fifth in breaststroke. For the boys, James Wright was backstroke champion and 4th in the freestyle, and Daniel Macpherson fourth in breaststroke.

Championship-winners also came in the 11-year-old category. Robyn Blaney added top spot in free and fly to backstroke 4th, with Alex Valk winning the backstroke cup he had coveted all day.

In the 12-year-olds, Jamie Withrington won the freestyle and added second in the breaststroke and 6th in backstroke. Louise Morehead made three finals, winning a 5th and 6th place.

Michelle Barber won the 13-year-old backstroke final, and was second in fly and 6th in free. Joe Maxwell made all four finals, grabbing 3rd in the breaststroke, 4th in free and back and 5th in fly.

The performance of the nine-year-olds showed the club has a promising future as both boys and girls teams made the finals. The girls had two 4th place finishes and the boys a fourth and fifth.

Relay team members were Eleanor Lowe, Claire Gargano, Jordan Aldridge, Nicola Morehead, Daniel Ham, Henry Wood, Sam McGeechie, Jack Withrington, and Connor Crosby.

Pooling their talents - that's the youngsters of Basildon Phoenix Swimming Club, who made 33 finals at the prestigious Barking sprints meeting

Picture: MIKE NEVILLE

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.