11 October 2010

City of Leeds tri­umphant­ly reignite Are­na League cam­paign after a five year hiatus. 

Final standings

  1. City of Leeds ‘A’ 349
  2. City of Sheffield ‘A’ 295
  3. Doncaster Dartes 260
  4. Harrogate & District 247
  5. City of Leeds ‘B’ 238
  6. Gateshead & Wickham 157
  7. City of Sheffield ‘B’ 125
  8. Tynemouth 124

For the first time in five years eight teams from the North East of Eng­land assem­bled at Ponds Forge, Sheffield, to com­pete in the Nation­al Are­na Swim­ming League. The com­pe­ti­tion con­sists of two Qual­i­fy­ing Rounds, fol­lowed by a Region­al Final, with the teams fight­ing for a place in the Nation­al Swim­ming League Finals, held at Ponds Forge in Sheffield on 17th April 2011. 

The com­pet­ing teams in this years North East­ern League are City of Leeds ​‘A’ & ​‘B’, City of Sheffield ​‘A’ & ​‘B’, Don­cast­er Dartes, Har­ro­gate & Dis­trict, Gateshead & Wick­ham and Tynemouth. 

The com­pe­ti­tion was fierce, with Leeds, Sheffield, Don­cast­er and Har­ro­gate all record­ing ear­ly vic­to­ries. As the noise lev­els rose and the swim­mers and sup­port­ers got into the swing of things, the com­pe­ti­tion real­ly came to life. Despite the teams trad­ing vic­to­ries, as the evening pro­gressed it became a two horse race and despite strong efforts from Don­cast­er, Har­ro­gate and the City of Leeds ​‘B’ Team, it was left to the City of Leeds ​‘A’ and City of Sheffield ​‘A’ teams to fight it out for over­all vic­to­ry. The City of Leeds even­tu­al­ly fin­ished on top with City of Sheffield in sec­ond place and a mere 22 points sep­a­rat­ing third to fifth places. 

Well done to every­one involved.