Boston A and B teams travelled to Peterborough to contest round two of the Fenland League.

With round one – traditionally a strong round for Boston A – having been cancelled due to the bad weather in February, a good result was essential if they were to have any chance of reaching the main final later in the year, writes Michael MacLeod.

To further complicate matters, a reshuffle of the teams was needed due to several of the usual swimmers competing at the Leicester Open meet.

Therefore this was not a good time to come up against defending champions Peterborough Cops.

Boston's A team started brightly and were ahead for the first seven races notably through wins for Beth Hutchings (12/u 100 individual medley) and Toni Keal (13/u 50m backstroke).

Toni later produced her second race win of the night in the 50m butterfly.

From this point onwards, though, Peterborough slowly took control. And although Morgan Dodd (12/u 50m breaststroke and freestyle), Abigail Teague (13/u 50m freestyle), Lewis Teague (11/u 50m backstroke) and Ben Warren (13/u 50m breaststroke) all produced further race wins, Boston A had to settle for second place on the night.

Boston B knew they would have a long and difficult night ahead of them as in the past they have only finished above Ely in the league last season.

To their credit, all the swimmers swam well with a remarkable 35 personal best times being set out of a possible 42.

This performance was even more significant considering several of the swimmers were competing in their first league encounter.

Most successful swimmers on the night with two wins each were Alys Cadle in the girls' 12/u 50m backstroke and butterfly and Jordan Clare, nine-year-old boys 50m breaststroke and freestyle.

Race winners: Boston A, Morgan Dodd (2), Beth Hutchings, Toni Keal (2), Abigail Teague, Lewis Teague, Ben Warren; Boston B, Alys Cadle (2), Jordan Clare (2).

Personal best times: Caoimhe Atkin-Palmer (2), Jason Barnes (2), Nesta Baxter (2), Alys Cadle (3), Jordan Clare (3), Adam Clark (3), Brad Cooke (3), Tom Cooke (4), Morgan Dodd, David Guy, Thomas Hall, Georgia Hodgkiss (4), Lucy Howlett, Beth Hutchings, Gwion Joyce (2), Toni Keal, Rithika Koshy, Luke Macleod (2), Jasmin Martin (3), Emily Murfin, Harriet Needham, Ella Parla, Sofia Parla, Jessica Pettitt, Becky Pimlott, Brendon Rodrigo (3), Holly Sauntson, William Swain (2), Abigail Teague, Lewis Teague (2), Jordan Ward, Ben Warren and Ben Woods.