6th place at 2025 GoCardless SE National County Team Champs
After a lot of hard work behind the scenes by Leah Pullen, the day came for us to travel as a team to Sheffield to attend the 2025 County Team Championships.
With swimmers, coaches, officials and TMs aboard, we set off just after 9.30 on Saturday morning. A stop at Loughborough Uni for the swimmers to have a training session (both on land and in the pool) whilst the officials and TMs had a well-deserved coffee! The on-ward journey to Sheffield was uneventful and we arrived in good time to the hotel.
Team building quizzes and games were held before the shortish walk to Cosmos for dinner. Further games back at the hotel before all swimmers turned in for a good night's sleep.
Breakfast in the morning saw only a few of the younger swimmers needing to be woken up!
Arrival at Pond's Forge saw pictures being taken by all Counties outside - Middlesex were no different. Inside was a cacophony of noise, even though not all times had yet arrived. Following the brief but packed warm-up, face paints, hats and tutus were adorned as well as the odd County tattoo.
All swimmers swam out of their skins and there were PBs galore. We watched as the scoreboard showed Middlesex creep up the rankings from starting at 18th and finally finishing in a very strong 6th place - our best result for several years.
Back to the hotel to pick up luggage and get on the coach to start the long journey home. We had a quick break at Watford Gap before the final leg of the journey. It was at this point that John, Nathan and Chloe announced the "swim of the meet" - the Girls 12/13 medley relay which came 1st by annihilating the opposition; top swim for boys - Mihailo Vuckovic for his relay split in the medley relay; and Rin Mayo for her individual swim and relay split. Chocolates were awarded to the relay team and also to the two teams which had won the quiz the night before and a "Dory" soft toy personalised with the County logo and "Top Swimmer - just keep swimming" on the side. Well done to all.
We arrived safely back to Barnet Copthall at a very respectable 8.50pm where all swimmers were safely returned to awaiting parents.
A massive thank you to John Slater, Nathan Joseph and Chloe Thomas for all their hard work with getting the swimmers prepared for the meet.
A huge thank you to our two officials - Nik Takev and Rachael Dennis - for giving up their weekend to support the County.
An even bigger thank you to Leah Pullen for the incredible job she did in getting all the paperwork done, the hotel booking, the coach booking, the restaurant booking and ordering of lunches for Sunday as well as ensuring that there were enough face paints, tattoos and silly clothing for the kids (and adults) to utilise.
Here's looking forward to next year.
From the Team Captains
Having gathered, drowsy and disenchanted onto the coach on the way up we were filled with a sense of building excitement that clashed with the early morning haziness. After some trying attempts at team building we moved into our first set together as team. After that we headed up to the hotel in Sheffield. After some slightly more successful team building and tea related antics we headed up to Cosmo’s and yours truly ate far too much pork. Following this we both definitely went to sleep at an appropriate time and any suggestions otherwise are most heinous slander. Finally we dialed up for the main event. Warm up was busy and curt but we got what we needed out of it. From there the events began each and everyone on the team gave their all. Overall we were unbelievably proud of the team and how much work they’ve put in. We all performed and whilst some of the face paint was questionable the team spirit was unmatched. It has been a pleasure and an honour to lead this team. Thank you to everyone for working so hard.
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