There are a few new faces in Jenny Corners senior league squad this year and they have come through a tough opening with away fixtures at newcomers Radcliffe and the two favourites for the title Ramsbottom and Tyldesley.

Radcliffe as a club have improved considerably in recent years and have replaced Ashton Under Lyne in this year’s league. We have had some “young” squads in this competition but the team that rolled up for this encounter were very young as a whole.

Newcomers Richard Atkinson, Tom Ball, John McDonald, Lauren Cain, Jade Davies and Justine Bate were all pretty new to this competition and they were joined by club newcomers Peter and Sarah Grimshaw (welcome!) and Kathryn Baker – the latter being no stranger to many of us.

More experienced swimmers helped by the youngsters kept the Wigan scoreboard ticking over with Rob Livesey, Simon Collier, Elizabeth Jones, Sarah Richardson and Jenny Corner to the fore. Ultimately despite the team’s youth they were guided by club captains Natalie Burrows and James Ball to a narrow defeat by 25.5 to 14.5.

Four days later on the 7th March the same squad missing Simon Collier but with Jennifer Jackson welcomed back travelled the M66 to Ramsbottom on a cold Monday evening. Ramsbottom remain very strong in this competition and may end Tyldesley's nine year domination of the league. We struggled and despite great efforts from everyone only four wins were recorded by James Ball, Jennifer Jackson and two from Kathryn Baker as we recorded a 36 – 4 defeat.

Third up on March 16th champions Tyldesley must have been confident of extending their winning run against us in this competition. Think again! The team were bolstered by the inclusion of Sam Russell, David Richardson, Lauren Bate and Charlotte Linfoot although Jennifer Jackson was unavailable. The races were nip and tuck all evening with Tyldesley regularly being pegged back until we came to the last event all square at 19pts each and the winner would take all. Our swimmers were not to be denied history and they won the last relay to win by 21pts to 19 and send a message to the rest of the league that on our day we can live with the best.