After an exciting double header at Basildon Sporting Village, the 2024 Essex Swimming League season drew to a close with Basildon & Phoenix retaining their title as overall Essex Swimming League Champions, and Brentwood ending up as winners of Division Two.
Final round results and overall standings for 2024 can be found on the League Tables page.
Division One: With the Division finals offering double gala points, Romford just needed to beat Basildon in Division One to take away the trophy but it was not to be. At the end of the first quarter it looked possible when Romford led Basildon by two points, but the Basildon swimmers pulled it back to lead by four points at the halfway point and pulled further ahead to finish with a lead of 18 points by the end of the night. League newcomers Chelmsford put in a strong performance to finish third on the night but were too far behind on points from the earlier rounds to challenge for a higher final league position. Fourth place on the night for Barking & Dagenham was enough to secure third place in the overall league table .
Division Two: In the Division Two final, Brentwood started the night three points on top of the Division Two title race, with Harwich being the club with the best chance of passing them. After twelve events, Dunmow were in the lead on the night but Harwich had an eight point lead over Brentwood. This switched to a two point deficit at the halfway point with Brentwood taking over second place. Halsted were only one point further behind so it was still all up for grabs at this stage. At the three-quarters point it switched round again, Harwich were leading Brentwood by 9 points with Dunmow still in first. With double league points on offer Harwich needed a clear gap between themselves and Brentwood to take the trophy. However, despite extending the gap over Brentwood in the last quarter, Harwich couldn’t overhaul the Dunmow squad and neither did Halsted overtake Brentwood. Sadly, Leyton had been unable to field a team for this final gala. With the gala finishing Dunmow first, Harwich second, Brentwood third, Halstead fourth, Hornchurch fifth and Woodham Ferrers sixth, Brentwood had done enough to win the Division Two trophy.
The League would like to thank all the clubs, swimmers, and (especially) the spectators for taking part in this year’s competition. We hope all the swimmers and spectators had a great and fun experience! We’d welcome any comments or feedback!
Andy – ESL Treasurer
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