ST IVES Swimming Club are looking to make up for 10 years of hurt when they return to top-level club swimming competition in 2010. The club made their return to Division One of the Arena National Swimming League after a thrilling final round in Peterborou

ST IVES Swimming Club are looking to make up for 10 years of hurt when they return to top-level club swimming competition in 2010.

The club made their return to Division One of the Arena National Swimming League after a thrilling final round in Peterborough in which six teams contested just two promotion spots in the East Midland District.

In a highly charged atmosphere, St Ives took their place alongside Bramcote, Wellingborough, St Ives, Dereham, City of Peterborough B and Lincoln Vulcans B, all of whom were still in with a shot at promotion.

As in previous rounds, the competition went to the wire, to be settled by a scrap for points in the relay events. St Ives saw their hard training and experience pay off as they clinched a superb second-place finish, just five points behind winners Bramcote.

The promotion means that St Ives will compete against local rivals City of Peterborough and City of Cambridge in Division One in 2010.

St Ives got off to the ideal start in the three-round competition with victory at Thetford in October. The November meeting also yielded a victory, this time at Market Harborough, where Ives had to call on all their skills to beat City of Peterborough B to the overall win in the relays. They had to rely on the men's open 4x50m freestyle relay team of Andy Weatheritt, Dale Brown, Michael Mackrell and Alex Berezinsky win by a clear length to keep Ives in the promotion hunt.

The successful St Ives swimmers who competed in all three rounds were: Andy Weatheritt, Mike Mackrell, Dale Brown, Aaron Tindall, Alex Berezinsky, Cathy Thompson, Gemma Sargent, Hannah Sargent, Helen Brown, Chloe Solomu, Hannah Milner, Becky Hime, Caitlin Roberts, Louise Todd, Ellie Roberts, Georgia Winsome Pearce, Annabell McKenzie, Andrew Davies, Tom Davies, Oliver Cook, Jacob Milner, Ollie White, Giovanni Di-Siena, Luke Watson, Peter Todd, Stanley Waters, Sam Cox, Ella Hartley, Hannah Smith, Jazz Powell, Alice Kerr, Hazel Sterling, Daniel Yarney and Michael Lardner.