Friendly Gala 2021
On Saturday 4th November, the Oxford Blues and Dolphins hosted teams from Oxford Brookes, Warwick, Nottingham and Bristol in the annual Friendly Gala at the Rosenblatt Pool, Iffley Road.
Having been cancelled in 2020, this was the first proper competition for both the Oxford Blues and Dolphins in nearly 18 months so all the swimmers were very keen to get back into that racing spirit despite only having been back in the pool for 4 weeks of training.
The Friendly Gala is also the time the new freshers make their debut to the club swimming in the dark blue hat. It was great to see all the swimmers step up, officially becoming members of OUSC, and already proving themselves as great assets to the team.
The gala consisted of a series of individual sprint events and some relays and was rounded off by a tense 8×25 mixed canon relay sprint. The competition was very exciting, with the Oxford Blues A neck-on-neck with Nottingham for the whole gala, and the overall result being determined by the very last race. This nerve-wracking canon relay saw Oxford Blues A claim the Friendly Gala title over Nottingham by 36 hundredths of a second.
The Dolphins also had a tough match but absolutely smashed all their races ending up with more points than Bristol B, Brookes B and Warwick B.
The overall results were:
| Blues A | 284 |
| Nottingham | 282 |
| Warwick A | 238 |
| Blues B | 230 |
| Bristol | 197 |
| Brookes A | 194 |
| Dolphins A | 140 |
| Bristol B | 118 |
| Warwick B | 103 |
| Dolphins B | 69 |
| Brookes B | 54 |
We are now all very excited to be racing at BUCS, which takes place in Sheffield at the end of 6th week. These results have proven a very promising start to the season for both teams and we are all very excited to see what the rest of the season has to hold!
