A BRILLIANT all round effort by Kendal's young swimming team against tough opposition was enough to see them avoid relegation the final round of the North Lancashire Swimming League.

Competing in the event at Blackpool against formidable teams from Accrington, Carnforth, Clitheroe, Blackpool, Preston, Leyland and Chorley, they needed a good start.

And they got that from speed merchant Isabelle Wall-Budden in the 200m mixed cannon who took it on at two lengths freestyle and kept up her challenge before snatching a brilliant third place in a blanket finish.

The 12 and under butterfly saw Evelyn Atkinson produce a powerful effort to take fourth place followed by Joseph Bulman, who made a huge effort to gain valuable points with a fifth place.

Wall-Budden and Atkinson then linked up with Elise Tallon and Eve Murray for the girls' freestyle relay and performed brilliantly, and they were followed by a combination of Bulman, Lennon Bell, Mathew Gibson and Joel Saunders in the boys' freestyle relay to add more precious points.

Brilliant results at butterfly from James Escolme and Lucie Bulman, both of whom displayed superb technique, kept Kendal in the hunt and kept it up reaching the halfway point of the event with a brilliant medley relay effort from Adam Stansfield, who was on backstroke, Max Ainsworth on breaststroke, James Escolme on butterfly and Jacob Saunders on freestyle.

The second period began with Elise Tallon and Mathew Gibson drawing on all their backstroke experience to snatch solid results over the two lengths.

Georgia Heath and Adam Stansfield then kept up the pressure in the freestyle before Mathew Gibson and Chloe Westmorland excelled in the breaststroke.

Gibson challenged for honours from the start and swam a brilliant race with Westmorland producing an immaculate turn and a superb stroke pattern to take a fine third place.

This was followed by Kendal’s greatest success of the night with Georgia Heath up with the leaders from the start before increasing her stroke rate out of the turn and winding it up with a perfect finish to take a superb second place.

That was was enough to clinch the team's Division One safety, but the senior relay squads carried on the good work in the closing events with Bethan Rowley, Jacob Klijn, Megan Jones, Oliver Woodburn, Megan Bascombe, Alex Tallon, Suzanne Corrie, Rosemary Swallow and Leon Priestley-Nying all combining in both medley and freestyle to help the team clinch sixth place with 121 points, well ahead of nearest rivals Chorley.