POOLE'S 10-year-old girls defeated the best in the West to claim gold and bronze medals at the Western Counties relay competitions in Millfield's 50m pool.

The quartet of Claire Rafferty, Shauna Burns, Charley Gale and Louise Linley-Adams upset the form book to come first in the 4x50m freestyle and third in the medley.

They had qualified for the finals only third and seventh fastest respectively.

The freestyle victory was especially sweet for Poole as it also saw local rivals Bournemouth Dolphins pushed from fastest qualifiers to fourth place in a thrilling final. Just 0.4sec covered the first four teams.

Poole coach Paul Gowing, who made tactical changes to the relay order between heats and finals in both events, said: "The girls were ecstatic and I was really pleased for them. Apart from getting one over on Bournemouth, they made the most of the tactical changes.

"They fought hard and gave 100 per cent and thoroughly deserved their success."

A feature of both races was the blistering anchor legs from Gale, who recorded 34.38 to seal victory in the freestyle, and Rafferty, who clocked 35.00 on the freestyle leg of the medley.

The split times and official team times were: Freestyle, Rafferty 36.03, Burns 36.33, Linley-Adams 39.52, Gale 34.38 (2:26.26). Medley, Linley-Adams back 47.41, Gale breast 43.54, Burns butterfly 42.97, Rafferty free 35.00 (2:48.92).

The Bournemouth Dolphins quartet of Amy Poynter, Kimberley Rowles, Bridie Shanahan-Smith and Leyla Macdonald were fourth in the freestyle but failed to make the final of the medley.

In the 11-12 yrs age group, Bournemouth's girls' team of Claire Humphreys, Tina Langmead, Stephanie Phelan and Sabina Heywood came seventh in the 4x50m freestyle final.

Poole's 13-14 yrs boys' team of Leigh Jenkinson, Alex Crane, Michael Bailey and Chris Wilson were seventh in both the medley and freestyle.

Wareham Water-Rats left Christchurch as the new holders of the Cooks Shield, but not before a titanic struggle with host club Seagulls.

In fact, Seagulls won more events than any of the other five teams - 23 compared with Wareham's 18 - but the Purbeck club collected more points from the lower placings.

Kris Legg, Katherine Ashley and James Oxborrow were all double winners for Wareham.

In the open category, Legg won the men's 50m butterfly in 30.57 and the 100m individual medley in 1:09.48, while Ashley took the women's 100m medley (1:18.22) and 100m breaststroke (1:25.25). Oxborrow's wins came in the 15/u 50m breaststroke (38.39) and 100m medley (1:12.52).

The older age groups also produced wins from Anneka Rose in the women's 100m backstroke (1:15.89) and 15/u swimmers Kate Wood in the 50m breaststroke (40.26) and Joshua Eiles-Clarke in the 50m backstroke (33.83).

The 13/u age group also yielded plenty of points for Wareham with wins coming from 50m breaststrokers Cindy Connor (41.06) and Scott Major (40.78), 50m freestylers Georgina Smith (33.48) and Sam Thompson (31.66), the girls' 4x25m freestyle team of Connor, Smith, Abigail Jessop and Sam Major (1:01.99) and the medley quartet of Major, Jessop and Lydia and Grace McManus (1:14.62).

In the 11/u events, Hannah Smith won the 25m butterfly (16.65), Lydia McManus the 50m freestyle (33.90) while the girls' team of Smith, McManus, Hannah Lyons and Abigail Maynard won the freestyle relay (1:08.14).

The 11/u boys proved to be Seagulls' most valuable asset, picking up maximum points from their six events.

James Solly won the 25m butterfly (16.25), Tom Butcher the 50m breaststroke (48.85), Jamie Druce the 50m backstroke (44.88) and Matt Cummings the 50m freestyle (33.94).

The same four boys then teamed up for comfortable wins in the freestyle and medley relays.

In the same age group for girls, Lucy Burgess won the 50m breaststroke in 48.81. Nicole Scott was a double winner the 13/u age group, taking the 50m backstroke and 50m butterfly in 35.25 and 35.59 respectively.

Other individual winners included open swimmers John Simmonds (100m freestyle 58.68), Shaun Druce (100m breaststroke 1:16.03), Bobby Simmonds (100m backstroke 1:12.68) and Amanda Chainey 50m butterfly (33.82).

In the 15/u age group Glen Bailey won the boys' 50m freestyle (29.34) and Oliver Robertson the 50m butterfly (33.61).

The gala ended with a thrilling mixed 16x25 squadron relay which Seagulls won.

Result: 1 Wareham 255, 2 Seagulls 250, 3 Ringwood 198, 4 West Wight 184, 5 Isle of Wight 147, 6 Clayesmore 73.

Bournemouth Dolphins team regained the Hunts Cup after winning the annual masters relay gala hosted by Poole at the Kemp Welch pool. Dolphins won 15 of the 30 events with Dawlish and Teignmouth winning 12 and Poole three.

Result: Bournemouth Dolphins 62, Dawlish and Teignmouth 57, Poole 47.

Bournemouth Dolphins chief coach Laurie Dormer has been appointed head coach of an England West team at this weekend's Speedo Super Grand Prix final in Glasgow, where the England team for the Commonwealth Games are also competing.

The 11-strong West team includes one of Dormer's own swimmers, Danielle Moore, while a another, Tom Cunningham, will be attached to the team but competing under the Bournemouth Dolphins name.

Ferndown's Emily Freeman won two gold medals and two silvers to claim the Bagcats trophy for the top girl in the 11yrs age group in the TT Sprints meet at Weymouth.

Her golds came in the 100m freestyle (1:05.51) and breaststroke (1:29.06) and silver in the 100m butterfly (1:17.51) and backstroke (1:17.21). All four times were PBs.