Sport

Busy time for local swimmers

A BUSY couple of weekends beckon for local swimmers, with a pair of major galas in the offing.

The annual War Memorial Gala goes ahead at the Aurora Complex in Bangor on Saturday evening followed a week later by the Ulster Open Short Course Championships at the Lagan Valley LeisurePlex in Lisburn from 13th to 15th November.

There are a total of ten events in the all relay programme on Saturday from U12 through to senior in female, male and mixed races. The main item on the programme is the men's 6x50m freestyle which has in recent years been dominated by teams from Ards,Bangor,Larne and Lisburn and it is expected that three from that quartet will share the podium at the end of the evening.

Presentation of trophies for the season 2014/15 will take place in the interval between the heats and the finals in a number of categories, including the Joe Fitzpatrick Awards, which go to the most promising U14 girl and boy from last season's Age Group championships. Joe was a former secretary of Swim Ulster and the man who began the Freestyle column in The Irish News.

Other awards include The Lindsay McPherson Trophy, which goes to the Official of the Year and the trophy for Swimmer of the Year.

There is a busy water polo schedule for this weekend, with all of the top teams in the Premier League in action.

Brugha are going for their third away win in a row when they travel to the NAC in Dublin on Saturday for what could be a testing game against Sandycove. Setanta, who lost their opening game 14-8 to Sandycove, meet North Dublin who are looking for their first win under the management of former St Vincent's coach Seán Kenna.

Having lost their opening game to the St Vincent's second string, it is difficult to see Clonard picking up any points against their first team. Half Moon play St Vincent's reserves in the last of the four Premier League games.

In the Women's Premier, Brugha meet Trinity at the NAC on Saturday with Donegall Diamonds making the same journey on Sunday to take on Glenalbyn.

Grads face a tough day on Sunday when they open their Division Three campaign with two games at the NAC against Clontarf at 1pm and North Dublin IIs at 6pm.