Having finished in 3rd place in the National Arena League, West Midlands Division 3 North, Falcon were guaranteed a place in end of season swim off to ascertain which clubs were promoted to Division 2. The swim off  consists of  of six teams, the top 3 from the Division 3 North and the top 3 from Division 3 South. Knowing that they had to finish in the top four to secure promotion, the bus headed off towards Stechford Cascades Leisure Centre, Birmingham on Sunday Jan 16th with the feeling of nervous expectation. Has the the venue approached, coach Ian Melvin gave the swimmers a rousing speech of encouragement, everyone was up for it, all their hard work had come down to one performance, could the many hours of swimming up and down at Hucknall Leisure Centre give them the promotion that, not only the swimmers deserved but the the club as a whole deserved.

 Arriving on poolside and as the other teams started to filter through, the atmosphere building all the time you could sense one or two of the swimmers feeling the pressure, could they cope and deliver on the day ?.

Warm up was scheduled to start at 3.15pm and as this was fast approaching, Falcon were still waiting on the arrival of Senior Club Captain, Imogen Gould who had been competing at an open meet in Sheffield over the weekend, phone calls were being made to see if she would make it on time, it didn't help that Birmingham were at home to Aston Villa on the same day, the traffic was horrendous, then the call we had all hoped for, she had made it, they were here, a sigh of relief went around poolside, Falcon's task would have been that much harder without the ever so consistent Gould. Warm up began, this seemed to relieve some of the tension, the swimmers finally being able to start the job they had come here to do.

The first race got under way, it was clear that the task ahead was going to be very difficult, the standard of swimming was very high, the atmosphere by this time was electric, the 3rd race gave us all an injection of optmism, the girls 9\11 years 4x50m Freestyle relay team of Amelia Sale\Megan Miles\Jessica Howarth and Sophie Melvin came home in 1st place. Then with a trio of 2nd places in the girls 13 & under 4x50m Medley,Sale\Libby Straw \Megan Geoghegan\Kirsten Gilding, the boys in the same event James Terry\Tom Howarth\Prentice Dawn and Joe Lidgett, then came the girls in the 15 & under 4x50m Freestyle relay Gould\Geoghegan\Gilding and Chloe Melvin, By the end of the 13th race we were lying in last place, could it all go wrong ?

 Races fourteen and fifteen, two 2nd places, 1st Tom Howarth in the 13 & under 100m Breaststroke then Megan Geoghegan in the girls 15 & under 100m Backstroke, could this be the start of better things, race seventeen Gould comes 2nd in the Ladies Open 100m Butterfly, matched by Steven Catton in the Mens Open, then two victories Amelia Sale and Rhys Taylor both in the 10\11 yrs 50m Butterfly, race twenty two another win, this time Gould in the girls 15 & under 100m Butterfly, Falcons were on the charge, by the end of race twenty six we were up to fourth, where we needed to be, could we maintain this level until the end ?

The nerves were building, the swimmers were ok by this time but the parents were suffering, race thirty, another 2nd, Prentice Dawn in the boys 13 & under 100m Butterfly, Robert Barton also comes home 2nd in the boys 15 & under 100m Freestyle, then two disqualifications, no points, could this prove costly.Race thirty five Megan Miles, 2nd in the girls 10\11 yrs 50m Freestyle, then two more victories Geoghegan in the girls 13 & under 100m Freestyle and Gould in the girls 15 & under 100m Breaststroke. Eleven races to go Falcon's still in fourth place, the dream is still alive.

Race forty one Alex Nightingale finishes 2nd in the Ladies Open 100m Freestyle, race forty three the girls 9\11 4x50m Medley relay team of  Miles\Howarth\Sale and Melvin round off a good day by coming  2nd, as the races went and with no more top two finishes the tension was unbearable, had we done enough to hold onto fourth place. The wait for the final placings seemed like hours, then the announcement, in sixth place Lincoln Crusaders with 129 points, fifth place Stourbridge with 160 points, at last relief we had done it, Falcon fourth place with 172 pts, then came Belper with 190 points, Biddulph with 193 pts and the overall winners were Tewkesbury with 193 pts. The teams collected their trophies and headed off to get changed for the journey home. The trip home was a little quiet, mainly due to the tremendous effort everyone had put in on the day, the whole team were a credit to the club and should be very proud of what they have achieved so far, the time was 6.20pm, if we got a move on we could still make back to Hucknall for tonight's training session, this wasn't met with much enthusiasm.