FAREHAM Nomads pro-duced a stunning perfor-mance in the Southern Counties championships at Crystal Palace. But coach Stewart Crowe warned that the trend towards multi-club squads poses a real threat to the future of traditional clubs.

"With an increasing number of squads competing, single clubs are going to find it increasingly difficult to win honours at this level and qualify for the national age-group com-petition," he warned, suggesting that the squads field swimmers under what could be described as "flags of convenience."

The result is that Nomads - and even Hampshire's national top-flight club Portsmouth Northsea - are dwarfed by opposition from the likes of Hampshire North Swim Squad (selecting from six clubs) and London West T5, combining the massive Ealing club and a handful of other west London boroughs, rumoured to draw from a member-ship of around 2,500 swimmers.

Yet none of this could stop Nomads shining - they came away with two bronzes, a silver and one outstanding gold, claimed to be the only one for an individual Hampshire club.

The undoubted stars were Nomads' 11/12years quartet of Peter Hall, Graham Holland, Richard O'Donnell and Nick Barber who powered to qualification for August's national championship in both their events.

In the medley, they set a new club record to take silver, beaten only by London West T5. But in the freestyle they went one better - club records in both heats and finals saw them home 1.5 seconds ahead of T5 to claim the Southern Counties title. At 15/16, Hampshire's Jacqui Marshall and Eleanor Saunders finished behind T5 and Bracknell in the freestyle, missing second by just 0.1seconds. But that may yet secure them a national slot as one of the fastest losers. Their 1.56.14 would have placed them seventh at last year's Nationals.

Bronze was the reward, too, for the 17-over freestyle squad of Gemma Saunders, Zoe Loosemore, Sophie Picton-Jones and Hannah Clegg. Clegg, Loosemore, Saunders and Philippa Gammie also took fourth in the medley, as did the men's squad of Daniel Beale, Rob Smith, William Felgate and James Byrne.

Hampshire North Swim Squad were also among the medals. New faces Solent Raiders, drawing swimmers from City of Southampton, Eastleigh's Fleming Park and Romsey & Totton, were pleased with their haul of one bronze and seven top-eight finishes.

The over-17 girls squad (Hollie Cottrell, Annie Bainbridge, Lois Farrier, Marie Godwin) brought home that bronze and, with Ria McGlaughlin in for Bainbridge, they finished fifth in the freestyle. Next best were Raiders' fifth-placed girls junior freestyle team of Alex Hamilton, Rikki Jackson, Vicki White and Alex Savage while the over-17 boys (Chris Coombe, Peter Fields, Paul Hallum and James MacTavish) finished sixth in the medley and seventh in the freestyle.

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