A FINE team performance gave Dorset one their best results in the history of the ASA National Inter-County competition - and won them promotion to Division One.

After a thrilling Division Two contest at Sheffield, Dorset emerged in third place out of 18. The top four will be promoted next year.

It was Dorset's best result since 2000, when they last won promotion, again after finishing third in Division Two.

Dorset team co-ordinator Jill Beard said: "It was tense and exciting. By event six, we were in fourth place and we never dropped below that.

"But on many occasions there were only two or three points between the top five.

"Every swim and every point counted and it was a supreme team effort."

The commitment of the swimmers was evident from the PB statistics - 27 of the 30 relay splits were personal best times along with 15 of the 24 individual swims.

Ferndown's Fran Hughes produced the first of Dorset's five race wins when she took the 12-13yrs 100m breaststroke in 1:15.06.

Two events later, Bournemouth Dolphins' former national age group champion Chris Campbell produced his first sub 60-second 100m butterfly swim as he powered to victory by three seconds in the boys' 14-15yrs event (58.78).

Nicole Scott (Ferndown) had more than a second to spare as she won the 16-17yrs 100m butterfly in 1:04.12.

Her club-mate Craig Freeman enjoyed a similar margin of victory as he won the 12-13yrs 100m backstroke - his second stroke - in 1:04.37.

He was also third on his third stroke, the 100m butterfly (1:04.37).

Dorset had two relay wins - from the 12-13yrs girls' quartet of Jo Puckett, Fran Hughes, Laura Newsam and Kim Roberts and the mixed 6x50m freestyle team.

Ferndown's Lydia McManus contributed two third places - in the 14-15yrs 100m butterfly (1:04.83) and 100m freestyle (1:00.10).

Also third were the 14-15yrs boys' and girls' medley relay teams of Nick and Jon Marsh, Chris Campbell and Dominic Macdonald and Cathy Close, Rebecca Cottrell, Lydia McManus and Jasmine McCormack.

Fourth places came from Ferndown's 100m freestylers Tom Tiller (12-13yrs 58.62) and Dominic Macdonald (14-15yrs 54.71), Tornadoes' Laura Newsam (12-13yrs 100m fly 1:10.32) and West Dorset's Rebecca Cottrell (14-15yrs 100m breast 1:14.42).

Seagulls' Chris Chamberlain improved his PBs on both his swims after being called in as a late replacement for Alex Wilding.

Overall Result, Division Two: 1 Scotland West 493, 2 Nottinghamshire 481, 3 Dorset 465, 4 Derbyshire 459, 5 Wiltshire 454, 6 Leicestershire 430, 7 Norfolk 408, 8 Worcestershire 387, 9 North Wales 372, 10 Cumbria 331, 11 Shropshire 321, 12 Gloucestershire 301, 13 Scotland Mid 294, 1 Oxfordshire & N Bucks 290, 15 Bedfordshire 245, 16 Cambridgeshire 244, 17 Northamptonshire 226, 1 Cornwall 191.