City of Oxford finished fourth in a tough opening round of the West Midlands Speedo League at Maidenhead.

In a high-quality competition, wins were hard to come by, but Sam van de Schootbrugge contributed 23 points to City's tally.

He had a convincing win the under 15 100m butterfly, and also clinched victory in the 100m breaststroke in a thrilling finish.

Swimming up in the men's open category, van de Schootbrugge clocked a personal best to finish second in the 200m individual medley.

Drew Finnigan, Alex Jenkinson, van de Schootbrugge and Ben Chapman were third in the under 15 boys' medley relay.

In the under 13 category, newcomer Thomas Papagella delivered a further two wins with impressive debut performances in the 100m butterfly and freestyle.

Chris Aust provided the other win of the evening in the men's 100m breaststroke.

Elsewhere, Aust, Matt Corbett, David Norridge and David Alliu finished second just behind Portsmouth in the men's open medley relay, while Corbett finished second and third in the open 100m backstroke and butterfly.

In the girls and ladies' events, Carly Hayles was the star performer.

She took second in the under 15 100m backstroke and earned valuable points in all eight of her events.

Another debutante, Emma Lomas, contribued 12 points with two third places in the under 11 50m breaststroke and freestyle. , while the freestyle relay squad of Emily Noel, Matilda Shearer, Lucy Smith and Lomas finished third in medley relay.

Up against such tough competition in the first division, Lucy Smith (under 11 butterfly) and Carla Prince (ladies' open backstroke and freestyle) were fourth in their respective races, as did Hannah Vine in the under 13 freestyle.

Result: 1 Portsmouth 348pts, 2 Hamble 236, 3 Winchester 229, 4 City of Oxford 212, 5 Fareham 210, 6 Slough 210, 7 Hart 195, 8 Eastleigh 152.

Personal bests: F Goodall, D Richards, K Husband, C Alsop, R Newman, M Williamson, T Illsen-Nunn, S Illsen-Nunn, K Pullinger, A Southam, L Brooks, J Gosden-Kaye, T Chapel, L Sherwood, P Smith.

Jocelyn DeVaux was in record-breaking form as Abingdon Vale finished fourth in their first round meeting of the West Midlands Speedo League at Leighton Buzzard.

DeVaux set a club record for 16 & under boys in the 100m freestyle with a time of 57.45secs.

He won the under 16 and under 15 races, in addition to the 100m backstroke in both age groups.

Other winners for Abingdon were Charlie Hedderly (11 & under 50m backstroke), Amira Mullane (16 & over 100m butterfly), Tamara Driver Jones (11 & under 50m butterfly) and the 15 & under relay team of Imogen West, Alexandra Talbot, Hannah Curtis and Nicole Nielsen.

Daniel Harkin was the star of the show as Witney opened their 2007 West Midlands Speedo League programme with a second place behind hosts Bromsgrove.

An excellent effort from the 15-year-old saw him smash the minute barrier in his 100m freestyle race with a much-reduced personal best.

Isobel Macdonald and Graham Cable won the ladies' backstroke and men's breaststroke respectively.

Anneliese Whiteley triumphed in the girls' 15 and under breaststroke, while Nathan Harkin and Adam Colling were never headed in winning their butterfly and breaststroke races in the boys' 13 and under group.

Result: 1 Bromsgrove 220pts, 2 Witney 182, 3 Wolverhampton 180, 4 Luton A 158, 5 Boldmere B 157, 6 Stafford Apex 148.

Other personal bests: H Brooke-Little (butterfly), M Colling (butterfly), J Possee (freestyle).