THE success swimmers have enjoyed in the water has helped their club to attract the attention of a new coach.

Steve Bradshaw, chairman at Northwich Centurions, told the Guardian that Simon Pickering had said as much during interviews to find a replacement for Philip Balcombe.

“People say ‘look at what Northwich have done’,” remarked Bradshaw.

“And that hasn’t happened in a while.

“But we take it as a compliment, and an indication of the progress that we’ve made under Phil.”

Pickering takes over from tomorrow, Friday, following a brief spell with neighbours Knutsford Vikings.

A highly-qualified trainer, he volunteered to teach initially at his local club when he was still at high school.

He becomes performance head coach, and has been tasked with enhancing the prospects of Centurions swimmers winning medals at county and regional level as well as competing on the national stage.

“Phil leaves us in a position from where that’s now a possibility,” said Bradshaw.

“His are big shoes to fill, and we’ll not forget the time, effort and patience he has shown to bring the club back up to that level.

“The challenge now is to take it on from there; that’s the message we want to make sure gets out.”

Centurions are starting to accelerate their development.

At the most recent Cheshire Championships, held in Macclesfield earlier this year, they almost doubled the number of points they had collected 12 months earlier.

They also won twice as many medals.

Northwich have made steady progress too in the National Arena League – another gauge of a club’s strength in depth – and have finished in a higher position each season following a return in 2015.

They narrowly missed out on promotion this time around too.

Bradshaw said: “We’ve a high-level plan, put in place a couple of years ago, and we're in a more advanced position now than when it was written.

“It has a whole range of markers for success – medals at county championships, regional qualifiers and targets for teachers, for example – and we’ll review it with Simon.

“We consider ourselves to be a competitive club, and that will continue. We want our performance swimmers to do well, and to achieve what they want to in the pool.”

Those same youngsters interviewed Pickering before he was offered the job.

Bradshaw added: “I think that’s the bit he was most worried about!

“It was deliberate; after all, they’re the ones we do this for.”