CHRIST Church have been crowned town champions after winning the Colne Middle Schools swimming gala.

The Keighley Road school won three of the eight individual events and capped it off with success in the girls relay race.

Christ Church finished with a total of 37 points, just one point ahead of Holy Saviour and Coates Lane who finished in joint second place.

And it was a day of personal triumph for Olivia King who won the girls 50m freestyle and 25m backstroke and also helped the team to relay glory.

Christ Church's third individual success came in the boys 25m backstroke when Lewis Rimmer touched home first.

The girls winning team included Sophie Roberts, Faye Gawthorpe, Lauren Farnell and Olivia King.

The boys team, who finished outside the points in the relay race, included Kenton Rhodes, Ryan Price, Matthew Iveson and Lewis Rimmer.

A total of 10 schools took part in the event held at Pendle Leisure Centre.

And while it was Christ Church who were to be crowned the eventual winners, no fewer than seven schools tasted individual or team glory. St John's Primary School, who finished in fourth place overall with 31 points, had the perfect start when they won the boys 50m freestyle race.

Holy Saviour then won the first of their two events -- winning the boys 25m freestyle before the boys team swam to glory in the relay race.

Coates Lane, who shared second place with Holy Saviour, picked up their only win of the day in the girls 25m freestyle.

Trawden became the fifth school to win when they won the boys 25m breaststroke, which helped them to sixth place overall with 13 points.

St Michael's Primary School, who had already picked up two second places in the 50m freestyle races, finally made it third time lucky when they won the girls 25m breaststroke.

The school's consistency in the pool helped them to fifth place overall.

Other schools to take part were Primet, who finished seventh with 10 points, Wheatley Lane who were eighth with eight points and Sacred Heart who were 10th.