Straight-line Will pipped slightly wonky Alan in the battle of the Luckhurst brothers, which doubled up as the second of the SSC club championship five race series.
Saturday also saw Alan Mitchell deliver his final speech as club President before stepping down at the AGM later that morning.
Alan's final speech
To paraphrase - "we were swimming and racing when I was elected on 23 February 2019 and we are swimming and racing on 5 March 2022 when I am standing down. What happened in between has been quite a story!"
Saturday 5 March saw the second of the five "scratch" races series for the club championship. This was the first time James Norton had sponsored the race, having taken over the sponsorship from Robin, Jeremy and Ingrid Hunter-Coddington.
James is well known to many in the club, even those that have never met him - James regularly posts the club's daily Tweet containing the water and air temperature plus "contemporary" and "timely" comments on matters of the morning. Also, during the various periods of lockdown over the past two years it was James that provided literary pleasure with his commentary on the Anna Bardos photos in the email series "Waterbird of the Day".
For a bit more background on what for many years was titled "the Hunter-Coddington Dash please follow this link -
http://serpentineswimmingclub.com/news/51084/2021-110-yard-scratch-race
First home was Will Luckhurst
Will pipped elder brother Alan to win the "fast race"
First race under way
Robin and Dani ever vigilant at the finishing line
Norman Jones victorious in the first ("slow") race
No snaps of the second ("fast boys and girls") race, but the prize winners were captured
Will 1st
Alan 2nd
Nick 3rd
4th was Charlotte, who was very impressed with her book prize
5th Stuart, incognito in shades and false beard
Canadian-British James has completed many marathon swims, including the English Channel (24th Canadian to do so), Lake Bolsena, Messina to Calabria and Capri to Napoli. For a report on James's 34 kilometres Capri-Napoli exploit in 2015 please follow this link
Aside from all the overseas marathon swim stuff, James is quite a pot-hunter back home
In 2015 James won the Bridge to Bridge, swimming butterfly!
4 August 2014, solo Channel crossing in 14 hours, 59 minutes
Only the 24th Canadian to succeed
The Norton Channel track
Lake Bolsena, 24 August 2014
Lake Bolsena track - there and back
Lake Bolsena, looking remarkably fresh post swim
With friends at the Messina to Calabria swim, 16 June 2015
2015 Capri to Napoli - a very scenic swim
