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The first of the seven rounds of "heats" commenced on Saturday 4 November.  Victoria Hasler had the honour of winning the first race of "winter" 2023.  Points not prizes today, but big hugs to all of our heat winners.

The Bernard Fettes cup will be presented by the Kelly brothers (Sean, Duff and Jesse) at the end of the series on Saturday 16 December.

The series also acts as a qualification for the Christmas Day race for the Peter Pan cup.

The end bouys had been moved back to the 100 yard mark ready for Saturday's Christmas morning dress rehursal.  We had with a tad fewer spectators and two comfortable races rather than the festive bumping and boring no-holds-barred of one off Peter Pan race.

Jamie Lauder, of the second race, was recorded as two seconds faster against his handicap than the winner of the first race, Mike Barron.

Zoe Podmore and team took advantage of a slot reserved via South London SC by Richard Chatterjee, who is also a fellow Serpie.

Here is her account of their 13 hour 24 minutes adventure.

The Emmi Hunte series is determined across a series of races between February and October over varying distances -  February 55 yards (50m), March 110 yards (100m), August 880 yards (800m) with the final 100 yard (90m) race held in late October.   This year the half mile event fell foul of blue-green alage.  Saturday's final race of 100 yards was upped to 220 (200m) because the handicaps had inadvertently been based on last week's distance.  Nobody complained; everyone merrily accepted their fate: they would have swum back anyway.

In addition, an "Ashwin prize" was presented by Topo Wresniwiro in memory of Ashwin Pandya who had sponsored the series in its previous guise as "The Daily Telegraph cup" prior to it being rededicated in Emmi's honour in 2019.

Woolly hats much in evidence as autumn normality returned for Norman's surprise prizes.  The Indian summer was blown away (water 16c with the air 9c) whilst past president Eric Carter blew away the opposition to claim the Andrew and the Two Ronnies cup.

RNLI themed prizes from Tory and Jonny Long, with the Stovold cup presented by Sidney Stovold's daughter Roberta.  It was the first visit to the club for Roberta and family to experience the ambiance and madness and to watch the race remembering her international standard high diver father.

Jamal Saad took the trophy, having performed best against his handicap over the two 200m races.

Boris on the naughty step.

Congratulations to Fran Lou, now officially an Ironman.

Sunday 1st October, 8 o'clock, saw the Serpentiine Swimming Club host our open water commrades from south of the river to renew friendly rivalries, and eat cake (lots of it!)

A fitting start to the weekend as we remembered Cyril and Yvonne Wood and looked forward to Sunday's "match" against South London Swimming Club.  Cyril and Yvonne were stalwarts of both South London and Serpentine swimming clubs.

Two heats, with Victoria Hasler performing best against her handicap to take the silverware.  Inventively, Paddy presented invigorating liquid prizes to 1st, 3rd, 5th and last place across the two races.  Some fast post-race calcutations by the handicap team enabled Rosie George to announce the grateful recipients.

Mario graced the Serpentine Swimming Club from the early 1960s for over forty years.  A naturally gifted musician, Mario piped the Christmas Day swimmers onto the board for many decades.  A true gent, a true character, and a true friend to all who had the honour to swim in his company.  Mario Mcclarnon:  1932 - 2007.

Mario's school teacher daughter Anna (who also answers to Maria) presented the cup and told "interesting" family tales.

The early Hyde Park morning saw the opposite side of the lake accomodating much busy activity in readiness for the eager entrants to the Swim Serpentine event celebrating open water swimming.

Meanwhile, we had fun doing what we have been doing since the mid 19th century.  The club's first All Clothes Race was held in 1866.

The fun fest of our All Clothes Race dates back to the very beginning of the club.  It reflects the club's Royal Humane Society origins promoting water safety.  Originally it was an event to test a swimmer's ability to survive and swim fully clothed should they fall into a river or canal.  The race nowadays sees many "dressed to impress" fancy outfits.  Yet this event still reminds the competitor just how tough it is should they find themselves in the water in a heck of a lot more than a mere slinky, skimpy swim suit.

The morning kicked-off with our hardy youngsters smiling through 100m to show their metal in the Cygnets cup race.  Bright young faces representing the future of the club.