It was a crisp sunny morning for the Mario McClarnon Memorial Cup 440yd race and the winner was Norman Jones who has obviously been training secretly in France for the past few months.
Gordon was second, followed by Peter, Boris, Anthony, Brian and Robin.
Mario's daughter, Maria, presented the prizes and then in tribute to her father's often chaotic and random approach to many things in life, she announced that 3 more swimmers, selected by Mario's grandchildren, would be awarded special prizes: Sakura (for being "hampered" and interferred with during the race), Ron (for no particular reason), and Yoko (for being one of her Dad's favorites) - each receiving a bottle of wine. Memories were shared of Mario piping the swimmers to the board on Christmas Mornings, running barefoot and shirtless from Clapham to the Serps for a swim and then running back again - even in the snow, doing one arm chin-ups from his signal box along the railway lines and frequently being mistaken for Jimmy Saville.
The club also sang Happy Birthday to Alison, Nick and Cliff Golding
