The result of last night’s gala between the galaxy of swimmers competing for Serpentine SC versus South London Swimming Club and other clubs on the faraway planet of Tooting Bec was a close-run event right to the finale.
The stellar Serps squad got off to a great start with some gratuitous stretching of swimming caps which even Princess Leia would have been proud of.
As always it was a great event of organised chaos. 34 relay teams lined the lido with each swimmer swimming four times in rotation (4 x 1 x 4 = 16 lengths in total per team). With no lane ropes, sighting skills are key to avoiding mid-race collisions while trying to sprint the 100 yard length.
The first team to race were the Serpentine Supernovas, with Dave Jones, Nick Hungerford, Poppy Lenton and Katie Berlyn. The squad raced into a strong and clear lead, but somehow moved from first to just outside the podium placings to a position far far away.
The second of the four Serpentine teams were the Serpentine Meteors, captained by Brian Thomas, they scorched ahead with Alice Gartland, and Sarah Legrand showing well, but alas, Graham Buckle seemed to have lost his Rev and could not cling on to the great positioning, and finished in a place that was not on the podium.
Undaunted by not managing to place in the actual event, the Serpies proved tactically strong by being first in the queue for the yummy post swim falafels.
With determination, the third constellation known as the Serpentine Comets lifted off well thanks to
Jeremy Cavanagh, Mark Faure Walker and Deirdre Ward who were leading by a country mile. Alas Mike Barron fell into a worm hole and time travelled to the back of the leaderboard.
The teams reported back to Ms On Control where Nicola Sanderson had stepped up as time keeper. A welcome homecoming after retrieving her baggage from last week’s Leeds ITU World Triathlon.
But it was the best who came last in the shape of the Team Serpentine Superstars with Alana Digby, Joanna Dale, George Cselko all holding first place until Volker Koch who appeared to be “double-hatting” before the race, suffered a mechanical malfunction with his green outer shield burning up on re-entry to the skinny class of distance swimmers.
Some great individual performances on what was a team night. On the plus side, thanks to the warm and friendly SLSC for putting on a great evening.
[Deirdre Ward]
