William Luckhurst wins Dusty Rhodes trophy

‘Dusty’, (no one remembers his first name and a bottle of wine for anyone that can, clearly offers Club President Alan Mitchell,) joined the Club in the late 1960s and died in the late 80’s .

‘Dusty’ had been a submariner in WW2 in the Pacific and at the end of the war was seconded against his will to the Australian navy.

Not the first Englishman to be forced to stay in Australia against his will. He worked as a stevedore at Brentford docks until it closed in 1972.

‘ Dusty’ was a famous penny farthing rider and would often appear at the Serp on his machine. A tradition now being continued by Australian exile Kat.

‘Dusty’ introduced a system of tripods to moor the marker  buoys we use in our races. Prior to this the process had been for the Lido superintendent to row out and hammer marker posts into the silt guided by a shore crew equipped with a measuring tape.

The ‘Bowl’ was presented to the club in 1976 by ‘Dusty’ who claimed to have found it in a skip.

It was swum for over 880 yards until 1992 and re introduced in 2018 when Jane and Tony Schiemann  took on sponsorship. 

Tony and Jane joined the club in 2006. Tony performs the essential but time consuming role of Club Treasurer in a calm and highly skilled manner that you would expect from a former accountant. Jane however, is regarded by those with the knowledge as the more stylish and faster swimmer. Tony was born in Malta and as a dual citizen can justifiably be referred to as a Malteser.

A vineyard of wine to anyone who can spot* Alan Mitchell in the swimming themed Maltesers commercial.

*spot clearly means identify...