Final Saturday of the Mike Small trophy series

“The Mike Small Cup is in memory of Mike, a big man, who joined the club whilst doing the rounds of the London swimming pools and watering holes by courtesy of London's first elected Mayor, Ken Livingstone and his free bus pass scheme. Mike had a horrific motorcycle accident in his youth, which left him disabled with a clubfoot, only one arm, and in continuous pain.  But this disability did not destroy his wicked sense of humour.

Before the race he would sit down and do “The Times” crossword or an intricate origami bird or butterfly while he waited for his mark, then struggle to put his rubber swimming hat on his head with his one good hand, and would remark to onlookers, “if you think that's difficult, try putting a condom on with one hand in the heat of the moment”.

With such a handicap he was usually the limit man, swimming on his back, he would be in the water twice as long as most of the other swimmers. He would make an action like throwing salt over his shoulder with his one good arm, slowly making progress along the course, cheered all the way, only to be overtaken by all the other swimmers on the finish line. He wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

Before he died, he summoned the club Secretary (Alan Titmuss) to his home, and coolly announced, “I’ve only got a month to go on this earth and I want to present a cup” - it was to have only one handle and a dodgy base, for a competition. This was duly fashioned by the club's silversmith, Bill Phipps and presented to Mike by Alan Titmuss just days before he died. I suspect he's up there somewhere looking down and laughing at all those silly sods battling their way through the icy waters, in the coldest part of the year, for his unusual trophy."

The club held races between New Year and Easter for many decades up to WW2.  After the war club members continued to swim during these months, but the race calendar did not commence until Easter.

In 1964 the new, fresh faced club Secretary Alan Titmuss reintroduced what was to be optimistically known as the "Spring Series".  We competed initially for the C P Bryant cup, and then for the Edward Young Dark Fire Rum cup from 1968.  The series ran post Christmas through to the end of March, hence it being known as the Spring Series.

Over the years the series has been shortened to allow additional race sponsorship opportunities for club members and is now completed on the first Saturday of February.

The Mike Small cup was introduced for the series in 1994, with prizes presented by Mike's friend Mark Frazer.

From 2001 Tony Cuthbert and Saundra Satterlee sponsored the series until Tony's sad passing in 2011.  Sponsorship then passed to club handicapper Mark Fabik until he moved to Australia in 2014.

Bill Deeley (and Andy) took on sponsorship in 2015.  Bill was a good friend of Mike's and would often give him a lift home to north London on a Saturday morning.