News

The race and cup celebrates Jock Fee and his work colleague and fellow club member Peter Saunders.  Jock was the third and last Serpentine Lido Superintendent.  The others being Sid Richardson and Ted Stoter, who was appointed when the Lansbury Lido opened in 1930.  The Lido Superintendent was a direct employee of the Royal Parks.  The post lapsed when the Lido was run as a commercial franchise from 1983.

Ian MacEachern won the race, followed by Will Luckhurst and Andrew Fuller.

All bar one of the Cselko's were on hand to make what is (for the moment) the traditional socially distanced cup presentation.

The half-mile race for the Sid Levy cup, our 1964 centenary President, was won by Lucy Harris -  her first silverware.  This was very fitting as Lucy's grandfather, Albert Greenbury, swam with Sid when Sid joined the club in 1923.  Albert was club President, 1935 to 1955.

Second home was Jeremy Newton, followed by Ilyan Kovatchev, Simone Piccoli and Nick Hungerford.

Covid fixture suspensions meant we missed the previous 55 yard, 110 yard, 220 yard and 440 yard scratch events of the five-race series.  For 2021 the club champion was decided by the series's final 880 yards (800m) race.

Jesse Kelly was followed closely by Anita Goyos, Rob Ouldcott and Nick Adams.  Jesse received the Arthur Goffrey cup, in memory of a true gentleman, past President (twice) and Hon. Handicapper for thirty years from 1952.  "The water is like wine, my boy, like wine".

Saturday 22 May saw us race over 440 yards (400m) for the Ron the Con Power Cup in fond memory of one of "the club family".  Aside from swimming Ron was also a lifelong member of the Bethnal Green Weightlifting club and was winning competitions for powerlifting well into his 70s, hence the name of the cup.

Nora Fowler was first, followed closely by Clare Doyle, Ange Johnson De Wet and Tony Schiemann.

At the finish of the race the participants swam at "Ron speed" for a socially distanced further 84 yards in recognition of Ron's 84 years when he died in March 2016.

First home was George Cselko, followed by Ian MacEachern and James Lythe.

Water 13.5c.  Air 12.5c.

Socially distanced cup presentation by Justin Fahy, an honorary Titmuss for the morning.

James Norton, first Serpentine race winner in fourteen months.

A morning when it seemed wetter out than in!