Saturday 25th December

Some 50+ members of the Serpentine Swimming Club braved the elements to swim the 100 yard race.  Emi Hunt convincingly won the race.

SEE THE PHOTOS

 

Saturday 18th December

This was the final race of the Winter Series.  Bill Phipps won the series.  Pippa Durrant and Anna Hillyer ended up on the same points total in competition for the Ladies Trophy, and it was suggested that they had a swim-off.  They quickly decided that there was little chance of that happening.  The number of wins during the series was considered, after which the cup was awarded to Pippa Durrant.

           

 

Saturday 11th December

The water was 41oF, but an air temperature of 36oF made it quite nippy standing on the board.

               

 

Saturday 4th December

A water temperature of 40oF was the welcome Matt Corry, a colleague of Nick Adams from Eton, met this cold morning.  He complete the course in a mixture of freestyle and breaststroke.  It was a lovely clear morning, and the swim was invigorating.

           

       

 

Saturday 20th November

The water was 43oF and was quite nippy.  Ron Whittam was very tactical, and wasted time on the board, whilst Emie was getting colder by waiting in the water for the start!

   

The Christmas Party was held at Imperial College's Holland Club, near to the Serpentine.  Norman and Lorraine Jones organised the event with military precision, and spent a lot of time making sure that everyone would have a good time.  Prizes were awarded to certain swimmers, there was a varied selection of music, much excellent food was consumed (Anna's desserts were much appreciated amongst others), swimmers danced for hours, and most enjoyably Tony Cuthbert lead the club into a singing frenzy with what might become the Club Anthem!

A big THANK YOU to Norman and Lorraine for such an enjoyable evening.

                   

               

 

Saturday 13th November

This was the first races in water below 50oF.  The water was 46oF, but it felt colder due to the near freezing air temperature, and bitter wind.  Pippa Durrant was a little foolish and managed to win for a second week in a row!

Members were reminded that the Christmas Party is on Saturday 20th November.

               

               

 

Saturday 30th October

This was the first of the Winter Series of races.  Andrew Fuller very unwisely swam his very fastest, and won by a clear margin in his race (see below).  When asked why, he said that he thought someone was catching him up, but realised near the finish that it was the splash from his own legs!!  Newcomer Pippa Durrant was also unwise to swim her best to win her race!

This was the last time that Cyril Wood was in charge of the handicapping, as he is standing down.  Everyone is very appreciative of his efforts, however much they might complain.

           

 

October in Egypt

   

 

Monday 25th October

16 members from the club met at the Clapham Manor Pool last Monday 25th October, to take part in the annual gala with the South London Swimming Club. Alan did a sterling job organising the team into their races, especially as we were somewhat lacking in female swimmers. Everyone did extremely well in their races, especially in the last event, which was a full team relay. An excellent spread of food was provided by Renee and her famous bread pudding was delicious. There was some ambiguity as to who the winner was for the evening, as the Serpentine won 93 points, and South London 92, however they were handed the cup??!!! Whatever the result was though, it was a pretty close call!"

               

           

Saturday 16th October

The Club members were pleased to welcome Ashwin back, who was presenting the prizes for one of the races towards the Daily Telegraph Competition.  The race was 100 yards in 51oF water, and the members raced in three separate groups.  A rather pacey Canada Goose almost won the second race.  Wayne managed to find Neil Price's mask from the All Clothes Race, which obviously means he wasn't focused on the race sufficiently!

A representative from the 2012 London Olympic bid film came down to thank the members for their help on Monday, and brought a lovely cake along.  No one complained!

               

 

Monday 11th October

Jonathan Rees, a Serps member persuaded a number of the members to help the 2012 London Olympic bid by taking part in the filming of a promotional film.  The film follows a girl, who is aiming at competing in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, running around London whilst everyday Londoners are doing their every day things in venues for the London bid with past Olympic stars.  The Serpentine members were joined by one of our Triathletes from the Athens Olympics, whilst Mathew Pinsent was rowing a boat down the lake.

               

           

 

Saturday 9th October

Nick Adams won the 220 yard race to win the Ron Hamill Cup, which Loraine Jones presented along with the prizes.  The water was 54oF, but there was a bitterly cold wind blowing across the Serps.

 

Saturday 2nd October

Cyril and Yvonne Wood were delighted to present their cup to Leslie Du Cane for winning the 200 yard race.  The water was 56oF and Leslie swam his heart out; he was particularily pleased to win, as this was his first win in five years of membership!

Ron Whittam also celebrated his 73rd Birthday with a number of birthday chocolate cakes (see below).

       

 

Saturday 25th September

The Sidney Stovold Cup was a 220 yard race, won by Alan Titmuss.  It was a cold, crisp morning, and the 55oF water didn't warm anyone up!  Peter Saunders was back on form, feeding his birds.  Mark Fleet cunningly turned up too late to participate in the race, but early enough to be able to watch it!!!

       

 

Saturday 18th September

The Annual Inter-Club Biathlon (2 mile run followed by a 440 yard swim) was won by Andrew Davis in a new club record of 18 minutes and 5 seconds.  Duff Kelly was the first swimming club member home in 19 minutes and 22 seconds (a new course record for Swimming Club Members).  Sakura Hingley was the first lady home in a time of 20 minutes and 41 seconds.  The water temperature was a pleasant 59oF.

 

Saturday 11th September

Sexy's All Clothes Race entertained the 33 swimmers, one dog, and the assembled crowd.  Gordon Brodie swam an absolute blinder to win.

                   

                   

               

 

Saturday 4th September

The George Brutton Cup was won by Robin Hunter-Coddington.  Sadly Mike Olizar managed to forget to bring the cup along to the Serps, having won it last year!  Anna and Janie from the WaterBabes came down for a lap of honour.

       

 

Thursday 2nd September

The WaterBabes (Anna Hillyer, Jess Avery, Janie Saunders ) that have been training at the Serps left Shakespere Beach at 9:50am.  The weather was ideal; very warm water coupled with no wind gave the sea swimming pool-like conditions.  The tide was far from ideal, it was a 6.9m spring tide, and this made their swim longer.  Only Jess got a little seasick, but she didn't make it a problem, and battled on regardless.  They rotated in one hour intervals, and finally arrived in France at 3:02am, having taken 17 hours and 12 minutes.  Nick Adams, who went along to help out on the boat, helped Jess finish the swim by swimming in the final section, arriving to a very quiet Wissant in France, and scampered around in their swimming costumes looking for some souvenir stones to swim back to the boat with.

                  

                  

   

 

Saturday 28th August

Carol Sing from the States came to swim in the Serps with Kevin Murphy.  Carol is the oldest woman to have swam across the English Channel.  Carol and Kevin are pictured together with Saundra from the Serps.

 

Thursday 26th August

The Imperial College Medic's finally get their chance to attempt the English Channel.  They did a superb time of 10 hours 15 minutes, in not ideal conditions.  The team were Sakura Hingley, Jenny Lenton, George DuToit, Neil Price, Dan Truman and Will Ferguson.  Catherine Johnson was the team's reserve and came on the big day out.  She might not have got to swim but she trained as hard as everyone else, and gave 100% to the event.
WELL DONE EVERYONE.

               

         

 

Saturday 21st August

The Andean Project Relays entertained the Serps swimmers this Saturday.  Team "Chile" won, and celebrated by drinking some Pisco Sour.

Russian swimmer Tanya came to the watch the races and swim, and has encouraged club members to come to her village next February to participate in the Walrus Club Festival!

                   

 

Saturday 31st July

The Imperial College Medics Channel Relay swimmers have been training hard in the Serps.  The swimmers are (from L to R): Neil, Cat, Dan, George, Lianne, Sakura and helper Nick Adams.

 

Saturday 17th July

Norman Jones won the 2004 Bridge to Bridge on his Birthday!  The race was well attended and the weather held out for long enough.  The prizes were presented by Anthony and Jenny Cleaver.

That night at midnight four Serpentine swimmers were meant to swim the Channel in a relay team of six, starting off at midnight.  They were Anna Hillyer, Jess Avery, Mark Rosenburg and Nick Adams.  Sadly there were unforseable issues with the boat and weather and they had to turn back.  They are planning to beat the Channel next time, later in the season.

                   

               

 

 

Saturday 11th July

This was the final scratch race that counts towards the Club Championship.  Duff Kelly was just beaten by Nick Adams who took home the Arthur Goffrey Cup.  A notable swim from Jesse Kelly on his brief trip back to the UK from the States.  A new Kelly was also initiated into the club aged 11!

               

       

 

Wednesday 30th June

"The Water Babes" that have been training at the Serps have launched their website: www.WaterBabes.co.uk   Have a look at the site so see what they have been up to, and why they are attempting the Channel.

 

Tuesday 29th June

The Eton and Harrow teams, accompanied by Nick Adams (a Serps swimmer) started their English Chanel Race at 8:18am.  The weather was not ideal, a Force 5 most of the way.  Harrow retired from the race after 8 hours, but Eton battled on to finish at the restaurant at Cap Gris Nez in 10 hours and 49 mins.  The photos can be seen by clicking here.

 

Saturday 19th June

This was the first mile swim for the Serpentine Swimmers.  Both Nick Adams and Anita Goya beat Jess Kelly's previous club record of 26 minutes and 55 seconds, which was great news.

The Club's Channel Swimmers were back in action down in Dover Harbour and their photos can be seen by clicking here.

 

Sunday 13th June

The IC Medic relay team were spotted training hard in Dover Harbour.  They did an hour swim, followed by an hour and a quarter.  The water was almost 60oF and there was quite a chop, which made for exciting swimming.  The Eton and Harrow squads were down (Eton pictured below).  Also Anna Hillyer and her other "Water Babes" were down for training and did two good swims.

                   

   

 

Saturday 5th June

Swimmers were split into teams of 4 to compete for the Bridgeman Team Race Tankards.  There were heats with three teams in each, followed by a Grand Final which was made up of the winning team from each heat.  Bill Deeley was spotted swimming frontcrawl!  The winning team was Jen Richardson, Haydan, Gordon Brodie and Matin Marczak.

                   

 

Saturday 29th May

The Veterans 100 yards race was competed in before the main 440 yard event.  Members over the age of 50 were allowed to participate.  Later on Mark Fleet was captured swimming the main event in his wetsuit; we were all in a state of shock, he did still get beaten by Anita!  Neil and Lydia brought their beautiful new puppy to meet us all.  The most exciting thing to happen was the arrival of the new club tent!!!!

The Veterans Race was won by Eric Carter, and runner up was Bill Phipps.  Anna Hillyer won the 440 yard race.

                               

 

Saturday 22nd May

The water shot up to 66oF on Friday, but had dropped down to 64oF by Saturday.  Tony Cuthbert won the 440 yard race with complete ease, and afterwards willingly admitted he has made an unnatural improvement!

The sad news of the day was witnessing Clair Willans having her last swim in the Serps before moving back to South Africa.  She has been a valued and well liked member of the club, and will be sorely missed.

   

 

Wednesday 19th May

The "Water Babes" 3-woman relay team had a photo shoot for their website, and did some training for their Channel Swim scheduled for August.  The team are Anna Hillyer, Jessica Avery and Janie Saunders.  When ask what inspired them to attempt the swim they said:
''Jessica has had a phobia of the sea since she was a small child; Janie has witnessed a terrifying run in with a jelly fish; and Anna is petrified of large shipping vessels.  Other than that we are a perfectly normal set of work mates who decided it was about time embark on a challenge which would impress the boys and help us tone up for summer.  Swimming the Channel seemed an obvious option.''

               

 

Saturday 15th May

The temperature was 60oF, and had gone up 2 degrees since Friday.  This sudden rise in temperature caused huge growth in the native green algae, with fairly nasty looking floating collections to be found at the edge of the Serps.  The race was won by Bill Deeley, who once again made unnatural improvement when he heard there was some silverwear to be had!  It was a beautiful morning.

           

 

Saturday 8th May and Sunday 9th May

Saturday welcomed Maev back to the Serps.  The weather was grim, but the water was a comfortable 54oF.  The scratch race was won by Nick Adams, who was chased closely the whole way by new swimmer Anita.

On Sunday the Harrow School Channel Swim Squad came down for some training.  They did two swims, the first was around 12-13 minutes long, and the second of a similar length.  The boys seemed to enjoy the experience, and some felt a little cold afterwards.  Tony and Ron set up shop in the changing room and were cooking up fantastic bacon and sausage rolls.

Gordon Brodie did a great job in frightening the Harrow boys by swimming a mile and not being able to talk afterwards; great work Gordon!

                       

 

Saturday 1st May 2004

The Doug Smith Cup was won by Neil Price, followed home by Martin and then Alan Titmuss.  The water was 54oF which was comfortable.  On another merry note, it was Bob Kelly's birthday.

           

 

Saturday 24th April 2004

Bill Deeley, still in shock after winning the previous week, decided against swimming in the Eric Carter Quarter of a Mile Race.  The water had really warmed up, and was 54oF, which was really quite comfortable and enjoyable.  The Serpentine water has become far clearer over the week, and the bottom could be clearly seen from the board.

72 Year old Ron "the con" Whittam was pulling some shapes to please the crowd before the race, but ended up frightening Tony!  Mark Fleet decided the water was too cold for him, and was seen getting into a wetsuit; the other swimmers were shocked by his behaviour!

                   

            

 

Saturday 17th April 2004

Alan Lacy made it down to the Serps after his recent operation and "held court" over his race, the 220 breaststroke.  The water has finally hit 50oC but the air was quite nippy.  Bill Deeley won by quite a long way, and really gave it some welly for a change.  Tony Cuthbert walked a vast amount of the race!

                   

                   

 

Saturday 10th April 2004

This saw the Dave Holiday Furlong (220 yards) raced in 46oC water.  It was a rather miserable, drizzly morning, but swimmers appeared to be in fine spirits.  The race was a scratch race, in which all the swimmers start at the same time.  Nick Adams narrowly beat Neil Price.  Duff Kelly came in a respectable third after many weeks "off games" from a nasty bicycle accident, it was good to see him back at the Serps.

Before the race, a heroic Bill Phipps volunteered, with his willing assistant Ian Stuttard, to fix the buoys and ropes that had moved in the strong winds.

Apologies and valid excuses were received from Norman Jones and Alan Titmuss for their absences.  No believable explanation was given from Mark Benson for his lack of swimming, Albert for his tardiness, and Neil for his rude gesticulation during his swim.

                   

   

 

Saturday 27th March 2004

We all raced together in the 42oF water, which felt comfortable.  Gordon Brodie buggered things up for everyone by going 20 seconds before his mark; we were all confused!

                   

   

 

Sunday 21st March 2004

The Serpentine Swimmers joined in with the national Swimathon, and decided to do the distance in the Serpentine as a larger than standard team.  The weather was not great and the water was 44oF, so attempting any distance over 100 yards is a BIG challenge.

Click here for the results.   Well done all the swimmers.

 

 

Saturday 13th March 2004

The water was 36oF for the second of the scratch races that count towards the Club Championship.  There are five of these races through the course of the year, and the swimmer that has accumulated the most number of points is the Club Champion.  These races are scratch races, which means all the swimmers start at the same time.  Today there were 3 races: leisurely, medium and fast.

In the first race the finish wasn't tight, John Sexton stormed home to take the race.  It is to be noted that Tony Cuthbert wasn't trying, and that Saundra was walking for some of the race!  In the second race, Karin was leading doing backstroke, but the 100 yards of cold water was too long for her to maintain this speed and she slowed right down after halfway and Gordon Brodie came through to win.  In the third race, Nick Adams was neck and neck with Will for most of the course, but put a spurt on at the end to win.

   

 

Saturday 6th March 2004

This was the first of the four races that count towards the Daily Telegraph Cup.  The water was a pleasant 39oF, and the air was brisk, but not cold.  There were quite a few absentees, which meant that there were only about 25 swimmers.

       

 

Saturday 18th February 2004

This was a VERY cold morning.  The water was 34oF and was refusing to get any colder and freeze, so the swimmers had to swim the 55 yard race rather than have a dip in an ice hole!  The cold was debilitating, but some swimmers swam back to the board, and messed around in the shallows as if it were a Summer's day!

Most people didn't swim back, and as it was so cold, other swimmers carried towels and flip-flops to the finish so as not to delay the finishers getting some relief from the cold.

                                                   

 

Saturday 14th February 2004

This was the final race in the Mike Small Cup, with the prizes presented by Tony and Saundra Cuthbert.  The finale was a race between Alan Nash, Ron Whitham and Yoko Reid.  Yoko steamed past the chaps to clinch victory.  Roy Wray presented the cup, his first as President of the club.

A new swimmer, Mark Benson had his first dip today, and swimmers were a little concerned that he might be too fast for our purely recreational swimming club!

                   

 

Saturday 7th February 2004

The water has gone up to 44oF, and it was far colder out than in.  The AGM was held at the Imperial College Sports Centre after the races.  Roy Wray was elected as Club President, congratulations Roy.

 

Saturday 24th January 2004

The air temperature was 40oF as was the water.  George turned up fairly late, hoping the races had finished and he wouldn't have to swim, but he was squeezed into the last race.

                   

 

Saturday 17th January 2004

The 40 yard season is well underway.  This was a very crisp morning, and very cold.  The water from the shower was turning to ice on the ground on its way downhill to the lake.