Sunday 30th December

Duff took this video of some swans having a fight!  Click here to see the video.

 

Tuesday 25th December

Paul Cooper won the Christams Day race.  The weather was a little wet, but it didn't dampen our spirits.  Click here to see the video.

 

Saturday 22nd December

We were all very excited on our walk down to the Serps, as there was ice all over the Serps.  The water was measured as 33oF.  It was decided that there was too much ice in the swimming section for us to race, so we all just had a swim in the hole for our 3 points.  Alice won the Winter Series.  See the video by clicking here.

 

Sunday 16th December

Duff Kelly managed to swim a mile in the 37oF Serps water, whilst the air was only 33oF!!!!  He has been training for this for a while, and he writes:
"Well I came down to London on Thursday night and was considering making my swim attempt on Friday but decided that if I died doing it, I would miss the Madness Concert and party Friday evening so I put it off until Sunday since I was up all night on Friday.  It was 37F and air was 33F.  I was in a bit of a state after it and was a bit concerned but thanks to Jane Murphy who reassured me and helped me recover, I am still here so far.  Anyway, I know it's not the greatest achievement but it was a personal quest and feels good to have done it but my heart was not enjoying it as much as I was. "
To watch his video click here

 

Saturday 15th December

 

Saturday 8th December

The Christmas Party was held at the Lido.

 

Saturday 8th December - Morning

The colour of the sky was simply stunning when many of us arrived at the Serps, but by 8am it had returned to its normal grey!  We had two new swimmers, Andy Harrison and Nicki Wraight who both did extremely well.  Kevin Muphy brought down 'Murph' Renford who swam the Channel this Summer.  All our guests did brilliantly.

 

Saturday 1st December in Ireland

We were thrilled to hear that former Serps swimmers Andrew and Sally Kelly who have moved to Ireland had delivery of two beautiful twins: Cathal and Amos Kelly, born at 14:43 and 14:44 weighing in at 6lb and 0.5oz and 6lb and 7oz respectively.

 

Saturday 1st December

Rather sadly the temperature had risen to 43oF!  It was lovely to see Janie Saunders come for a swim.

 

Saturday 24th November

The water had only dropped to 40oF, which was a surprise to us all as overnight the air temp had been reported as -5oC!!  The rather nippy air temp did make the wait on the board cold.  The Thomas's introduced their new puppy Hector to the Serps; a very cute addition.  Duff Kelly did another mile, and his video can be seen by clicking here

 

Saturday 17th November

The water had very quickly got rather nippy.  It was 41oF and the change from the previous week was notcied by everyone apart from Duff Kelly, who decided to swim a mile!  It took him just over 31 mins, and he was rather incapacitated with the cold the cold after!!

 

Saturday 10th November

 

Sunday 4th November

The Serps swimmers competed against the South London Swimming Club at Tooting Bec to try and win the Doug Smith Cup.  It was a close run thing, and the Serps won, with the final score being 103 vs 106.

 

Saturday 3rd November

This was the second Saturday of the 55 yard series.  The autumnal colours of the park were stunning.  Alan Titmuss was interviewed for the raido station BBC London 94.9FM.

 

Saturday 13th September

The final day of the 4 races that count towards the Daily Telegraph Cup saw three sperate races.  Anna Hillyer swam well to secure sufficient points to take home the cup.  The prizes were presented by Ashwin.

 

Saturday 6th October

The "Two Rons Cup" was presented by Norman Jones and was won by Matthew Ranson.

 

Saturday 29th September

Cyril and Yvonne Wood presented the prizes for this race.  The 440 yard race was won by Layla; her first ever piece of silverware!!

 

Saturday 15th September

The Club Biathlon (2 mike run followed by an 880 yard swim) was won by a Shona Murray, member of the Serpentine Running Club.  Andrew Davis who won a number of times in recent years came second, followed by the first serpentine swimmer David L'Hostis.  Dierdre Ward was the first female serpentine swimmer home.  To watch the video of the race click here

 

Weekend 7th - 9th September

The Arch to Arc team from the Serpentine completed their challenge.  Times were:

Run             13 hours 15 mins
Transition    16 mins
Swim           12 hours 20 mins
Transition     49 mins
Cycle           13 hours 37 mins

TOTAL:     40 hours 17 mins!!!

 

Saturday 8th September

The All Clothes Race was competed for.  Cat Johnson won the race in a suspectedly light outfit!  To watch the video of the race taken by Duff Kelly, click here.

 

Saturday 1st September

This was the 3rd race that counts towards the Daily Telegraph Race.

 

Saturday 25th August

Water dropped this week to 60F but it was a beautiful sunny morning and the water was still.  Paul won the race with Cyril in 2nd then it was Emmy, Matt Ransom, Mike Olizar, Eric and Maria (quite possible in that order as well).  The ever smiling George Brutton made the journey from Salisbury with Annette and their whole family was well represented with children, grandchildren and one of the sons brought along his 3 legged dog China.

 

Saturday 18th August

Barney Miller came to preside over the relay races and to present the prizes.  The swimmers were divided into 'even' teams of four, and each team swam a 4 x 200 yard relay.  Eric, Anna, Marcin and Yoko won.  The subsequent finishing teams are photoed below in order.

 

Sunday 5th August

Some Serps members went to Switzerland for the Annual Lake Zurich swim, which travels the length of the lake (26.4km).

Click here for the photos

 

Sunday 5th August

The annual Lilford Hall swim took place. Click here for the results

 

Saturday 4th August

John Reed won the medley with photographer Andrew (not Deeley) in 2nd.  Others that placed (in no particular order as I can't remember) were Tony, Gary, Yoko, and Alan Nash.   Gordon Brodie won the Best Backstroke award which I think Andrew Fuller awards based on Speed, Style or Improvement and I think Gordon clearly fell in the latter category.  It was also nice to see Wayne Ashpole back for the 2nd week running.  A selection of pictures to choose from.  Stunningly beautiful morning.

 

Saturday 21st July

The torrential rain stayed away for us to all enjoy a lovely morning down at the Serps.  A mile race was swum to compete for the Rosie George Cup.  This was a very special morning as it was the 40 year anniversary (to the week) of Rose's first English Channel swim back in 1967 when she was the became the first British woman to swim the Channel.

Andy Deeley romped home in first place, narrowly followed by Alice Constance.  New swimmer, Eric, finished 5 minutes after anyone else due to a rather harsh handicap; poor chap!

 

Saturday 14th July

The annual Brigde to Bridge race was won by Matthew Ranson.  It was a lovely morning for the swim, and we had loads of entrants.  Anthony and Jenny Cleaver sponsor the race and presented the prizes.

 

Saturday 7th July

The final race that counts towards the Club Championship was swum, and the 2007 Championship Cup was awarded to Duff Kelly.

 

Saturday 23rd June

The water was 65oF.  The 880 yard was won by Andrew, and some wanted Rule 17j enacted, but he got away with the win!  The most exciting event of the morning as a rousing Happy Birthday sung for our much-loved Cyril Wood who was 84 today.  Congratulations Cyril; top man.