The slightly saner members of the Club decided to forgo the Cold Water Champs in Tooting and head further a field to the new 50m pool in Crawley for the South East Regions Long Course Champs. A minibus full of Otters, masterfully driven by Coach Steve, embarked on a weekend of fun.

There were Otter swims for relative newbies Dylan Malagrino, Rob Williams, Jane Leighton, Stu Ventham, Dan Cotton and Enrico Hahn, with Flavio Rusconi coming back for more having first represented Otter at the Cambridge relay gala last year. Tony Ray and Roger Phillips revealed the first appearance of their new go-faster suits, although Tony may be re-attaching the tags and sending his back… And while it may have not been a first, for Tony at least, both he and the recently returned Katie Goodall showed off impressive tans following their rather extended holidaying.

In the swimming, Gina Hobson demonstrated a trait only normally seen on the dancefloors of Cambridge and attempted to remove all of her apparel during a 400m fc. First the goggles came off over the first 50m, then it was the nose clip, and by the end she was fighting to keep her hat on at the turns. Who knows what would’ve happened if it had been 800m. And with Enrico on hand to record the team’s activities on camera (no matter how early in the morning it was and how unwilling his subjects were), Gina was glad she only had 8 lengths to swim!

By the middle of Sun the team needed some motivating, and Michelle was glad to have the words of Peaches, via Fiona, ringing in her ears as she got onto the block for the 200m fc. Apparently, ‘you’ve got to hit rock bottom before you can come up’. Like a real trooper, Michelle dug that little bit deeper.

Fortunately, Otters showed their usual prowess in the relays. According to Jane, like Popov, Otter relay teams are ‘unbeatable on a good day and unbeatable on a bad day’! With renowned sprinters, Jane and Michelle, in the team, along with the well-tapered Katie and Gina, all challengers were found wanting in the ladies fc and medley races. The 160+ men’s team (Tony, Roger, Steve, Mike Wake), with special thanks to Mike for making the trip just for the relays, also claimed 2 golds. The boys 72+ team deserved 2 golds (fc – Dan, Stu, Flavio, Dylan, medley – Enrico, Rob, Flavio, Dylan), but had to settle with a gold and a silver, when, despite making up a 10m lead on the last Brighton swimmer, Dylan wasn’t quite able to touch him out. Fantastic last leg though. The mixed 72+ and 160+ teams (Gina, Fiona Marshall, Flavio and Dylan; Liz Shaw, Katie, Bob Palmer, Steve, Pete Kirk, Mike) also demonstrated commanding performances.

The more observant amongst you may notice a distinct lack of reference to individual swims in this report and I make no apologies for this – if you really want to know how people swum I’d suggest either asking them or checking out www.southeastswimming.org when they make the results available. However, we were able to come up with a swimmer of the meet, which goes to Stu, whose youth enabled him to bounce back from getting beaten by a woman old enough to be his Mum in 2 of his events, and pulled out pbs in the 50m and 200m fc and was decidedly upbeat about the whole affair. As well as developing a slightly worrying obsession with his new ‘Mum’. As a reward, Stu picked up the coveted extra brownie, courtesy of Michelle Senecal’s fair hand.  And, despite him not being able to provide any id to confirm that he was 18, Tony very generously let Stu share the wine he provided the team with on the journey back. Thank you Tony!