111 years of female swimmers @ BASC – 1st November 2017

The Meadowside was the venue for an amazing tribute to the 111 years of female swimmers at BASC. The event was the latest project from our fantastic fundraising manager Craig Day. While BASC is 139 years old this year having formed in 1878 it took 28 years before the club became one of the first in the country to allow ladies to join. The section initially was set up as a separate section, governed by its own committee, and took part in its own galas and events. Over time the sections became merged into the amazing family club who caters for all that we see today. The plan was to host a 111 lengths of a combined relay team to celebrate the landmark achievement.

After deciding on the 1/11 date for the 111 event the club went about trying to generate 111 female swimmers, past swimmers, friends and family members to make this event special. As usual the club members stepped up to make this unique event a great night with c100 swimmers doing a mixture of individual lengths or combined family/friends group swims. Before the start all swimmers received a special pink ‘111 Club’ swim hat and got themselves to either end of the pool to start the event.

The event was started by Heather Summerill who is the leading ASA Official for Staffordshire Swimming. She got the swimmers up and running by setting the current club junior captain Sophie Fowkes to start leg 1 of the 111 lengths. The event was ended by a 3 generation family swim led by the current club Vice President Jean Hiatt, her daughter Jo Durkan and grandchildren Holly (age 6) and Georgina (age 10). In between we saw many highlights but a few are captured below:-

– Swimmers as young as 6 and 7 , including Chloe Clamp, Jessica Ulyett, Emily Copley and Holly Durkan (youngest swimmer) being part of a team alongside our experienced Bridge to Bridge swimmers like Julia Elliot, Barbara Latham and Jean Hiatt

– Current committee lady members Jane Ward, Suzanne Gates, Karen Cooper, Anita Joubert and Sarah Cooper taking part

– Ex club committee members including Emma Hardwick and Sam Owen taking part

– Female coaches Mary Bonner, Jo Stimpson and Ailsa Bell taking part alongside the girls that they coach week in week out

– Several families swimming together including the Beresford girls, the Hill family, the Spiers Family which was 3 generations like the Hiatt family, Browns, Smiths ( x3) , Copley and Preston families to name a few

– Charlie Miller, Emma Brown and Georgia Ulyett racing mums over 25m in their legs

– Emma Varnam from ESBC Sports taking part after supporting the club in the past during our year of winning Staffordshire Junior Sports Team of the Year 2017

– Holly Bonner and Ailsa Bell feeling the need to do Butterfly!!

The swim was completed in 50 minutes and 45 seconds and a team photo took place after the event.
Social events like these now hosted by BASC do not take place just for the swimming club. This event was used to raise funds for a local cause names SARAC – which gives advice and support when it is needed most. Other local representatives poolside included George Fargher ( ESBC Sports Council), Helen Weeks ( ASA Representative), Tracey Hardie ( SARAC) and Helen Hall ( ESBC).

We are in the process of counting how much you all raised for SARAC and will let you know as soon as the final value is known. Huge thank you to Martin Brown for assisting Craig in putting on this event.

Lots of smiles and fun over the 50 minutes was a great night for local swimming last night!!!