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| Mildenhall & District Swimming Club is a charity registered in England & Wales (1154407) | ||||
Mildenhall and District Swimming Club
News
News Letter
Who are the Saxons
Attached is a document telling you Who are the Saxons.
Sharks History
Mildenhall & District Swimming Club (The Sharks) were formed in 1973 after the pool opened that year. Founder members Dr Harben and Reg Brunning had been two of the main drivers behind the fund raising which helped to finance the pool being built. Beryl and John Squire being highly involved from the beginning along with Dave Wilden who was Leisure Services Manager, later joined by Dave Leonard, Ron Minns and others, including John Zeal who also became Suffolk County secretary.
The Sharks were soon successful and under the guidance of Coach Linda Franklin by the end of the 70’s and early 80’s became one of the strongest clubs in Suffolk with a large majority of the County Team made up of Mildenhall and Ipswich swimmers. In the early days Ian Wells, later to return as coach in the mid 80’s, is believed to have been one of the first swimmers in Suffolk to break the one minute barrier for 100m freestyle. In 1981 Mark Veale was the first Suffolk swimmer to break the minute barrier for 100m butterfly and his time of 58.40 stood as the county record for almost 20 years. At this time Lisa Hannan excelled holding all the county records for her age group and most of the open county records. During this period Mildenhall’s Graham Minns was becoming the rising star and by 1982/83 was competing as an international swimmer for Great Britain. Graham’s 50m and 100m freestyle county records still stand in 2008 some 21 years after being set, these being the oldest standing county records. In 1981 Graham and Mark were joined by Andrew Jakeman and Kevin Leonard to win the Midland District Open 4x100m Freestyle, a tremendous feat for a small town club.
Wendy Read joined the Sharks in 1977 and still commits a huge amount of her time helping to run the club taking on too many roles to list as well as teaching every Friday night. Hundreds of children in the Mildenhall area have learned to swim with Wendy. She was the driving force in the club receiving Swim21 accreditation, the ASA’s kite mark for a well run club with good child protection policies. In recognition of her work for the Sharks over so many years Wendy was awarded the East Region Aqua Force Award for outstanding contribution to swimming at club level in 2007.
David Robinson is another long serving member still involved, joining the club in 1979, as well as being heavily involved in running the club during the 1980’s and 1990’s David also became a member of the Suffolk County ASA taking on many roles for them and was awarded their highest honour when he became the only Mildenhall member so far to become County President in 1996. He is now also a board member of the ASA East Region and in 2008 was awarded the Jeff Cook Salver for outstanding contribution to the East Region.
Wendy and David helped to run the hugely popular Mildenhall Graded Open Meet which ran for 18 years and was a must for many clubs in the area, not only as a swimming event but a social one as well with dozens of caravans camped on the Jubilee Playing Fields for the weekend. Ted Cocksedge, a well respected Mildenhall business man, was known in the swimming fraternity as “The Burger Man” for the barbeques held just outside the back doors of the pool.
In 1998 the Sharks celebrated their 25th Anniversary by holding a reunion dance with the highlight of the entertainment being a swimming version of “The Full Monty” performed by the male committee members with shouts of “keep your kit on” coming from the audience. Bert Girling, the head coach, managing to do a Corporal Jones by being one step behind the other performers.
The Sharks have made several forays into Europe including a trip to Belgium in the late 70’s and a training holiday to Benidorm, Spain with coach Ian Wells in 1988. In 1992 coach Lyn Boland took the swimmers, and half the committee on another training expedition, this time to Dunkirk in France. Bert Girling became coach soon after and was the senior coach for the rest of the 90’s when he was succeeded by current head coach Glenn Ewing. With Glenn at the helm assisted by Sally Russell, both qualified coaches, and the other qualified swimming teachers, including the husband and wife team Mel and Steve Molyneux who also do a fantastic job as team managers, the Sharks are sure to be now making successful history for the future.
News Archive
The following link goes to the News Archive.