Downstream
Members of the Otter Swimming Club pose for a photo on the Dabchick in The club was founded in 1869 and still holds races in th ...
His first swim in the Thames came the year he joined, when he did the mile at Windsor and the half-mile at He ...
he was a member of the club’s 4×110 yards freestyle relay team which won the ASA title. The following year h ...
years later; ‘we got a grant of £500 a year from Thames Water Board, we wanted to go back to the Tha ...
years, the future seemed uncertain. ‘The nightmare scenario is one of stagnant waters, polluted seas and public ...
probably more than one Otter who harbours the idea of returning to the tideway for a repeat of the great r ...
started in open water,’ explains James; ‘it only really became a sport when there were indoor pools and ...
wetsuits, ‘No,’ he says firmly, ‘they are not allowed. No aids are permitted, as in Channel swims. I trained ...
race because of heavy rain, fast currents and ‘excess debris’ in the river. Around thirty to forty people ent ...
get sick if the river is low and there is stale water, there are no problems after heavy rain, and it wi ...
checked when we got back. Today we get permission from the EA on condition we have boatmen, and river traffi ...
You still see the Otter name all over the place, even me – Charles James Stewart.’ He’s just returned from ...
ridiculous situations’. At its annual dinner the club couldn’t invite women guests and there was a crisis when ...
everyone has initials only, except for Dawn because ‘she wanted her full name, to show she was a lady’. I ...
down on the Lansdowne Club’s pool where three men are swimming leisurely. James points to the clock at the ...
events and many members compete in open-water events and triathlons, among them internationally known athletes such ...
Others have loved swimming in this stretch of the river, too, like actress Margaret Rutherford who enjoyed ...
told a friend, “I need some freedom” and then they went swimming. It lifted her sadness. If ever sh ...
races were added. Demelza Blick grew up in Wargrave and took part in the regatta as a child: ‘in between ...
summers, they went out together on the river where she remembers lots of freshwater mussels. As a child ...
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