Left to Right Back Row

Michelle Hardy, Peter Ingham, Rachel Smith, Liz Cain, Wendy Figures, Roy Millican, Gary Ridgeway

Front Row

Keith Godbehere, Eric Millican

Following the last BLDSA event at Lynn Regis, on 30^th September, I wandered to meet some dear friends for a final, final swim of the season – past, present and current members of the BLDSA.

I met Eric Millican, Roy Millican, Peter Ingham and Keith Godbehere at one of my very first outdoor swims and we have been friends ever since.  Every week during the season, they have a catch up and talk about past swims and discuss and analyse swims that Wendy Figures and I have completed during the current season.  Eric and Roy are like living computers and can recall the positions and times when they swam the same events and Wendy tries to beat Eric every time she competes.

Eric and Roy have crewed for and assisted many BLDSA members – most notably Jean Wilkin-Oxley (Channel Swimmer 1972 14 hrs 50 mins), Bob Fletcher (Channel Swimmer 1969 10 hrs 24 mins), Rachel Goldburn (Channel Swimmer 1992 11 hrs 54 mins). Rachel also holds the Record for the fastest Lady to swim Loch Ness (in 1990 9 hrs 25 mins).  They were both part of the Doncaster Lifeguards Veterans Relay in 1991 with Eric’s stint finishing 200 metres from the beach before being completed by fellow team member Lyn Robinson.

Start of BLDSA Torbay 2018.

Well that’s Torbay done for another year – a manic time of the year, that I absolutely love where some truly fantastic people swim 4 or 8 miles across the bay known as Torbay. This year’s event did have its ups and downs and was an extreme learning curve for me personally (even I have my limits). That being said, the standard of swimmers this year was truly extraordinary, with people travelling from the whole of the UK to take part.

This year’s swim was unfortunately tinted with a shortage of kayakers, but there was an overwhelming response through social media meaning most of our swimmers got a swim this year. Particular thanks must go to Hayley Barnard in this respect, who was a fantastic help and relieved some of the pressure on me in the week leading up to the swim. We will be putting in place fallbacks for next year so this doesn’t happen again and we don’t have 3 people not being able to swim (we did refund these in full and offer places free of charge on next years swim). The safety ribs as support couldn’t be used this year due to the rough weather, where controlling the rib at slow speed next to swimmer for 4 hours would have been a near impossible task.

The swim started off slightly delayed at 11:18 am from Meadfoot Beach, swimmers set off nervously heading for the other side of the bay. The start of Torbay is always interesting owing to the swimmer and kayaker having to find each other once the pack have moved off from land. Once the land crew and safety boats had established everybody was paired up – the atmosphere at Meadfoot Beach becomes a bit more relaxed. The swim secretary even found time to disappear off round Shag Rock for half an hour while the swimmers were battling it out in the middle of the bay.

We always say to people entering this event, the swim will leave you prepared for whatever challenge you’ve set yourself. The 2018 swim proved no exception, with strong winds blowing straight into the bay, leaving swimmers exposed to the elements and waves constantly battering them. This meant it was a real achievement to reach the 4 mile turn around buoy at Fishcombe Cove, since the first leg was, without a doubt, the most difficult part of the swim.

Our safety boat patrolling.

No. 32, Steven Adams, was first around the turn buoy in an impressive time of 1 hour 32 mins 35 secs and then closely followed by Matthew Cockill just over a minute later. These two battled it out for the whole of the return journey back to Meadfoot with Steven Adams triumphing and winning the event in 3 hrs 30 mins 4 secs. Matthew Cockill still not far behind in a time 3 hrs 32 mins 22 secs – a true privilege to witness and fantastic sportsmen.

Hayley ready for the off!

Torbay of course would not happen without the band of volunteers, who did an amazing job as always. Particular thanks needs to be paid to my right hand woman, race controller Louise Barber, who took everything in her stride and was a joy to work with. The lovely Sara Marley (who many of you probably met at registration), came all the way from London to help out and was also out at Fishcombe Bay marking your turn times/4 mile finish times. Samantha Poulsen, like Sara from the awesome Red Tops, who was a massive help landside and who you probably got marked up by. Then there was Teresa Roberts (my long suffering Mother), who ticked all of the kayakers in on the slip way. Past presidents of the BLDSA, Jean Wilkin-Oxley and Janet Wilson, did a fantastic job giving out first aid and always a joy to have down. Chris Hickling, thanks to an Irish Dancing related injury, was also landside providing excellent communication between us and the safety guys out on the water! And a huge thank you to our army of kayakers who provided excellent support! Without these guys, Torbay simply wouldn’t take place.

Thanks must also go to Dan Jepson, for his fantastic photography and video of the swim – one of my favorite parts of the process waiting to see what Dan has put together and this year he’s not disappointed! Check out Dan’s youtube channel for more of his work – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXdbeISbEqCPbiUb9BZ4ZkA

FInally thanks to Mark ‘Shezza’ Sheridan for all the support and helping with the presentations!

A very tried, but pleased swim secretary.

Presentation photos

Results

Female Male

T-shirt order

Order

Any questions or issues, please email them to me on andre.roberts@bldsa.org.uk

#BLDSATorbay2018

Erin enjoying the day with her big brother and cousin.

It’s hard to overstate what a daunting task taking on the organisation of one of the BLDSA swims is; getting to grips with safety procedures, getting officials in place from all over the UK, sourcing kayakers, managing entries and so much more. Erin stepped up to the mark and has taken all of this on while studying at Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts achieving a really tough ask for a young person. Erin has managed this fantastically with her relaxed demeanour and good sense of humour. Erin has now reaped the rewards from a well organised day and night swim at Wykeham, setting the bar high for next year.

Erin was also supported by a fantastic team prior and during the event, with Liane Llewellyn Hickling mentoring her as the outgoing swim secretary – the BLDSA would also just like to thank Liane for all of her hard work over the years at Wykeham. During the event, Erin had good friend Hazel Killingbeck supporting her all the way, another one of the BLDSA’s rising stars in the sport. And of course proud Mum, Trish Stansfield, was on hand to help too! Our extremely dedicated and first class safety crews were also on hand too, giving Erin any support she needed. Thank you to everyone who helped Erin and giving her an extra boast in confidence knowing she had a great team to support her, vital for any swimming event.

Results from Wykeham will be released soon – in the meantime, a massive well done to Erin, definitely earned a cheeky bev or two!

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Our first event of the 2018 season!!!

What an absolutely cracking day. Beautiful summer weather made for water temperatures ranging from 16.7 deg to 19 deg. All the swimmers taking part had a fantastic swim in the lovely sun baked lake.

A big thank you to all new and existing members for turning up and making a brilliant event.

Thank you to Patrick Smith for organising the event and all the volunteers who helped out.

We’re all looking forward to the next event at Wykeham Lake next week.

Thanks again to all those who supported this event after the troubles we encountered last year, it just goes to show that despite water problems last year – it was just bad luck – this venue provides a superb swim and with weather like today the BLDSA friendly atmosphere shone through!