The club makes a huge splash with its first Swimfest!

EXHAUSTED but happy – that was the feeling at the end of CSWPC’s first open meet as we celebrated a hugely successful event from all points of view.

Starting at lunchtime on Saturday 20 October and lasting until the evening of Sunday 21 October, the pool area buzzed with excitement all weekend, with parents, coaches, and fellow swimmers cheering on the competitors from the stands. Children went away with medals around their necks and/ or a clutch of new PB’s, visiting officials commented that they couldn’t believe it was our first such event as a club, and a posse of parent helpers finished cleaning up as the sun set on the two days of swimming.

Meticulous planning for the meet, which attracted 264 swimmers from a total of ten clubs (including Cheltenham), began months ago. Organising the officials, liaising with the Leisure Centre, booking the food for the volunteer helpers, arranging the rota of parents, sorting out the raffle, making sure the programme was printed, replacing the public address system, planning the order of the races, checking the entries from the swimmers…all this and more had to be completed before the big day. It was a massive credit to Claire Wiggins, others on the committee, other parent volunteers, and our coaches that everything was ready. Thanks also to Brian Armstrong who took charge of entries and results.  In the end, the event ran as smoothly as we could ever have hoped for and any little hiccups that might have happened along the way went unnoticed by those attending the Meet.

The team spirit among the large number of CSWPC parent helpers was a particular highlight of the weekend and it is hoped that this can be carried forward to future events that the club will be running. According to our lead official, John Bell, visiting officials and referees have all said they’ll be back next year – so it looks like this event is set to become a regular part of our club calendar.

Here’s to CSWPC Swimfest 2019 – see you there!