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And so our family commitment to swimming continued for the next 10 years; with us travelling as far as Stratford and Kings Lynn for Saturday evening Galas. Open meets (competitions) also took up a lot of weekend time and quite often it entailed a very early start (and a late return home) for competitions as far afield as Hull or Wigan. However, it was all worth it though for the many trophies and medals they amassed on our travels, the enduring friendships we all formed and the degree of discipline that both children developed from a very early age.
Back home, we were soon involved in the running of the club starting out as Team Managers on Poolside, progressing to Announcer & Scorer for Home Galas, Fixtures Secretary, Chairman of the Swimming Committee & eventually Chairman of the whole club, which at one time boasted over 400 swimmers. The proudest moment was perhaps when Abi and three of her club mates became Derbyshire Freestyle and Medley Relay Champions at U15 level. All of this took time and (as team managers) it was almost a full-time job planning, preparing, organising and then transporting the squad to events.