May 1973

SWIMMING 1972 was the Swimming Club's most successful year and it is going to take a very exceptional team to better their results.

The lack of depth in the team was emphasised in our inter-school matches where we won 4, lost 3, and drew 1 of our 8 matches: Match Result Senior Intermediate Junior Leeds Grammar Durham School Bootham School Worksop Barnard Castle Bradford Grammar Welbeck W W X X Bootham However, our relay quartets were in fine form and won local, district and national events. Kevin Burns, a swimmer of international status, joined the School last year, and with Club Captain Chris Brown (himself a county swimmer), Peter Nash and Andrew Sherriff—all in their senior year, they made a formidable Freestyle team.

John Pearson teamed up with Brown, Burns and Nash for the Medley Relay where again we were very strong.

In the Shepherd Trophy Competition the U.15 team of D. C. Spencer, N. Gray, J. S. Barton, D. A. Shepherd and P. Green won their age group trophy. As did the senior team of Brown, Pearson, Burns, Nash and Sherriff.

The John Parry Relays were held at St. Peter's and we celebrated by winning both the Medley and Freestyle team races in the senior age group. The Freestyle was won in a new record time. The Colts team were third in both their relays.

The most important event of the year in the swimming calendar is the Bath Cup and Otter Medley. These are relay events for public schools, held each year in London. In 1972 a St. Peter's Freestyle team of Chris Brown, Kevin Burns, Dave Spencer and Peter Nash won the Bath Cup, in a time that has been bettered by only one team, Barnard Castle, who recorded 3: 09.7 in 1970.

The final result was: Highgate School 7th 3:24.2 George Watson's 5th 3:18.0 Barnard Castle 6th 3:19.9 St. Peter's 1st 3:11.8 Whitgift School 4th 3 :16.5 Royal Belfast Academical Institute 2nd 3:14.2 Bradford Grammar 3rd 3:14.2 The Medley Team of Chris Brown (Back), John Pearson (Breast), Dave Spencer (Fly) and Kevin Burns (Free) were given equal first place with Bradford Grammar School after a very exciting finish. Bradford are National Schools Champions in this event.

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