Captain's Report: 28 (!) Years Swimming At Knightswood

Hmm, a Stickleback article on all my years as a Knightswood swimmer. Having neither the space to bore you with the details or the memory capacity of a Mark or Jonnie I thought it would just be best to try and mention some of the things that have stuck longest in my memory.

I can’t even be sure exactly when I started swimming at Knightswood. An educated guess would be about 1976 as I recall watching my more talented sister Alli swimming in the Glasgow 800 gala in 1975 and was then dragged along in her wake to George MacLeod’s Sunday Improver class (9am on a Sunday!) the year after that.

One of my first recollections is being on the team bus (yes, we had such a big team we hired buses to galas) to Greenock for the Inverclyde 6 club meet on the same day as the Scotland v Peru game during the World Cup Finals (at this point Audrey will sigh and turn the page to the next article). Apart from the footy I remember it because Les Sim was at the back of the bus wearing a tartan suit and playing “Flower of Scotland” on a mouth organ. I can also recall listening to the game during the return journey, Peru equalised while we were going through the Clyde tunnel and yes Scotland lost (no sniggering Mr Tyler your boys didn’t even qualify).

In those days we also trained at the icebox otherwise known as Maryhill Baths. I still have the plastic credit card membership for Maryhill Victoria (weren’t team names exciting then). The old pool in Gairbraid Avenue was infamous for the freezing air temperature which would cause the steam to rise of the warm pool so thickly that the coaches at the shallow end couldn’t see the deep end. No way did any of us take advantage of this by shortening a length to 15 yards… We were a very close team at Maryhill, how could it be otherwise when instead of relaxing with a post session shower we had to huddle together for warmth 4 to a tub.

This all happened in what I would term the “pre Burke” era, as until the arrival in 1981 of the aforementioned JayBee and his sidekick David Hutton, I was by far the youngest of the boys at the club. At the time I wasn’t nearly fast enough to swim in the top lane with the likes of Mark and Big Ian and ended up with all the girls in the dreaded breaststroke lane or lane 2. You don’t see the positive side of being in a lane full of the opposite sex when you’re 11, unlike now Nick? The Jonnie Burke of the early 80s was a completely different animal from the one we all know now. I cannot recall if it was Jimmy or one of the parents who referred to Jonnie as “the best possible role model for a younger swimmer”. They were most impressed with his “dedicated and professional attitude to the sport”. Yes this was Jonnie circa 1983! Jonnie, when did it all change and how big a part did Strathclyde University play in it?

At this point I must hold my hands up and confess that I defected in 1992 (or was I thrown out?) for 3 years to Milngavie and Bearsden. Shame on me, but let’s face it, if I hadn’t left we would never have met John Bradley. I introduced John to Nomads one Thursday night after one of our “memorable” M&B sessions when we’d been asked to do something awful like 8 x 400m on 5 minutes, about 3 days before a competition. John and I were in a strop and what better way to cheer up than to go for a pint with the Nomads. I recall John hitting it off straight away with all of you and the rest, as they say Maggie, is history!

I retired from proper swimming (more than 2 sessions per week) in 1995 and was allowed back into the fold in about September that year. This was just after the influx from Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities of the likes of Gillian, Audrey and countless others. You guys, as well as the subsequent arrival of messrs Tyler and Andrews in particular have contributed to probably the golden era of sociability in the club. I’ve tried to put this diplomatically but Jimmy would probably term it the era of mass alcohol abuse. Since then I have enjoyed the sport more than I ever did and it must be said that this could be put down to the fact that “we are a drinking club with a swimming problem” as Jimmy memorably summed us up. Long may it continue. I won’t say here’s to another 30 years let’s try and get to 35!
Cheers,

Iain Teaz