Why strong swimmers treat Sparth with respect

“There’s never been a better time to be imitating world famous political women and I admire and thank them all: Angela Merkel, Nicola Sturgeon, and my home girl newbie Theresa May” “The Prime Minister has got to wake up and smell the coffee which is the result of the General Election. The British public have rejected the Tory extreme hard Brexit. They want a Brexit deal that doesn’t make us poorer.” AS a past member of the Huddersfield Amateur Swimming Club and British Long Distance Swimming Association, I too have fond memories of Sparth Reservoir.

This started in 1973 when I was 10 and as a member of the Huddersfield Amateur club I completed my first mile in open water at the annual event.

This sparked an interest in Long Distance Open Water Swimming for me and my cousins and many a Sunday morning and weekday evenings our dads would drive us from our home in Dalton to Sparth to train for our coming events.

If I remember right, 10 lengths of Sparth Reservoir was a mile.

Many a time we stood on those steps acclimatising to the water temperature before taking the plunge – Sparth Reservoir was one of the coldest stretches of water and no wet suits allowed in those days.

All those hours of training paid off and we had many successful weekends swimming the length of Windermere or Coniston (two ways) and Bala in North Wales (also two ways).

We always had a following of family and friends who came along to support us and our successes were often reported about in the Examiner

Any body of water can be dangerous. You have to respect it and make sure you are a strong swimmer before entering and be aware that the initial shock to the body makes it difficult to control your breathing.

We always had people walking on the side as we were swimming in case we got into difficulties (luckily we didn’t).

I am not here to blame people, but the girls were probably shocked by the cold and panicked. I’m just glad there were some strong swimmers around to save them.

It would be a shame if Sparth Reservoir was to become a ‘No Swimming Allowed’ site, as Wild Open Water Swimming is growing in popularity and is still used by the Friends of Sparth, I understand.

Maybe, one day I will join them.