POTTED HISTORY
· The Club was formed in 1890 when a meeting was
held at the YMCA Rooms in Warwick Street, where
30 people attended, with the intention of forming
a swimming club.
· By the end of the first year membership was 41
with F. Parish, a local police surgeon and future
Mayor of Worthing, as President.
· In the early days, a 500 yard race was held in
the sea to decide who became Club Captain for the
year.
· Swimming events were held in the sea and also
at the large open air sea water baths, at Heene
Road. These were converted into 2 indoor pools in
1907 and remained the Club's headquarters until
its closure in 1967.
· During the early years water polo became very
popular in the town and had a large following.
Regularly home matches were watched by crowds of
500 plus at Heene Baths.
· Inter war years saw the Club pick itself up
after the First World War during which 30 members
were killed. Ladies water polo was formed and the
Club became strong in diving.
· Post war soon saw Worthing return to the
forefront of County swimming, particularly
amongst the women. In particular, Angela
Barnwell, coached by Arthur Barnett, Les Bowley
and Arthur Brookes, became National Freestyle
champion and was selected for the Olympic Games,
in Helsinki, in 1952. At the games, Angela
exceeded all expectations to finish 8th in the
final of the Ladies 100m Freestyle, having broken
the British record, with a time of 1-07.20, in
the heats.
· Susan Toltan was National Backstroke champion
in 1953. This was a golden era for the Club's
competitive squad, which had great strength in
depth.
· In the early 1950's a mixed syncronized
swimming team was formed, one of the first in the
country. With coloured lights and music they gave
many displays, including a demonstration at the
National Championships in 1952.
· By the mid 1950's membership reached 1000.
Although the competitive squad's success was
notable, the backbone of the club was the
ordinary swimmer, and during this period, under
the guidance of Minnie Wingfield, hundreds of
children were taught to swim.
· During the 1960's all aspects of the Club were
prominent with numerous County swimming titles, a
water polo team enjoying a vintage period, diving
champions and a strong life saving team that won
many events.
· Heene Baths closed in 1967 and the Club moved
to the newly built Aquarena in January 1968.
· Swimming progressed and the improved
facilities and more space for teaching led to a
big rise in membership, that peaked at 2000 in
1972 and a waiting list of 300, making Worthing
one of the largest clubs in the country.
· The Club continued to produce national ranked
swimmers in Clare Thurgar, Lucy Hilder and Colin
Dale. Duncan Goodhew, whilst a pupil at
Windlesham House school, received some of his
early training at Worthing before moving on to
Millfield School and Beckenham SC. Duncan went on
to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games in
Moscow, in 1980, in the Mens 100m Breaststroke.
· Just when the Club seemed to be going from
strength to strength disaster struck when major
structural defects were discovered at the
Aquarena in December 1977. It took until 1982 for
the repairs to be completed, in which time, the
Club lost many of its successful swimmers to
other clubs. The Club managed to continue using
pools at Upper Beeding, Brighton College and a
private pool at High Salvington. Membership
didn't drop below 700, which was tribute to a
very hard working Executive Committee.
· During the 1980's the Club continued its
policy of teaching young children to swim and
develop those wishing to swim competitively, as
well as those wanting to take part in water polo
and diving. However, it took the Club almost 10
years to recover competitively from the set back
of the closure.
· In 1994, Louise McCallum became the first
swimmer, since Lucy Hilder, to qualify for the
Nationals, taking part in the 100m Breaststroke,
at Coventry. Louise went on to compete in 4 more
Nationals. Since then, Charlie Ticehurst, Jessica
Lezard and Laura West have competed in the
Nationals.
· Water polo has continued to flourish under the
guidance of Alastair Roberts with both the Junior
and Senior teams proving to be the best in the
County and large number of the players achieving
recognition at County and District level.
· The new millennium sees the Club continue to
promote the objects of the Club, to promote the
teaching and practice of swimming, water polo and
diving. The membership currently stands at just
over 500.
For a detailed history of the Club, please refer to the Centenary booklet published in January 1990, to mark 100 years of its existance.