History of the BLDSA Postal Swim

The first year the British Long Distance Swimming Association Postal Swim Championships were run was in 1981 when Roger and Valerie Parsons, both on our Executive Committee, decided to invest some £500 of their own money to see if the idea would work, with both home and overseas swimmers. It helped that Val was our International Secretary at the time having previously been one of our International swimmers for a number of years. The idea was to help raise the profile of the BLDSA and also improve the funding of the association. At that time many on the Executive Committee were subsidising the association out of their own pockets, with many of our open water championships running at a loss. 

That first event was a great success with approximately 1500 entrants from all over the world taking part. Val and Roger then had the onerous task of sorting, by hand, the swimmers into the categories you see today from under 10’s to over 80’s and of both sexes. The work, of course, included the original mail shot and, after all the sorting, the production of the results and posting of all the medals and badges. 

In 1982 the swim was again run with success but Val and Roger were finding the sorting of, by now, some 1700 entrants into their various categories almost impossible whilst running their own business, serving on our Executive Committee and Val acting as our International Secretary! 

From 1983 to 1985 Ron and Melanie Evans ran the swim, but again the hand sorting of the results, by now close to 2000, proved to be too much in the end, resulting in them also having to withdraw from the work. In consequence Val again took on the job in 1986 and with the help of Maurice Ferguson ran it for that year. Maurice’s part was to enter all the results into a data base on his BBC computer and have a programme specially written to sort the results into the different categories. Whilst his slow computer chugged away for an hour or two, sorting the results, Maurice would go and watch television. The results could then be printed directly from the computer, saving endless manual typing as in the past.

 Maurice then took over as the Postal Swim Secretary in 1987 and ran it for the next eight years until 1994. An improvement was made in 1990 in the form of a new computer, which considerably speeded up the sorting process. During this time the entries had gone up to approximately 2500 and then fell back, over several years to the 1500 entries we average today. 

At about the same time Maurice decided to investigate the possibility of introducing separate categories for disabled entrants. Up to then only a few had been taking part, competing on equal terms with able bodied competitors. After seeking separate advice and due to the complexities involved in categorising disabled athletes, it was decided to use only three categories. The introduction of these separate categories proved to be a success and has continued to this day, with the issue of medals for each age group and disability being the same as for able bodied swimmers. The disabled swimmers are shown in the sections covering their particular age group and disability whilst still being listed in the same age groups along with able-bodied swimmers.
 

In 1995 Jim Nurse took over and carried on the good work, looking after our interests from then until 1999, during which time another improved computer was obtained, which further reduced the sorting time down to approximately seven minutes. Jim, having no computer skills when he started, went to night school to learn touch-typing and, with plenty of support from Maurice learned to use the database then in use. In Jim’s early endeavours one of his cats also helped, by jumping on the keyboard, crashing the computer and losing a full evenings work! It was suggested that the solution to this type of problem would be to strangle the cat! 

From 2000 until to date Chris Byrne has carried the Postal Swim forward and changed the type of database being used. Again a special programme has been written which now sorts and places the information, into each category, as it is being typed into the computer. Information technology has assisted in sending entry forms via e-mail around the world at the click of a button. This web site www.postalswim.com has further enhanced the event with entry forms available for downloading and result sheets being published on the web within a few weeks of the closing date. A further improvement, at least for the secretary’s family, has been the acquisition of a laptop, which allows Chris to sit in the lounge with his family whilst entering all the data for each year’s event. Unfortunately it does not sort and pack envelopes plus all the other myriad jobs outlined below.

 A few statistics are in order about now: 

Starting in October each year order 500 medals, made up of gold, silver and bronze.

In November start filling over 2500 envelopes each with four pieces of paper ready for the mail shot in December.

Just answer enquiries over Christmas and New Year, which may come in at any time, day or night by telephone, post or email.

Early January, guestimate number of cloth badges required based on previous experience and order for delivery mid to late March.

End January onwards start entering results into the computer and continue as they come in until the last ones are received in early March.

There are 18 male and 18 female age groups each requiring a gold, silver and bronze medal, total 108 medals.

There are 10 male and 10 female teams each requiring 3 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze medals, total 180 medals.

For the disabled swimmers we need approximately 100 medals.

In total approximately 400 medals are required. Each has to be engraved with: - Postal Swim + relevant year, name of swimmer or team, age group, club name, and distance swum in metres.

March, chase cloth badge supplier to ensure delivery of cloth badges on time.

Approximately end of March provide engraver with list of winners for engraving.

Whilst waiting for the above, the results sheets can be set up and printed.

End April start to label and then fill envelopes with cloth badges, results sheets, and where appropriate, the relevant medals.

Mid May complete final mail shot to all participants. 

Late May/early June sit back and wait for telephone, post or emails at any time of day or night, to tell you what you haven’t done, what you have done wrong or ask where are our results/badges/medals. The latter having obviously been lost in the post either when they were sent to you in February or when you returned them in mid May.

If the former, send letter regretting that the results of their endeavours had not been received. If the latter, redo all badges and medals if required, then send out again along with the results sheets.

 July to September DO THE DECORATING! Then start again!

 In spite of all of the above DON’T GIVE UP THE DAY JOB!!!

 All of us who have taken on the responsibility of Postal Swim Secretary owe a special debt of gratitude to our partners and families for putting up with the disruption caused whilst we look after the event. Without their active cooperation especially during the mail shots, when the entire house seems to be covered in paper and envelopes in various stages of labelling and filling, the event could not take place. 

From the day of its inception until today the Postal Swim has always welcomed entries from overseas. Over the years, entries have been received from all over the world, a few which readily come to mind being: Australia, USA, India, Germany, Canada, France, Egypt, Italy, Holland and Greece. We welcome any participants from any part of the world to take part in what was the first, and still is the premier, Postal Swim in this country.

                                                            M. Ferguson          2003