and relax …….

Last weekend saw the third IISA GB Championships being hosted at DCLT’s Hatfield Outdoor Activity Centre in Doncaster home to SwimYourSwim.The event was a huge success, now we’ve started to recover I would like to pass on our sincere thanks to the following people that made the event run as smoothly and successfully as it did.

 

Doncaster Culture & Leisure Trust for their continued help and support and all of the team at Hatfield Outdoor Activity Centre, Stuart, Keith, Chantelle, Jessica, Dan and Frank, DCLT Ice swimming relay team next year?.

 

The IISA GB board led by Kate Steels Fryatt and consisting of Cath Pendleton, Andrea Startin, Colleen Blair, Stuart Hinde, Kate Sunley and Rory Fitzgerald, for taking the leap of faith and allowing SwimYourSwim to host the event .

 

Special thanks to IISA international board member, birthday boy (67) and event referee Jonty Warneken for agreeing not to touch a radio all weekend. Apparently having a big hooter impresses the ladies – who knew.

 

The weekend could not have run without the huge network of amazing volunteers we have at SwimYourSwim, their commitment, enthusiasm and dedication is humbling and I will be forever grateful that they ( quite literally on several occasions ) carried me through the weekend with a smile, banter and lots of painkillers.

 

I’m aware this may just be a list of names to lots of people reading this post, but to me it represents an appreciation of hours of hard work, scraped knuckles, endless cups of tea, lifting, drilling, fetching, carrying, updating lists, painting, checking menus, baking, signing people in, warming people up, thousands of steps, journeys to the shops, early early mornings and smiling, saying “no problem” when asked to do another job in the biting cold. So for everyone on the the list below and those that may have slipped through my ageing memory, THANK YOU, there really is no better team on the planet.

 

Ally Howard – Dobby ~ Angela Davison ~ Mike Bullivant ~ Donna Livingstone ~ Stuart Livingstone ~ Ray Smith ~ Paul Holmes ~ Fiona McDonald Woods ~ Diane Forest ~ Catherine Atkinson ~ Chris Greenwood ~ Charlotte Greenwood for letting Chris out to play ~ Joe Thomas ~ Susan Thomas ~ Izzy Fisher ~ Poppy Livingstone ~ Ros Hather ~ Pat Cooke Rogers ~ Barry Gareth ~ Jane Mintoft ~ Jane Crosby for her patience and letting me out to play ~ Chris Hill ~ Pete Tanker ~ Claire Howard ~ Helena Howard ~ Caroline Sims ~ Sarah Gatland ~ Vicki Watson ~ Louise Stratford ~ Barbara Heyes ~ Zoe Walker ~ Dr Duncan Marlow ~ Heidi Brice ~ Viki Brice ~ Lorraine Murphy and last but by no means saintly, my wayward and much missed business partner Alistair Beattie.

 

Also to the countless companies who gave prizes and donated items for the raffle you have our sincere thanks, I will be creating a thank you page this week on the Ice Swimming website to show our appreciation for all your support. Some of your donated prizes will be heading home with our swimmers from Russia, China and South Africa so watch this space for your product placements 🙂

 

Finally a huge thank you to everyone that swam and supported the IISA GB event, we hope you will join us again in 2019 ( venue location to be confirmed ). Swim safe and enjoy the snow.

 

Officials photos by Zoe Walker will follow shortly, in the meantime here are some taken by us at the weekend. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do.