Aloha!! The 2011 Claremont Awards night was a fantastic night of fun, frivolity and friendship with an Hawaiian theme.

The first order of business of the night was awarding Life Membership of the Club to Sally Bell. President, Gary Bradley, convened the meeting and made reference to the special motion that had gone around to all club members. It was at this point that Sally looked to Duncan that something must be wrong because Sally is the person responsible for sending the majority of club correspondence. The motion was swiftly and unanimously supported by the club members and a completely shocked Sally was overcome with emotion at receiving Life Membership.

Gary detailed Sally’s long commitment to the club in the roles ranging from Head Coach and Captain through to her current position of Marketing Officer and sharing Friday morning coaching duties with Elena. Sally has volunteered at the Club and with Masters Swimming WA for 20 years and certainly deserved recognition that all those hours are valued by her fellow members. Sally has brought National and International recognition to Claremont by setting a World Record in backstroke in 2007.

Sally has friends around the world who value her enthusiasm, encouragement and passion for swimming which she generously shares with us all at Claremont. A teary Sally accepted the award and through a faltering voice thanked her fellow club members for the years of fun and friendship. Sally was presented with her Life Membership badge and was joined by two of our current life members who were present on the night – Jenny Williams and Perc Edwards.

After the awarding of the Life Membership we moved on to the serious and the more light-hearted awards for the night. The serious awards were lead off by the Club recognising the amazing work undertaken by Nicky Corsbie throughout the year in the role of Captain, by presenting her with the Volunteers Award. Nicky collates individuals’ entries for carnivals and she is responsible for creating relay teams. The permutations and combinations for the relays are enormous and our club aims to put in competitive relays that enable all swimmers to participate in the fun that are relays. This year, the organisation of the relays enabled Claremont to win the overall points award at the Nationals and everyone was given the opportunity to swim in a relay at the carnival.

Adrian Davini, Carolyn Gorrick and Paul Vivers were recognised for their speed in the pool at both a State and National level. Graham Senders was awarded the Aerobics Swimmer of the Year. Claremont had a large number of swimmers who dominated in their age groups in the last OWS season and Ray Plowman came out on top with tremendous results over a large number of races.

Julie Blanchard joined the Club earlier in the year and has quickly moved up the lanes due to some fantastic coaching from Frank Glass teamed with her willingness and ability to include Frank’s coaching tips into her swimming. For this she was awarded the Most Improved Award. And speaking of Frank, the Club recognised the wonderful support he has had from his wife, Linda, over the past year. It is the love, encouragement and support of Linda that enabled him to create challenging programs for us all as he sought to train for a solo Rotto crossing. Unfortunately, illness meant that Frank was not able to compete but he still maintained his commitment to his role with support from Linda.

The not so-serious Awards followed in the vein of commitment to the Club and recognised the dedication of our members to contribute, compete and dedicate themselves for the good of the Club. Chris Walsh was recognised for his commitment to the Club when he volunteered at the Golden Groper carnival after suffering a very severe thumb injury just before the carnival. Thankfully Chris has recovered and is back in the pool. Bill Deuchar received an award that recognised that he regularly competes at carnivals to the maximum number of events. He has also been known to try to compete in even more events than are allowed! Every swim that a member performs results in the Club being awarded at least one point and each and every point helps the Club achieve successfully at carnivals. This sort of dedication helped us win the Nationals this year. This devotion to Claremont Masters was demonstrated by Susie Forte when she was under the weather but still turned up for all her swims during the Nationals. The last award of the night went to Perc Edwards for his single-mindedness and continual efforts to set and break records in his age group. If there is something within his grasp Perc will train for it and achieve it – inspirational for us all.

It has been a fantastic year for the Club that was recognised on the night. We look forward to seeing you all back next year and in the pool until then.

Happy swimming!

Trish

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