History

Ironically, the advent of swimming pools from the 1950s onwards contributed to the decline of water polo in Dorset. ‘Once the big teams had swimming pools to play in, the prospect of coming here and swimming in the river wasn’t so attractive,’ says Dave Hoskins. ‘It’s strange but I think swimming pools really killed it off.’

For the last three or four decades, there has been little or no organised water polo in Dorset (except by Bournemouth SC, which retained its Hampshire ASA affiliation until this year). Happily, however, mini-polo leagues are contributing to a revival and today’s 75th anniversary festival will culminate in the first Dorset water polo final for many years.

Diving was relatively simple in the early decades – just a plain header with no tariffs. Swanage hosted the county championships for many years as they had a 10m board, other fixed boards and a springboard. Wareham had a one-metre board but its height above the water varied according to the state of the tide and competitors often had to wait before a championship could begin. In the late 1960s, the army built a 25m indoor pool at Bovington, whose facilities included 1m, 3m and 5m diving boards. Bryanston School, near Blandford, had boards in the 1970s and 1980s. In post-war Poole, the original Wessex Diving Club dived into the harbour from boards mounted on scaffolding. After a break of a few years, the club was reformed in 1976 and the present club, based at the Dolphin Pool, is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. There is also some competitive diving at the Boscawen pool at Portland.

Dorset’s first synchronised swimming club started as a section of Weymouth SC about 25 years ago and became part of West Dorset Warriors when that club was launched in 1988. Flamingoes Wessex, who train at Ferndown and Christchurch, began as Ferndown Flamingoes in 1983 and recently absorbed Poole Penguins, which started life as a section of Poole SC.

Marc Newman, who swam for both Poole SC and Ferndown Otters, has been the most successful of Dorset’s many open water swimmers, twice winning the World Cup 25m event in Lake Windermere and Lake Geneva and representing Great Britain in the first open water event to be held in the FINA World Championships. He also swam the Channel five times. Of Dorset’s other Channel swimmers, the most notable are Sam Rockett, who was the first Briton home in the 1950 International Cross-Channel race, and Samantha Druce who, aged 12, became the youngest swimmer to complete the crossing in 1983.

The 1970s saw the beginnings of a revolution which was to take Dorset out of the aquatic dark ages and into the modern world. One key feature of these changes was the construction of indoor heated pools across the county. Weymouth’s 25m public pool and learners’ pool opened in March 1974 followed by Poole’s 33.3m Dolphin pool plus learners’ pool and diving pit later the same year and Ferndown Sports Centre in 1976. Other facilities have since followed at Wimborne, Dorchester, Wareham, Weymouth (Thornlow School), Blandford, Gillingham, Bridport, Parkstone (Rossmore Leisure Centre), Clayesmore School, Bryanston School, Milton Abbey School and Portland (former Royal Navy pool). Some of these pools have led, directly or indirectly, to the formation of new clubs, among them Ferndown Otters, whose appearance in 1976 and rapid ascent as a competitive club did much to change the balance of power in Dorset, Tornadoes of South Dorset (formerly Thornlow Tornadoes), West Dorset Warriors, Bridport Barracudas, Wimborne, Bere Regis, Clayesmore and, most recently, Gillingham Turbos. Sadly, Portland Dolphins folded in 2002 after 30 years. Since Weymouth hosted the ASA National Masters Championships in 1984, the county has built a strong masters squad drawn mainly from Weyport, Poole SC, Bournemouth Dolphins and Wareham.

A second significant development was local government reorganisation in 1974, which brought Bournemouth and Christchurch into Dorset. Swimming clubs within those two boroughs were able to choose whether to remain with Hampshire and the Southern Counties ASA or move to Dorset and the West. Initially all those clubs opted to remain in Hampshire and the South. Bournemouth Dolphins were the first to make the move into Dorset in the early 1990s followed three or four years ago by Seagulls from Christchurch and this year by Bournemouth SC bringing a heritage dating back to 1889 and a wealth of experience in water polo, which has been largely neglected in Dorset in recent decades. The boundary change has also added several pools to Dorset’s stock including Littledown (opened in 1989 and now the main venue for the county championships), Kinson, Stokewood Road and Two Riversmeet at Christchurch. Another new pool is planned for north Bournemouth.

As the number of both pools and clubs has increased, so too has the standard of swimming in Dorset culminating in Karen Legg’s selection for the Commonwealth Games in 1998 and 2002 (when she won five medals) and the Olympic Games in 2000 and 2004. Alex Savage has swum at World and European Championships, Marc Newman in the first open water event at the World Championships and Shelley Reeves, Holly Fox, Charlotte Evans and Seth Chappels at the European Junior Championships.

As Dorset County ASA prepares to enter its fourth quarter-century, it does so knowing that most aspects of the sport are in a vastly healthier state than they were 75 years ago. While there is no imminent prospect of either a 50m pool or a 10m diving platform, most people across the county now live within easy reach of an indoor heated pool, providing them with the opportunity to learn to swim and, if they have the ability and desire, to compete at any level. The changes in Dorset since 1931 have seen the county progress from an aquatic backwater to a major force in South West swimming. Yet evolution is a never-ending process and, even as we celebrate the 75th anniversary, there are moves afoot which could take Dorset swimming to yet another level. Watch this space...

November 2006