Race of 1897

Due to the generosity of Ken Mason and his family, the club has acquired a framed newspaper article from 1897 which describes a swimming race held that year, in the sea off Great Yarmouth.

 

YARMOUTH SWIMMING CLUB

INTERESTING STRUGGLE FROM JETTY TO PIER.

 

Those who watched the race held by the Yarmouth Swimming Club for the president's cup last Saturday afternoon saw the prettiest and most interesting contest of the season up to the present. The course was one of about 600 yards, from the Jetty to the Britannia Pier, and it was only surprising that the handsome silver trophy handed to the club by Dr. Blake did not excite keener competition. There are over sixty members of the club, but only six came out to swim. However, the contest was full of interesting features, and little Harold Blake, the president's son, came out victorious, winning as much by good judgment as by virtue of his swimming power.

The starters, handicapped as usual by Mr. W. R. Webster, were:-

F. Arnold................scratch

N. S. Hall.................40 sec

A. C. Lay.......1 min. 15 sec.

A. Mason.......1 min. 15 sec.

H. Blake........1 min. 30 sec.

A. J. Nicholls..1 min. 55 sec.

Mr. F. L. Wade, the assistant secretary of the club, who was acting as starter, made a curious mistake in getting the men away. He gave Blake the word to "go" five seconds after Nicholls, the limit man, had taken the water, when, on the handicap, there should have been an interval of 25 seconds between the two. So Blake caught Nicholls a few moments after the latter

CAME UP FROM HIS DIVE.

But the mistake did not affect Nicholls's chance in the ultimate result. He is not a strong swimmer and, half-way through the race, got left by everyone.

Mason's style, impressed everyone from the first. A short, thin, pinched-up looking lad of 16, he nevertheless shows a wonderful turn of speed in the water, a powerful scissor-like kick a la Tyres apparently being the secret of his rapid progress. He caught little Blake within a hundred yards, and the two swam some distance abreast. In the meantime Lay had passed Nicholls, and for a little while drew nearer and nearer the leaders, but then dropped back again.

Hall gravitated towards the shore as he left the boat, and Arnold followed in his wake. It was a big mistake for both of them. There was a great difference in the strength of the tide there and further out where Mason and Blake were swimming, and they lost half the assistance the swiftness of the ebb would otherwise have given them. After covering 150 yards Mason began to leave Blake, who subsequently tired, and

CHANGED TO THE BREAST STROKE

for a time. These two, with Lay lying behind, were 150 yards further out to sea than Hall and Arnold, Nicholls now being altogether out of the running. Opposite the Holkham Hotel Mason led by ten yards from Blake. The former was quite 40 yards ahead of Arnold and Hall, who were swimming neck and neck inshore, and the strength of the tide actually put him on level terms with the Yarmouth crack and the Norfolk and Suffolk champion.

Mason never relaxed his pace. The little thin arms shot out and the wiry little legs swished backwards and forwards in the water with the regularity of clockwork as he tore steadily onward, never deviating to right or left. Fifty yards from home he still had his 40 or 50 yards lead from anyone else, Blake having dropped back a long way. But then a contingency unforseen by Mason dawned ahead. Each man as he finished was required to touch the judge's boat, and Mason had been traveling so far out that he was suddenly compelled to turn and swim hard towards the shore to make the boat. But

IT WAS TOO LATE.

The tide swept him on, and though he struggled hard he was carried right past the judges, altogether out of the reach of the craft in which they were seated. He completed the course first by a clear 40 yards, but, failing to touch the boat - the condition imposed before the race started - was not placed. Blake, nearer inshore, reached it first, and so secured first prize. Then Arnold and Hall came sprinting up and the former reached the goal a yard or two ahead. To Hall the third prize was awarded.

In recognition of his splendid swimming Mr. W. R. Webster handed Mason a special prize. The lad deserved it. He has the easiest, cleanest, and most graceful style of any swimmer in the district, not excepting even the Arnolds, and will be a force to be reckoned with in future years.

............o..........

Handwritten

"this race was held in the North Sea June 1897" Alfred Mason