Club History (II)
The second part of the Club History, from the amalgamation of Woodside Swimming Club with Thornton Heath S.C. in 1980.
This section is divided between two parts:
The 1980s
The early years of the merged club proved fruitful from the number of swimming members (498 at the beginning of 1981) and the successes gained in competitive swimming.
The 80s start with success in the Borough championships with the combined club taking nine gold medals and also a gold in the County champs. During the decade, the club was involved with the Speedo London League having a topsy-turvy decade being promoted or relegated nearly ever season between the 1st Division and the 2nd division. The club also fielded a team in the London Water Polo League with much success. In 1982, a club player (David Leach) became captain of the Great Britain national squad.
In the latter half of the decade some very good swimmers at the club led by Hester Willson who won a bronze medal (13/14 200m Butterfly) at the National Championships in Leeds in 1987 and club swimmers gaining 9 gold medals in the 1989 county championships. In 1985, the Croydon Borough team featured no less than 15 Woodside swimmers.
The closure of South Norwood for some 4 months in 1984 for roof repair works led to the club temporarily swimming at Alleyn’s School and the loss of some senior swimmers. The instigation of a chute at South Norwood in 1986 caused consternation on the competitive side with clubs not wishing to swim with the chute sticking out over lane 1 and the loss of both county and borough galas a South Norwood. This left the only truly competitive standard pool in Croydon at Purley and that only available on Saturday evenings. In 1987, the pool situation in Croydon worsened when Croydon decided not to go ahead with the “central” pool and invest in a leisure pool on the Purley Way instead.
Foreign exchanges took place during the 80’s with a visit to Alphen SC in Holland during Easter 1985 and Delphin SC from Hamburg visiting the club in October 1986 with a return visit to Hamburg at Easter 1988.
1987 was the 100th anniversary of the formation of Woodside SC and to mark the event a disco was organised for the swimmers with a social evening at Penge Conservative Club for the committee members, Vice Presidents Honorary Members and parents.
The 1990s
Woodside maintained it’s local attachment throughout the 90’s training at 4 local pools; South Norwood (HQ), Thornton Heath, St Josephs College and Crystal Palace. Demand for swimming courses for beginners soared during the decade with at one stage a full 1 year waiting list for the width teaching classes at South Norwood. However the popularity of South Norwood was not matched by Thornton Heath pool attendances. With new swimmers preferring to remain on the waiting list rather than swim at Thornton Heath the numbers swimming at Thornton Heath remained poor throughout the decade. The large pool at Thornton Heath was closed by the council in 1998 with the small pool barely struggling to remain open until the pool closed for the last time in December 2000.
In 1990 Woodside were still enjoying some success in swimming winning 9 gold medals in the Borough championships, 10 county medals and two swimmers in the National finals. However Mick Moylan, the club coach left in the autumn and at the same time most of the senior swimmers also left the club.
During the early and middle years of the decade the club honours were championed by two swimmers. In the early years Andrew Collins regularly won gold in the county Mens 1500m freestyle along with other county medals, and winning many Borough Mens gold medals. From the middle of the decade David Bennett showed his potential as a young swimmer from 1994 picking up medals at the county championships, particularly in the Butterfly events. David has gone on to win national titles and to represent the national Great Britain team.
Team honours however were more difficult to come by with a lack of senior swimmers very evident in the years we swam in the National Speedo League with our best placing being 24th out of 37 teams in the London Second Division. We withdrew from the League for the second time in 1998. In 1992 we became a founder member of the new Octopus League and have swum throughout the decade with mixed success finishing as high as 2nd and as low as 8th. Another Woodside & Thornton Heath member honoured was Don Wright, one of our Vice Presidents and a long time official at club galas. Don became Surrey President in 1995 and Southern Counties President the following year.
For the majority of the 90’s the club’s tutelage was under the professional care of Peter Wyatt from 1992 until 2000. Peter’s tenure as Club Coach led to a settling down period and a build up of the top end of the club with swimmers such as the two Andrew’s, Collins and Barker. Peter also took the club into Europe with a team being entered for an international event in Hamburg over the Easter period of 1992. Whilst club swimmers stayed with German families the few parents who went braved the back street hotels of Hamburg. Teams from Malmo (Sweden), Budapest (Hungry), Vlaardingen (Holland) and from around the Hamburg area took part and despite finishing 8th overall the swimmers really enjoyed themselves.
At the start of the decade the water polo section was having difficulty in attracting a continuity of players and support. This led to the failure of the club to complete its 1991 fixtures and the, then, temporary suspension of the water polo section which became permanent the following year.
Club finances reached a zenith during the later part of the decade when in 1997 our bank balance reached new heights. However this was not to last and the club's cash reserves dwindled rapidly over the next few years. A series of unfortunate events ensued, firstly to make the pools financially more stable the council implemented successive large increases in pool hire charges (up to 55%). This coincided with the closure of the large pool at Thornton Heath in 1998 due to the roof failing, and the transfer of swimmers to South Norwood which in turn blocked the promotion of the South Norwood swimmers from the lower end of the club.
The waiting list which had been very long seemed to melt away. Although the upper end of the club remained relatively stable in the 11 – 14 age ranges we lost senior swimmers of 15 and above. The financial state of the club was evidenced by the final closure of the Learners & Beginners classes at Thornton Heath for financial reasons. Also in 1999 we learned that South Norwood pool was to close sometime in 2000 for a lengthy period involving rebuilding of the pool facilities both inside and out.
