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Daventry Dolphins Swimming Club
(Daventry, Northamptonshire, England)

Affiliated to the ASA East Midland Region and Northants ASA

Organisation

Main Contacts

Honorary Secretary - Mr Roland Iacovides, Tel: 07595 358 878, E-mail:secretary@ddsc.co.uk

President - Mrs Lesley Sharp, 18 The Dingle, Daventry,Northamptonshire, NN11 4DJ Tel: 01327 876873, E-mail:president@ddsc.co.uk

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Location

Our home pool is base at the Daventry Leisure Centre. The full address is:

Lodge Rd
Daventry,
NN11 4FP
Telephone: 01327 871144

This link to a Google map for Daventry Leisure Centre will allow you to obtain directions

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Background

There has been a swimming club in the Daventry and District since 1962. The outdoor pool was opened in 1962 by Judy Grinham a Great Britain Olympic swimmer, after a string of drowning incidents in Daventry reservoir, sparking a fundraising campaign which led to the construction of the £42,000 facility. The Club was originally known as the Daventry and District Swimming Club. There were 3 pools on the site, a 33 metres length pool, a 20 metres training pool and a paddling pool. In those formative years, the club swimmers were only able to practise during the summer months.

In 1981, the Club moved its base to an indoor facility at the then Grange School (now Northampton College Campus) and the swimmers were able for the first time to swim all year round. This pool was a 5 lane deck level 25 metres pool and was ideal for training and although it hosted competitions, the spectator facilities were inadequate. The swimmers benefited greatly as it allowed for all year training.

In 1992, the club changed its name to the Daventry Dolphins Swimming Club and whilst still serving the communities of the Daventry and District, the Club some of the Clubs swimmers such as Rachel Parkin (sadly now deceased) and Ben & Stuart Whaymand competed and gained recognition at a high level.

In November 1996, the Club moved base again, this time to the present Daventry Leisure Centre. As part of the move, the Club gave up its Teaching programme to solely concentrate on coaching. This virtually halved the membership.The pool facility was built with the emphasis on leisure as opposed to the teaching and practice of competitive swimming. Unfortunately, the planners wanted a wave machine which required a high wall at one end of the pool to keep in the high splash. This meant that diving could not be done from that end of the pool. This meant that the Club were prevented from hosting certain competitions because relay race takeovers could not be safely made. This also meant that the Club could only teach competitive starts from the deep end of the pool. They did not even have the foresight to construct the Teaching pool to a depth of 0.9m, which is the safe depth for diving and turning! The Club were still reliant on using the outdoor pool to teach the children to safely dive into a shallow depth of 0.9m.

1997 to 2000, under the guidance of Head Coach Ken Blogg, and Team managers Doreen Khan and Lesley Sharp, the Dolphins had their most successful swimming seasons ever. In 1997, the Junior Team won a Milton Keynes Junior League competition for the first time, in 1998 the Club won the County League for the first and only time to date and in 1999 were runners up in the Division 2 East Midlands Speedo League. After these successes, a Trophy cabinet was made by local craftsmen Malcolm Hill and today is proudly displayed in the Spectator area of the indoor pool.

During Bloggs leadership, swimmers Nichola Smith, Lucy Hammond, Emma Hummerston, Darren Barber, Hayley Barber, Sian Blogg and Andrew Sharp qualified for the National Championships and competed at a very high level. Nichola represented England schools, Darren was a National medalist and Andrew Sharp represented the England Open water development squad.

Over the years, the outdoor pool had faced problems and the summer of 2005 saw the beginning of the end when workmen concreted over the paddling pool and grassed over one of the main pools after figures showed the facility cost tax payers £159,000 a year, with visitor figures hitting an all-time low. The decision to close the pool sparked angry reaction within the town. Campaigns and protests to save it were launched, which ultimately ended in failure. This now means that swimmers from Daventry Dolphins have to travel to an alternative pool with a safe shallow water depth to practice starts.

The summer of 2006 marked the end of an era for the Daventry Outdoor Pool as the Townspeople of Daventry saw the closure of the much-loved facility for the last time on Sunday, September 3. Dolphins members Andrew and Robert Sharp were the last to leave this facility.

The Club is extremely proud of its history and that its swimmers continue to be a force within the County and Region. This year, 2007, Saffa Dehghani was the winner of the 14yrs age group at the Northamptonshire Amateur Swimming Associations County Age Group Championships with George Barnes runner up in that age group category.

August 2007. Whilst still a small club of around 80 competitive members, much less than the days of the ‘80s when there was in excess of 250, however with the Schools and Nsport links the Club is confident in attracting new members. It remains to be forward thinking in its outlook and is determined to be successful once again. The new links that have been formed with Northampton Swimming Club which is THE performance Club for the County will see new Training strategies being implemented for the new swimming season commencing in September.

Honorary Presidents

YEAR	NAME
1962	J. MOSER
1973	M. TAYLOR
1979	S. CARWARDINE
1984	A.Z. MEACOCK (ZOE)
1990	R.J. SUTHERLAND
1999	A. COLSEY
2004	L. SHARP

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