Going swimmingly

John Landrigan | 30th December 2009

A year after 10-year-old Tiggy Tattersfield-Collins joined a swimming club, she competed at regional competitions.

Tiggy trained with Waitakere City Swimming Club, a small, amateur affair based at West Wave Aquatic Centre in Henderson.

In June, The Aucklander reported there was to be a do-or-die meeting to decide the
45-year-old club's future. Choices for the swimmers' parents were: to continue; to
amalgamate with a larger club; or just to give up.

They agreed to fight to keep the club alive and Brian Palmer, executive officer of Swimming Auckland now reports that all is going swimmingly. "They're prospering, in swimming terms. They're doing well with numbers and are living to fight another day,'' he says. "This is a club that does not charge big fees. It is a classic amateur swimming club
who do a very good job."

Mr Palmer says the club's revival was due to a new group of parents coming through for their kids. He says clubs like this often fall short of volunteers when active parents of children who had moved on leave.

"There is a huge amount of volunteer time needed.

As reporter Debrin Foxcroft so eloquently put it, the "whiff of chlorine that permeates
everything, tickling the nostrils and sticking to clothes'' will continue at Waitakere City
Swimming Club.