History

Bude Sharks Swimming Club was originally formed in May 1996 by the then coach Anthony Astley. Anthony was a Teacher at Splash Leisure Pool and encouraged many young swimmers to a very high standard of swimming during his lessons which they did not want to stop. They needed that natural progression. Starting a Swimming Club was the only solution.

He approached the Centre manager and presented a very good case for having a swimming club. Anthony himself was a National and County swimmer in his youth and being coached regularly by his mother Marion Astley he knew what was required and just how to get the best from the swimmers.

At the time the Club was formed there were a number of Teachers to assist Anthony in the smooth running of the Club namely Anne Crowther, Adrian Parsons and Maggie Davies.

Marion Astley was elected to be the Club Chairperson and was ideal for the position as she had coached numerous National and County Swimmers in her years of Coaching for a club in the North of England. In 1999 Anthony moved away to attend college in Sussex but the Club by this time was very well established and continued to grow.

Marion moved to France in 2000 at this stage our Centre Manager Neil Webber stepped into the role of Chairman, Maggie Davies completed her Club Coach Qualification and was assisted then by Anoushka Salt, Adrian Parsons and Avril Roberts.

Since then the Club has gone from strength to strength, growing in numbers and swimmers gaining recognition at County and Western County events also some members have been invited to join larger clubs i.e. Caradon, Bodmin and Truro to enable them to enter Top Class Events in the Speedo League also the Celtic and National Squad.

In 2005 the Club was able to enter the Inter County 12 years and under Gala for the first time which was excellent as for the first time in the history of the Club we had enough boys as members to allow the team to be complete.

2006 saw us win the 2nd Division at the above Gala and so we were promoted to the Premier League. We were also presented with the Presidents Cup for outstanding achievement.

Throughout 2005 and 2006 we had two Coaches to assist with the running of the Club and who better than Vikki Clacey and Kirstine Davies, who had been through all the lessons at Splash and reached very high standards with the Club at County level, to share their expertise with the younger members. We also had a new Club Chairman Keith Taylor who is also Swimming Development Co ordinatior for the centre.

Towards the end of 2006 Kirstine bid a fond farewell to the Club to pursue a career in Nursing and we were joined by Kim Prescott who together with Vikki coaches the Junior Squad. The Clubs numbers have swelled to around 80 and in 2007 we entered the largest number of swimmers in the County Blocks then ever before.