Sutton Swimming Club stage open meet to honour club legend Allen Urch

Allen, whose history with the club went back to 1966, died last year and the club decided to honour him and raise awareness of Dementia UK at the same time, raising £1,500 for the charity.

The event was held at Alfreton Leisure Centre and was a sell-out.

Sutton head coach Simon Hill said: “This special day was a culmination of months of hard work and dedication from those working hard behind the scenes at the club.

“It will certainly be a day remembered fondly by all as we paid tribute to a great man. We hope this event will continue Allen’s legacy and have already booked in for 18th May 2025.”

Other than the massive representation of swimmers from SSC they had swimmers taking part from Mansfield SC, Hucknall SC, Ripley Rascals, Sherwood Colliery SC, Notts Portland SC, Carlton Forum SC, Loughborough Town SC and Calverton & Bingham SC.

The event saw a timetable of 50s and 100s across the four strokes together with the 100 IM and then mixed team relays in Freestyle and Medley across four age groups.

There were medals for the top six finishers in all events with new PBs set across the board.

To mark the occasion Allen's daughter Judith and grandaughters Charlotte and Emily were presented with a memento and then had the honour of presenting trophies to: Top Male – Harry Smith (Mansfield), Top Female – Sienna Brett (Sutton), Top Junior Male – Kieran Doud (Sutton), and Top Junior Female – Charley Butlin (Sutton).

They were also joined by Louise Lambert, president of the Notts ASA to present the top visiting club award to Ripley Rascals.

The day also saw SSC revel in having four swimmers presented with special SSC swim caps for gaining qualifying times to swim at the British Summer Championships and Swim England National Summer Championships at the end of July.

They were Thomas Swales (8 x British & 3 x National times), Aurelia Wawrzyniewicz (1 x British & 7 National times), Egors Golubs (11 years old and a National time) and Joel Harby (1 x National time).