HALF a century after conquering the English Channel for the first time, the Island’s most renowned long-distance swimmer is set to mark the anniversary with yet another crossing.
Sally Minty-Gravett may have “retired” from solo swimming in 2022 after successfully completing her eighth Channel crossing at the age of 65, but she has remained active as a member of relay swimming teams.
Friends Graeme Lowe, Jenny Fitzgerald, Alice Harvey, Julia Morris and Will Ellis are the other members of the “Sal’s Pals @50” team waiting anxiously for a weather “window” in order to travel to England and embark on their relay attempt.
Getting the team together coincides with three significant anniversaries:
- Captain Matthew Webb’s first crossing of the English Channel on 24 August 1875, a feat repeated by an estimated 2,700 people in the subsequent 150 years.
- A relay crossing by six Jersey teenagers, including an 18-year-old Sally Minty, on 18 August 1975. The youngest team in the Channel Swimming Association Centenary Relay came second in the race in a time of 9hrs 50mins.
- Mrs Minty-Gravett’s first Channel crossing on 30 August 1975, two days before her relay team-mate and fellow Islander Linda Devereux (14) also completed a solo swim.
The return to Dover comes just over three years after Mrs Minty-Gravett made her most recent Channel crossing, which left her having successfully achieved the feat in every decade from the 1970s to the 2020s, including a double-crossing in 2016. She was inducted into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame in 2005, and awarded the MBE for services to swimming teaching in 2016.
Retirement from solo swimming hasn’t been strictly observed, as Mrs Minty-Gravett did tackle the Dardanelles/Hellespont crossing between Greece and Turkey last year, when she also joined an all-female team of Islanders to swim 45 miles along the length of Lake Geneva.
The Sal’s Pals team have a week-long slot booked for their current crossing, ending on Friday 5 September, and are hoping that weather and sea conditions will enable the swim to go ahead during that time.
The team has been supported with their expenses and kit through sponsorship by Evelyn and Partners.
Relay casts
The plan to cross the Channel this week comes 50 years after a young Jersey team made history
- Jersey Long Distance Swimming Club team, 1975: Nigel Gates (19), Sally Minty (18), Jane Luscombe (15), Ian Le Breton (14), Linda Devereux (14). Jeremy Le Maistre (14), Robert De Ste Paer (15, reserve). Team Captains and coaches: Maurice and Jo Lakeman.
- Sal’s Pals @50, 2025: Sally Minty-Gravett, Graeme Lowe, Jenny Fitzgerald, Alice Harvey, Julia Morris, Will Ellis.
