AS you wade through 50 years of annual reports, newsletters, accounts, and newspaper clippings two things immediately strike you about the Jersey Long Distance Swimming Club: that it has very much been a family affair, and its success.
Establishment
The club was established in the wake of three amazing swims by Denize Le Pennec. In 1966, the 16-year-old St Helier Girls pupil became the first person to swim from Jersey to France, and later in the year became the youngest British girl to swim the English Channel.
It was a remarkable achievement. It took her 20 hours 50 minutes to breaststroke from France to England, and she did it without goggles. Towards the end she was hallucinating and seeing flowers floating in the sea.
Denize was given a hero’s reception when she returned home and was the first recipient of the prestigious Churchill Award for Courage. Then, three years later, she became the first person to swim around the Island.
Buoyed by Denize’s success, and believing there was great potential in the Island, her coach and trainer, schoolteacher Maurice Lakeman, floated the idea that the Jersey Swimming Club should set up a long-distance section.
The club was not keen, so together with Jo Crafts (later Lakeman when she became Maurice’s partner), Bob Furness, Mike Kempster, and Leslie Minty, Maurice decided he would set up a new club.
The Jersey Long Distance Swimming Club (JLDSC) held its inaugural meeting on 11 January 1974. Maurice was elected president, Mike Kempster, vice-president, Leslie treasurer, and Jo and Bob were joined on the committee by Faye Devereux.
It was imagined the JLDSC would be a niche affair. As honorary secretary, Brian Le Breton, wrote in the club’s first annual report: “It was realised at the outset that a club interesting itself in this particular branch of swimming would never have a tremendously large membership; there are not many people around who enjoy immersing themselves in cold water for hours on end and flogging themselves to a standstill but, bearing this in mind the present membership of 37, of whom 11 are swimming members, is one from which satisfaction can be derived.”
Wave of success
It might have been a small club, but just one year after being established it showed it was a force to be reckoned with.
For long-distance swimming 1975 was a landmark year: it was the 100th anniversary of the first successful crossing of the English Channel, the sport’s pinnacle.
To mark the anniversary, the Channel Swimming Association organised a series of special events including a relay race. The JLDSC decided to enter.
With an average age of 15 and a half the JLDSC squad was the youngest of ten teams. Nigel Gates was 20, Sally Minty (Leslie’s daughter) 18; Ian Le Breton (Brian’s son) 15; and Linda Devereux (Faye’s daughter), Jeremy Le Maistre, Jane Luscombe, and reserve Robert de St Paër 14.
The team came fifth overall and second in its class, half an hour behind the winning Egyptian team, and pushing the British squad into third place by two minutes in a thrilling sprint for the beach. It was a stunning achievement, but more was to follow.
In August, Sally, a former Convent FCJ pupil, became the second Channel Islander to swim the Channel. Her time of 11 hours 57 minutes made her the fastest British swimmer of the year.
Then, two days later, another JLDSC swimmer made a splash, a huge headline in the Jersey Evening Post, announcing, ‘NOW LINDA DOES IT!’
At just 14, Beaulieu Convent pupil Linda Devereux became the youngster British girl to swim the Channel, in doing so taking the title from Denize.
Many years later, reflecting on her success, Linda said it was naiveté that got her through: “I was so young, whatever they said I did.”
The rules have now changed and no one under 16 is allowed to attempt a solo English Channel swim.
While long-distance swimming does have its rivalries, there is also a camaraderie that is probably not found in many other sports. There is a shared appreciation of what it takes to complete a swim, and a recognition that, because of different weather and tide conditions, no two swims are ever the same.
Long-distance swimmers are keen to share their knowledge, to encourage aspirants, and to celebrate the success of others, which perhaps explains why Denize was at the airport, as she has been for many other local English Channel swimmers, to welcome both Sally and Linda home.
At a time when a pair of Arena “budgie smugglers” as worn by seven-time gold medallist Mark Spitz in the 1972 Olympics, and a “Shane Gould” women’s costume, as donated to the Jersey relay team by Gastons Sports and Surf Shop, cost £1.95 and £4.70 respectively, the 1975 season had been a huge financial drain on the club. The pilot fees alone for each swim had been £250.
Like many other Channel attempts at the time, the Jersey swimmers had relied on fundraising to cover their costs. But, with three more Jersey swimmers hoping to cross in 1976, writing in the 1975 annual report, the club’s honorary secretary Brian Le Breton, questioned whether in future “hopeful Channel swimmers [should] be prepared to meet a part of their own expenses and, if so, how much?”
The club accounts for 1975 showed income was just over £1,700, and expenses just over £1,400, giving the club a balance of around £300.
Membership fees had brought in £27, and what seems to have been a very successful cheese and wine party £70.
In 1976, de la Salle student, Robert de St Paër become the first Jersey male to swim the English Channel. He was followed by Victoria College student, David Minty (Sally’s brother) in 1977.
Jane Luscombe (whose mother, Marie, was club president at the time) crossed in 1978, and in the same year David notched up a second crossing.
By 1980, the JLDSC had eight successful Channel swims to its name – a 100% record – not bad when at the time the average success rate was less than 50%.
Between 1980 and 2000 there were another five successful crossings. What had started out as a trickle, had become a steady stream.
By the 2000s this had become a torrent. Between 2000 and 2020 the club clocked up another 31crossings, including two two-way non-stop crossings.
The first by Wendy Trehou in 2013 in a time of 39 hours and 9 minutes, the other by Sally Minty-Gravett in 2016.
Both swimmers were awarded the Winston Churchill Award for courage further adding to the club’s honours.
Sally Minty-Gravett has now swum the Channel eight times, at least once in every decade of her life: teens, twenties, thirties, forties, fifties and sixties.
This unparalleled achievement was recognized with the awarding of an MBE in 2016, and earlier this year some GCSE English students found themselves answering questions based around an account of one of her crossings.
Round Island
If the increase in the number of club swimmers tackling the Channel has been dramatic, the number of solo swims around the island has been astronomical.
The club records list almost 170 including two double non-stop circumnavigation’s by Andy Truscott.
Fifty years of swimming means the club now boasts two fathers and daughters who have completed the challenge (Graeme and Katherine Lowe, Eric and Else Blakeley); a mother and two daughters (Dilys, Hannah, and Sammy Maletroit); two sets of husbands and wives (Richard and Judith Flambard, and Ian and Sarah-Jane (née Stirling) Jones); and a brother and sister (Sally and David Minty).
One of the reasons for the huge jump in round island swims was because the challenge had become a ‘must do’ on the international circuit and attracted swimmers from around the world.
Visitors pay a premium for the pilot boat, with the profits helping to subsidize the cost charged local swimmers. Profits are also some times used to help support local swimmers attempting the Channel. Swimmers are now expected to pay their own costs.
A huge undertaking with Channel pilots now costing in the region of £4,000.
Another reason for the rise in numbers swimming around the island has been a team of indefatigable pilots willing to do their best to make dreams come true.
Amongst the many, many, people who have helped out over the years the most prolific have probably been ‘Charlie’ Gravett (Sally’s late husband), Robert McLaughlin, and Mick Le Guilcher.
The club minutes also make it clear how grateful it has been for the support of the Jersey Canoe Club which has helped escort many swimmers and provided invaluable safety cover at various events.
A Swell Club
Whilst the number of Channel, round Island, and other landmark swims like America’s Catalina Channel, the Straits of Gibraltar, and Lake Zurich, are clear indicators of the club’s ‘success’ there are other measures.
The club’s ethos has always been to promote safe sea swimming. It certainly has. There are now 190 Club members, about 90 of them swimmers, from youngsters to 86-year-old Jean McLaughlin, who is still a very active swimmer.
Every summer there is an action-packed schedule, and thanks to the club hundreds of swimmers have enjoyed thousands of hours in the water. Most swims finish with a drink and a cake – a throwback to when the club was sponsored by Le Brun’s Bakery.
Whilst it is the swimmers that get the glory, those running the club deserve recognition. During its 50-year history the JLDSC has had eight presidents. Maurice stood down in 1978. Marie Luscumbe (swimmer Jane’s mum) then did a two-year stint, as did Jo Lakeman.
Sally and David’s dad, Leslie, was in charge between 1982 and 1985, before handing the baton on to Marion Harvey. Sally was president for 27 years before Dee Richards took over. She is respected in the club for her grit and determination.
Her Channel swim in 2008, in a time of 22 hours 6 minutes, is the slowest by a local swimmer. Today’s president is Jenny FitzGerald.
Future
For half a century now the JLDSC has been riding the crest of wave.
It has been an amazing 50 years, and there is every reason to believe the next 50 will be just as action-packed especially with 2025 being the 175th anniversary of the first crossing of the English Channel.
Small club. Big Splash.
