The Friends of Guildford Lido were delighted that local photographer and FOGL member Peter Merry agreed to be the official photographer for the opening day event for the 2010 season.
Peter has kindly provided us with a wonderful gallery of photographs that really show the Lido at its’ best. There are photographs of the early official opening by Mayor Pauline Searle and World Champion and FOGL Ellery McGowan giving attendees a brief account of her success at the World Winter Swimming Championships at Lake Bled, Slovenia in January 2010.
As soon as the pool was officially opened, the Charity Swim to cover the distance of the English Channel during the course of the day got underway and Peter managed to capture some fantastic shots of volunteer swimmers participating in this event.
It wasn’t all about swimming as you’ll see from the photos, there were scuba diving demonstrations available throughout the day.
We hope you enjoy browsing Peter’s photos and throughout the coming months of the Lido season we’ll post individual pictures on our main page to remind everyone of how beautiful they (and the Lido) are.
To view the gallery, visit Peter’s Lido Gallery site
Lido Opening Day Channel Relay Charity Swim
It wasn’t easy to guess what the weather had in store for us, nor indeed who would turn up and when, to add to the confirmed list of willing Lido supporters in pursuit of the 35,000 metres. As it was, the weather was kind and we had sunny spells most of the day. The swimming started with FOGL Christina Victor, accompanied by a number of those attending the opening ceremony. We had two of our Councillors plus Jim Miles, Guildford’s Director of Leisure Services, take to the water to bolster our total with several hundred metres. Russell Atkins, the Lido Manager, also demonstrated his prowess adding a few lengths to the tally.
It wasn’t all about the older swimmers. We were delighted to welcome Samantha Tierney, one of Guildford City’s competitive youngsters. Pride of place goes to the Petrie lads – Gus, Cal and Brodie – who came all the way down from London with their parents Al and Lucy. Al and Lucy were “representing” our friends from the mighty Tooting Bec Lido and are one of the few (possibly only) husband and wife teams that have conquered the Channel. The boys added ten lengths between them. We “found” a 2010 Channel solo hopeful, Hugh Thacker, thanks to BBC Radio Surrey and Hugh contributed 6km as part of his Channel training.
Progress was swift and we clocked 35K by 1:30pm. With other swimmers booked to swim later in the day we carried on to clock up a magnificent 49km. Well done to all, and for the record, the roll of honour comprises:
Christina Victor, Victoria Starr, Rory Fitzgerald, Cllr Marilyn Merryweather, Cllr Anne Meredith, Jim Miles, Janetta Bensouilah, Michel Bensouilah, Helen Wolstencroft, Hugh Thacker, Ellery McGowan, Lucy Scott-Petrie, Cal, Brodie and Gus Petrie, Al Petrie, Russell Atkins, Peter Hall, Steve Kinder, Stephen Ruseler, Samantha Tierney, Philip Newman, Stuart Watson, Jim Boucher.
Once we’ve had confirmation of how much money was raised for the Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice, we’ll post it here. Thank you everyone for making such a brilliant contribution to marking the start of 2010 Lido season.
