A brief history of the Novocastrian Masters Swimming Club
Sometime early in 1995 Les Lazarus sought to have established a swim club to be based at his then recently-opened swim centre at Warners Bay, soon afterwards to be known as Coughlans Swim Centre.
His initial approach was through members of the Hunter Swim Club and the outcome was the formation of the Novocastrian Adult Swimming Club which was affiliated with Australian Masters Swimming under the AUSSI banner. Incidentally, AUSSI is the acronym for Australian Union of Senior Swimmers International.
The club’s informal beginning was formalised in 1996 with several of the founding members still current members of the club. The initial name was chosen not to include the “Masters” connotation because of the then current attitude that “masters “ meant highly proficient and experienced swimmers. It didn’t take long for the club and its swimming results to be noticed and eventually the club was incorporated under its present name.
The founding members who have continued their membership to the present are Phil Farmer, Russell Pinkerton, Jack and Vi Welch and Maureen Woodcock. Bruce Donaldson, Marita Basham and Anthony Robinson were also founding members whose membership continued until recently and only ended due to medical and relocation reasons. Many other current members have passed the Ten-Year membership milestone.
Being based at Coughlans Swim Centre, the club was well aware of the logo and identifying clothing worn by members of the junior swim club also based there. It was an easy decision to adopt the logo of the blue uppercase “N” with the red lightning flash which continues to adorn the club’s banner and various items of club clothing.
As far as available records can reveal, the club’s membership in 1996 was 19 and was 34 in the following year. The membership has since been in the forties, fifties and sixties hitting a peak of 68 in 2006.
Prior to 2004 the AUSSI clubs in NSW were allocated to divisions based on membership numbers. We were in 2nd Division and regularly gained first place in the Inter-Club point scores reflecting success at the regular NSW club swim meets. In 2004 the system was changed to be based on the points actually gained at those swim meets and we moved to Division One. In that first year we came 2nd by a very slim margin behind the Sydney Warringah club. In 2005, 2006 and 2007 we won 1st place and ever since we have never come below 2nd. Considering that we are half the size of the Warringah club (who are the current top club in our division and with whom we have a delightfully friendly rivalry) we can be proud of our achievements.
We are also justly proud that several of our members hold National and NSW records in various events and some have gained FINA World TopTen placings.
We continue to provide activities and opportunities for members to enjoy the AUSSI objects of Fun, Fitness and Friendship.
Membership and Committee History
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