Objects of Substance - Fifty metre Freestyle Trophy

1963 Barbara Devenish-Meares (1966) with the School Swimming Cup (most interhouse individual points) and the 50m Freestyle trophy at Valley Pool.

Despite this long history of a Swimming Championship, it was not until 1963 that an actual trophy for the 50 metre Freestyle Championship appears to have been awarded. Prior winners of the Championship would receive a book prize or a teaspoon. Barbara Devenish-Meares (1966) was the first student to have received the trophy. She went on to become the fourth (and most recent) four-time winner of this event (1963 to 1966). Additional to the trophy, winners continued to receive a teaspoon as the memento of the award. Alison Bruce (1969) recalls, “I won … Freestyle cups in 1968 and 1969 for House Swimming. We could never take these cups home on Speech Night. They had to be handed back at the end of the night. Instead, we were given either a teaspoon or a butter knife with the school’s crest on the top. As a result I have a weird number of these “trophies” at home.” (Email, 15/9/23). Today, trophy winners receive a silver goblet rather than a teaspoon.

Karla Rimmington (10L) winner of the School Swimming Championship 2023 holding the silver goblet that winners receive as the memento of their achievement.