OCTOGENARIAN Beryl Taylor has won a special award for her contribution to the AIB Tigers Swimming Club.
Beryl was the special guest at a ceremony at the Royal Hotel last Friday after more than 30 years with the club as a coach. Eighty-year-old Beryl started working voluntarily for the Tigers, then known as Regent Swimming Club, from its launch in 1973. At first she was just involved to help her children learn to swim, but as time went on she became more involved with the club, helping with various jobs, including timekeeping.
As her enthusiasm for the sport and the club grew, she decided to take her teaching exams to allow her to coach the club’s swimmers. During her time at the poolside she coached hundreds of successful Channel Island champions, including Olympian and Commonwealth Games medallist Simon Militis, who swam for Great Britain in the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
In 1981 Paul du Feu took over the Regent Swimming Club, looking to change it from a just a teaching club to a competitive outfit, and he asked Beryl to join his team of coaches. She accepted the offer and went on to coach swimmers at the club until her retirement.
After enjoying 35 years of service to the club, she decided to call time on her career, taking her last training session in July. She now enjoys her retirement on the Island’s bowling greens, as well as looking after her two grandchildren. ‘I had a good run with the club and decided that being 80 years old was a nice round number on which to finish,’ she said.
Last Friday at the club’s annual awards dinner she was presented with the President’s Trophy for her services to swimming. ‘It was completely out of the blue. I had no idea it was going to be awarded to me,’ she said.
As well as the trophy, she was presented with a portrait by JEP cartoonist Al Thomas, as well as an original 1936 set of cigarette cards depicting the swimming strokes and technique of the time.
Tigers chairman John Gallichan, who presented the award to Beryl, said: ‘She has been such a stalwart to the club since its beginnings that without her longevity and commitment, on a purely voluntary basis, the club wouldn’t be where it is today. ‘It’s people like Beryl who enable clubs like ours to survive.’
Article posted on 24th September, 2008 - 10.00am
