History

Stephen Water­house rep­re­sent­ed GB at the Euro­pean Senior and Junior Open Water Cham­pi­onships. Emma Gra­ham and Rachel Gar­den­er swam for GB at the Euro­pean Junior Cham­pi­onships in Belgrade. 

City of Leeds was top club at the ASA Nation­al Age Group Championships. 

In Decem­ber, Dave Calle­ja was appoint­ed Chief Coach. 

Emma Gra­ham made her inter­na­tion­al debut rep­re­sent­ing Great Britain at the Euro­pean Youth Olympic Fes­ti­val in Belgrade. 

Rachel Jack rep­re­sent­ed GB at the Euro­pean Junior Open Water Cham­pi­onships, Milan. 

City of Leeds won the top team award at the ASA Nation­al Age Group Championships. 

Richard Deni­gan took over as Head Age Group Coach. 

In Novem­ber, the club moved its head­quar­ters to the new Aquat­ics Cen­tre at the John Charles Cen­tre for Sport and said farewell to the Leeds Inter­na­tion­al Pool which sub­se­quent­ly closed. 

Ian Greyson resigned as Chief Coach in Decem­ber and Louise Gra­ham took over as act­ing Chief Coach. 

Andrew Clay­ton and Claire Hud­dart rep­re­sent­ed Great Britain in the Atlanta Olympic Games. Ian Wil­son won a sil­ver medal in the World Short Course Cham­pi­onships in Rio De Janeiro. Karen Nis­bet won 2 sil­ver medals in relay events in the Euro­pean Junior Championships.

At the Senior Nation­als we were top club win­ning both Men’s and Wom­en’s sec­tions with 10 gold, 4 sil­ver and 11 bronze medals. This suc­cess was repeat­ed at the Nation­al Age Groups, again win­ning both Girl’s and Boy’s sec­tions. We won the Great Britain Team Cham­pi­onship with the Ladies fin­ish­ing 1st and the Men fin­ish­ing 2nd. We won the Speedo Nation­al League Final.

In August Eva Mortensen became the first City Of Leeds swim­mer to swim The Channel.

Rachel Jack rep­re­sent­ed GB at the FINA Open Water World Cup in Seville. 

In April 2004 City of Leeds won the Nation­al Speedo Swim League Cham­pi­onship for the 18^th time. Gavin Mead­ows rep­re­sent­ed GB in the Athens Olympics and Liam Smith was select­ed for the Euro­pean Short Course Cham­pi­onships. Claire Hud­dart, now a coach at the club after a suc­cess­ful swim­ming car­rer, was select­ed as Assis­tant Team Man­ag­er for the Olympic Games in Athens. We also had a Par­a­lympian in 2004 with Aidan McG­lynn com­pet­ing in his first games, fin­ish­ing 19^th. 

Karen Nis­bet, Liam Smith, Rebec­ca Shaw and Gavin Mead­ows swam for GB in the Euro­pean SC Championships. 

In July we had ASA Nation­al Age Groups where we gained 5 gold, 3 sil­ver and 4 bronze – We were crowned top Age Group Team 2004 (11^th time) and Top Boys Team 2004. 

Ter­ry Deni­son retired at the end of March and a din­ner was held to mark his 35 years of coach­ing at City of Leeds dur­ing which 150 Leeds swim­mers had gained inter­na­tion­al hon­ours with 17 swim­ming at the Olympic Games, win­ning one Olympic gold and one Olympic bronze and being involved in set­ting 9 World Records. Over 350 past and present swim­mers and offi­cials attend­ed the din­ner and many old friend­ships were renewed. 

New­ly appoint­ed Chief Coach, Ian Greyson, had imme­di­ate suc­cess with our 17^th win in the Nation­al Swim League Final. Liam Smith was select­ed for the Euro­pean Youth Olympic Fes­ti­val, Mar­tin Web­ster swam in the Euro­pean Junior Cham­pi­onships and Gavin Mead­ows, Karen Nis­bet and Rebec­ca Shaw were select­ed to rep­re­sent GB in the Euro­pean Short Course Championships. 

As Ian Greyson moved up to be Chief Coach, Louise Gra­ham became Senior Age Group Coach and Andrew Scan­lon was appoint­ed as Age Group Coach. 

British Nation­als took place in April once again and we won 1 gold, 2 sil­vers and 3 bronzes. Also in April at the World SC Cham­pi­onships in Moscow, James Hick­man won the 200m but­ter­fly for the 4^th con­sec­u­tive time – the first per­son to achieve this unique feat. James went on to win sil­ver and bronze in the Com­mon­wealth Games in Man­ches­ter where he was joined by City of Leeds swim­mers Stu­art Trees and Karen Nisbet. 

In ASA Senior Nation­als in June, we won 4 golds, 3 sil­vers and 3 bronzes and at the British SC Nation­als in Sep­tem­ber we won 3 golds, 4 sil­vers and 2 bronzes. James Hick­man and Gavin Mead­ows were cho­sen to rep­re­sent Great Britain in in the Euro­pean SC Cham­pi­onships in December. 

In age group swim­ming we were the top club at the Nation­al Age Group and Youth Cham­pi­onships in August win­ning 17 golds, 8 sil­vers and 10 bronzes. Julia Pre­ston, Dani Place, Mar­tin Web­ster and Tom Her­bert rep­re­sent­ed GB Juniors in the Euro­pean Junior Cham­pi­onships in July with Mar­tin win­ning a bronze in the 4 x 200m freestyle relay. 

As a result of our Nation­al Age Group per­for­mances we had 15 swim­mers select­ed for 2003 World Class Per­for­mance, Poten­tial and Start squads with Ian Greyson as Head Age Group Coach and Louise Gra­ham as Start Squad Coach. 

Chief Coach, Ter­ry Deni­son, announced that he would be retir­ing from coach­ing in March 2003 after 30 years as Chief Coach of City of Leeds SC. 

The arrival of the new Nation­al Per­for­mance Direc­tor brought major changes in the com­pet­i­tive programme. 

In April we had British Nation­als. We gained 1 gold, 1 sil­ver and 1 bronze. Julia Pre­ston and Claire John­son gained selec­tion for the Euro­pean Junior Cham­pi­onships in Mal­ta in July. Both swam per­son best times and Julia gained an excel­lent bronze medal in the 400m IM. 

Tom Her­bert, Mar­tin Web­ster, Ryan Web­ster, Yvette Hay­den and Danielle Place were select­ed to rep­re­sent Great Britain Juniors in the Euro­pean Youth Olympic Days in Spain in July. Tom gained sil­ver in 1500m freestyle, Mar­tin gained sil­ver in the relay and Yvette gained bronze in the relay. Ian Greyson was team coach. 

David Fod­den was select­ed as Team Doc­tor for the World Cham­pi­onships in Japan in July. 

In July we had ASA Nation­als and gained 7 gold, 4 sil­ver and 3 bronzes. 

In July we had ASA Nation­al Age Groups where we gained 12 gold, 15 sil­ver and 12 bronze – our best ever medal total at Nation­al Age Groups. 

In Feb­ru­ary Mona Deni­son retired from our coach­ing team after 40 years of coach­ing swim­ming in Leeds. We also lost 3 senior swim­mers in Gavin Mead­ows and Emma Dut­ton, who moved to col­lege in Amer­i­ca, and Claire Hud­dart who retired from swim­ming after an out­stand­ing career of 2 Olympic Games, 2 Com­mon­wealth Games and one World Record as part of our ladies 4 x 200m freestyle relay at the 2000 World Short Course Cham­pi­onships in Athens. 

How­ev­er, the future is bright for City of Leeds Swim­mming Club as can be seen from the excel­lent results at Nation­al Age Groups.

The 2000 Olympic Games was the peak of the year with 15 World Records, 30 Olympic Records and 17,000 spec­ta­tors per ses­sion in Syd­ney. City of Leeds had 5 rep­re­sen­ta­tives at the Games: 

• James Hick­man 100m fly, 200m fly, med­ley relay
• Claire Hud­dart 4 x 200m freestyle relay
• Div­er: Sal­ly freeman
• Coach: Ter­ry Denison
• Team Doc­tor: David Fodden
• James reached semi finals in his events and Claire helped the relay into the final.

At Nation­al Age Group Cham­pi­onships we had an excel­lent year with 17 gold, 12 sil­ver and 5 bronze medals. 

Claire John­son, Julia Pre­ston and Sal­ly Rus­batch and coach Ian Greyson all rep­re­sent­ed GB Juniors dur­ing the year. 

In Senior Swim­ming Claire Hud­dart was part of the Gold Medal win­ning 4 x 200m freestyle relay who set a World Record at the World Short Course Championships. 

James Hick­man retained his World Cham­pi­onship 200m fly title for the third time and Stu­art Trees also rep­re­sent­ed Great Britain in the World Short Course Cham­pi­onships in Athens. 

Ter­ry Deni­son was team coach and David Fod­den, Team Doctor. 

In March, we won the GB Club Team Cham­pi­onship for the 15^th time. 

At the World Short Course Cham­pi­onships in Hong Kong, James Hick­man, Claire Hud­dart, Gavin Mead­ows, Ian Wil­son and Lin­da Hind­marsh rep­re­sent­ed Great Britain. James won 1 gold, 1 sil­ver and 2 bronze medals. Claire won 1 gold and 1 sil­ver, and Gavin 1 sil­ver, in relay teams. Ter­ry Deni­son was Team Coach and David Fod­den Team Doctor. 

Stu­art Trees rep­re­sent­ed the GB Juniors in the 6 Nations Cham­pi­onship and went on to swim in the Euro­pean Junior Cham­pi­onships in July. In April we won the Speedo Nation­al Swim League for the 15^th time. 

At the British Nation­als we won 11 gold, 2 sil­ver and 5 bronze medals. James Hick­man set a British record in the 100m fly and our girls set a British record in the 4 x 200m freestyle relay. 

At the Euro­pean Cham­pi­onships in Istan­bul, James Hick­man, Gavin Mead­ows, Claire Hud­dart, Karen Nis­bet and Lin­da Hind­marsh rep­re­sent­ed GB. Ter­ry Deni­son was Team Coach and David Fod­den Team Doc­tor. James won sil­ver in the 100m fly, and Gavin won a relay sil­ver and equalled the British record in the 100m freestyle. Claire Hud­dart won a relay bronze. 

At the Nation­al Age Groups we were top team, with our girls 1^st and our boys 4^th in their sections. 

At the Euro­pean Short Course Cham­pi­onships in Lis­bon, James Hick­man won 1 gold, 1 sil­ver and 1 bronze medal. Gavin made the final of the 200m freestyle. 

At the British Win­ter Nation­als we won 3 gold, 2 sil­ver and 4 bronze medals. 

Chief Coach Ter­ry Deni­son was award­ed the MBE in the New Year Hon­ours List. 

At the World Cham­pi­onships in Perth, Claire Hud­dart, Ian Wil­son, Gavin Mead­ows and Lin­da Hind­marsh rep­re­sent­ed Great Britain. Dur­ing the World Cup Series, James Hick­man set a world short-course record for the 200m but­ter­fly and Com­mon­wealth records for both the 200m and 100m IM. Gavin Mead­ows set a British record for the 200m freestyle. 

Our Train­ing Scheme took anoth­er step for­ward when Leeds was offi­cial­ly des­ig­nat­ed as a Great Britain Region­al High Per­for­mance Cen­tre by the ASFGB. The Cen­tre came into full oper­a­tion in May 1998. 

In Sep­tem­ber, at the Com­mon­wealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Leeds swim­mers won 10 medals. James Hick­man won gold (200m fly) and 3 sil­ver (200m IM, 400m IM and med­ley relay), Gavin Mead­ows won 2 bronze (100m freestyle and 4 x 100m freestyle relay) and 2 sil­ver (med­ley relay and 4 x 200m freestyle relay), and Claire Hud­dart won 2 sil­ver (freestyle relays). 

At the Euro­pean Short Course Cham­pi­onships in Decem­ber, James Hick­man set his sec­ond World record in the but­ter­fly with a 100m time of 51.02. Over­all he won 3 gold (100m fly, 200m fly and 200m IM) and 2 bronze (100m IM and med­ley relay). 

Gavin Mead­ows and Andrew Clay­ton won gold medals in the Euro­pean Cham­pi­onships in Seville as part of the British 4 x 200m freestyle relay team. Ian Wil­son, Claire Hud­dart, Lin­da Hind­marsh and Shel­ley Moores also swam in these Cham­pi­onships. Karen Nis­bet and Vic­ki Bar­radell rep­re­sent­ed Great Britain at the Euro­pean Junior Cham­pi­onships, with Karen win­ning a gold medal in the 4 x 100m freestyle relay. 

At the Senior Nation­als we won 14 gold, 8 sil­ver and 3 bronze medals, and set British records in both the Men’s and Wom­en’s 4 x 200m freestyle relays. In fact, by the end of 1997 we held all 6 British Club relay Team records, long and short course. We were top club for the 5th year in suc­ces­sion at the Nation­al Age Groups. We won the Great Britain Club Cham­pi­onships for the 12th time and the Speedo Nation­al League Cham­pi­onship for the 13th time. 

At the World Short Course Cham­pi­onships in Gothen­burg, Claire Hud­dart, Andrew Clay­ton, Ian Wil­son, Gavin Mead­ows and Lin­da Hind­marsh rep­re­sent­ed Great Britain. Pauline Bas­nett was Assis­tant Team Man­ag­er and Ter­ry Deni­son Team Coach. 

Andrew Clay­ton and Claire Hud­dart rep­re­sent­ed Great Britain in the Atlanta Olympic Games. Ian Wil­son won a sil­ver medal in the World Short Course Cham­pi­onships in Rio De Janeiro. Karen Nis­bet won 2 sil­ver medals in relay events in the Euro­pean Junior Championships.

At the Senior Nation­als we were top club win­ning both Men’s and Wom­en’s sec­tions with 10 gold, 4 sil­ver and 11 bronze medals. This suc­cess was repeat­ed at the Nation­al Age Groups, again win­ning both Girl’s and Boy’s sec­tions. We won the Great Britain Team Cham­pi­onship with the Ladies fin­ish­ing 1st and the Men fin­ish­ing 2nd. We won the Speedo Nation­al League Final.

In August Eva Mortensen became the first City Of Leeds swim­mer to swim The Channel.

We won every major British Club hon­our. In April we were Great Britain Club Team Cham­pi­ons, in July we were top club at the Senior Nation­als, in August we were top club at the Nation­al Age Groups win­ning both boys and girls sec­tions, and in Sep­tem­ber we won the Speedo Nation­al League Championship. 

At the Euro­pean Cham­pi­onships in Vien­na, Andrew Clay­ton, David War­ren, Gavin Mead­ows, Claire Hud­dart and Claire Book­er all rep­re­sent­ed Great Britain. Karen Nis­bet won 2 bronze medals in relay Events at the Euro­pean Junior Championships. 

The Club Exec­u­tive set a clear mis­sion state­ment for our club by offer­ing £1000 to any Leeds swim­mer who set a British record in the run up to the 1996 Olympic Games. 

At the Com­mon­wealth Games in Vic­to­ria, Claire Hud­dart gained 1 gold medal and 1 sil­ver medal in the relay events and Andrew Clay­ton gained 2 bronze medals in the relays. In all, 5 Leeds swim­mers made the finals. Gavin Mead­ows and Jonathan Open­shaw rep­re­sent­ed Great Britain at the Euro­pean Junior Cham­pi­onships in Pardubice. 

We were top club at the Sum­mer Senior Nation­als with 6 gold, 5 sil­ver and 5 bronze medals, with our Men’s med­ley relay team set­ting a British record. At the Win­ter Nation­als we won 5 gold, 4 sil­ver and 3 bronze medals and set British records in all 3 Men’s relays. In the Nation­al Age Group Cham­pi­onships we were top over­all team again and the girls fin­ished 1^st for the sec­ond year in succession. 

Fol­low­ing the Barcelona Olympics, Adri­an Moor­house MBE retired from com­pe­ti­tion swim­ming and the club staged a major tes­ti­mo­ni­al din­ner to recog­nise his achieve­ments over the pro­ceed­ing 12 years: 1 Olympic, 4 Euro­pean and 3 Com­mon­wealth gold medals, 3 World records and equalling on 2 oth­er occa­sions, numer­ous sil­ver and bronze medals at major games and numer­ous British and Eng­lish Cham­pi­onship records. 

The club con­tin­ued with it’s great tra­di­tion of pro­duc­ing inter­na­tion­al swim­mers and at the Euro­pean Cham­pi­onships in Sheffield we were rep­re­sent­ed by Claire Hud­dart, Neil Met­calfe, Andrew Clay­ton and Richard Madon. Bar­bara Lan­cast­er was Team Man­ag­er and Ter­ry Deni­son Team Coach. Claire gained a bronze medal in the Ladies 4 x 200m freestyle relay. 

At the Euro­pean Junior Cham­pi­onships in Istan­bul we were rep­re­sent­ed by Gavin Mead­ows and Ben Shaw who both gained medals in the 4 x 200m freestyle relay. David Fod­den was Team Doc­tor. At the Win­ter Nation­als we won 5 gold, 7 sil­ver and 10 bronze medals and set a British record in the Men’s 4 x 200m freestyle relay. 

In the Nation­al Age Groups we were top team over­all with our girls fin­ish­ing 1st and the boys 2nd. We won the Nation­al Swim League Cham­pi­onships for the 9th time. 

The Olympic Games were held in Barcelona and City of Leeds had 5 swim­mers on the GB Team – Adri­an Moor­house, Stephen Akers, Rik Leish­man, Matthew O’Con­nor and Jason Hen­der. Ter­ry Deni­son was Chief Coach, Paul Bush, Team Man­ag­er, Bar­bara Lan­cast­er, Assis­tant Team Man­ag­er and Pam Smith, Phys­io­ther­a­pist for the GB Squad. Adri­an reached the final of the 100m breast­stroke and Stephen finalled in the 4 x 200m freestyle relay. 

At the Sum­mer Nation­als, James Par­rack set a Com­mon­wealth record 28.63 for 50m breast­stroke and Shar­lene Brown set an Irish senior record of 2.36.86 for the 200m breaststroke. 

In the Euro­pean Junior Cham­pi­onships held in Leeds for the 3^rd time, City of Leeds was rep­re­sent­ed by Mark Wil­son. We had 6 swim­mers on the Eng­land Senior Squad, 3 on the Eng­land Youth Squad (for­mer­ly Inter­me­di­ate Squad) and 1 on the Junior Squad (for­mer­ly Youth Squad). 

At The Nation­al Age Group Cham­pi­onships, our boys team fin­ished 1^st and our girls team were 2^nd – our best ever per­for­mance at Nation­al Age Groups. In the Club Team Cham­pi­onships we fin­ished 2^nd. 

Mas­ters swim­ming had also devel­oped strong­ly in the past 2 years coached by Mona Deni­son. At the ASA Mas­ters Cham­pi­onships in Octo­ber 1992 David Emer­son set a World record of 2:12.15 for the Men’s 30 – 34yrs 200m fly. 

In Octo­ber Paul Bush left Leeds to take up a posi­tion as Direc­tor of Swim­ming for the ASA and was replaced by Louise Watson. 

At the ASA Win­ter Nation­als in Decem­ber, we had a record 35 qual­i­fiers and gained 5 golds, 7 sil­vers and 10 bronzes. Our Men’s 4 x 200m freestyle relay set a British nation­al team record and our Men’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay set a British club team record. We were award­ed the Hen­ry Ben­jamin Tro­phy as Top Men’s Team for 1992. 

Fol­low­ing these Cham­pi­onships, James Par­rack, David War­ren, Jason Hen­der and Steve Akers were select­ed for the 1993 Nation­al Senior Squad. Neil Speed and Eli­na Arter were select­ed for the 1993 Youth Squad and Rachel Plax­ton, Stacey Wood, Adam Pren­de­gast and Ben Shaw were select­ed for the 1993 Junior Squad. 

For a sec­ond year run­ning we had a major world event in the month of Jan­u­ary. The World Cham­pi­onships were held in Perth and City of Leeds were rep­re­sent­ed by Adri­an Moor­house and James Par­rack. Adri­an won sil­ver in the 100m breaststroke. 

In the Euro­pean Cham­pi­onships in Athens in August 1991 we had 3 rep­re­sen­ta­tives – Adri­an, Andrew Clay­ton and Rik Leish­man. Ter­ry Deni­son was Chief Coach, Paul Bush, Team Man­ag­er, Bar­bara Lan­cast­er, Assis­tant Team Man­ag­er, and Pam Smith, Phys­io­ther­a­pist. Adri­an won sil­ver in the 100m breaststroke. 

In the Euro­pean Junior Cham­pi­onships held in Hol­land in August, we were rep­re­sent­ed by Neil Speed who swam the 200m IM and 400m IM. 

We had 4 swim­mers on the Eng­land Senior Squad, 1 swim­mer on the Inter­me­di­ate Squad and 2 on the Youth Squad. Ter­ry Deni­son, Paul Bush, Pam Smith, Bar­bara Lan­cast­er were all team staff with the Senior Squad and David Fod­den was Med­ical Offi­cer for the Inter­me­di­ate Squad. 

In Age Group Swim­ming our boys fin­ished 2^nd over­all at Nation­al Age Group Cham­pi­onships and we won 8 golds, 8 sil­vers and 5 bronzes. We won the Nation­al Swim League Cham­pi­onships for the 8^th time and Ter­ry Deni­son was vot­ed BSCA Coach of the Year for the 10^th time. Our Men’s Team won the Nation­al Club Team Cham­pi­onships for the 9^th time in suc­ces­sion and fin­ished 4^th in Europe. 

In Sep­tem­ber 1991 our Age Group Coach, Steve Pur­chase, moved on to a Head Coach posi­tion with Nor­wich Pen­guins and Ian Greyson was appoint­ed as our Senior Age Group Coach. 

The New Year began with the Com­mon­wealth Games in Auck­land, New Zealand in Jan­u­ary. City of Leeds had 7 swim­mers on the Eng­land team – Adri­an Moor­house, James Par­rack, Jonathan Broughton, Neil Met­calfe, John Dav­ey, Stephen Akers and Stephen Drons­field. Ter­ry Deni­son was Chief Coach and club mem­bers Paul Bush (Team Man­ag­er) and Pam Smith (Physio) were also on the Eng­land team. Tony Day rep­re­sent­ed Wales. Adri­an won gold in equalling his own World record in the 100m breast­stroke, James Par­rack gained sil­ver in the 100m breast­stroke and Neil Met­calfe and Stephen Drons­field won sil­vers in the 4 x 100m freestyle relay. 

We had 5 swim­mers on Eng­land senior squads, two on the Inter­me­di­ate Squad and one on the Youth Squad dur­ing 1990. 

In age group swim­ming, our boys team placed 3rd at Nation­al Age Groups and we gained 3 sil­vers and 6 bronzes. We won the Nation­al Swim League Cham­pi­onships for the 7th time and Ter­ry Deni­son was vot­ed BSCA Coach of the Year for the 9th time. 

Our squads trav­elled exten­sive­ly and we made vis­its to Tener­ife, Bonn, Portsmouth and Stuttgart. Our men’s team were Nation­al Club Team Cham­pi­ons for the 8th suc­ces­sive time and then went on to win the Euro­pean Com­mu­ni­ty Team Cham­pi­onship in Turin in May. A mag­nif­i­cent achievement. 

The decade 1980 – 90 had been an out­stand­ing peri­od for us. In addi­tion to the many suc­cess­es out­lined above, mem­ber­ship of our train­ing scheme had grown from less than 300 in 1980 to 650 in 1990. 

We began with 5 swim­mers on the Nation­al Senior Squad and one on the imme­di­ate squad. Ter­ry Deni­son was appoint­ed GB Chief Coach through to the 1992 Olympic Games. 

We won the Nation­al Club Team Cham­pi­onships for the 7^th year in suc­ces­sion and went on to be placed 2^nd in Europe. 

At the Euro­pean Cham­pi­onships in Bonn we had 3 swim­mers in the GB Team – Adri­an Moor­house, Jonathan Broughton and Stephen Drons­field – and Ter­ry Deni­son was Chief Coach. Adri­an set a world record of 1.01.49 for 100m breast­stroke in win­ning the Euro­pean Cham­pi­onships and became Britain’s first world record hold­er since David Wilkie in 1976. 

In age group swim­ming, we saw a resur­gence in our for­tunes under Age Group Senior Coach Steve Pur­chase. At Nation­al Age Group Cham­pi­onships our boys fin­ished 2^nd over­all with 5 golds, 3 sil­vers and 4 bronzes. 

In March our men’s team won the GB Club Team Cham­pi­onships for the 6^th year in suc­ces­sion and placed 3^rd in the Euro­pean Com­mu­ni­ty Team Championships. 

We placed a record 5 swim­mers on the GB Olympic Team – Adri­an Moor­house, James Par­rack, Jonathan Broughton, Tony Day and Helen Frank – and Ter­ry Deni­son was Team Coach. Adri­an achieved the ulti­mate by win­ning the Olympic gold medal in the 100m breaststroke. 

We also broke fresh ground in our for­eign tours by tak­ing an age group squad to Chi­na for 3 weeks – the first British team to tour Chi­na since the 1930s. 

Our team won the Nation­al Swim League Final for the 6^th occa­sion and Ter­ry Deni­son was vot­ed BSCA Coach of the Year for the 7^th time. 

Sun­day 8^th Feb­ru­ary was a true moment in his­to­ry for us. At 4:16pm in the Franken­bad Pool, Bonn, the elec­tron­ic score­board showed 59.75 for a world best time for 100m breast­stroke and the first ever 100m breast­stroke swim under the minute – Adri­an was being acclaimed by some 500 spec­ta­tors as the Ger­man com­men­ta­tor repeat­ed over and over ​“Fan­tastiss­che, Fan­tastiss­che”. Lat­er in the year, Adri­an went on to win the Euro­pean Cham­pi­onships in August in anoth­er Euro­pean record time. 

Leeds City Coun­cil con­tin­ued its expan­sion of the City Train­ing Scheme with the appoint­ment of Steve Pur­chase, for­mer­ly Wal­sall, as full time age group coach in Feb­ru­ary and with the appoint­ment of Paul Bush, for­mer­ly Leices­ter, as Swim­ming Devel­op­ment Offi­cer in September. 

At the Euro­pean Cham­pi­onships in Stras­bourg in August, City of Leeds was rep­re­sent­ed by Adri­an Moor­house – who won gold, sil­ver and bronze medals – Tony Day, Jonathan Broughton and Ter­ry Deni­son as GB coach. 

Adri­an was select­ed as BSCA and ASA Swim­mer of the Year for 1987. Ter­ry Deni­son was select­ed as BSCA Coach of the Year for 1987 (the 6^th occa­sion since 1978). 

The final acco­lade of a high­ly suc­cess­ful year was the award­ing to Adri­an of the MBE for ser­vices to sport in the Queen’s Birth­day Hon­ours List. In team events, we won the Nation­al Team Cham­pi­onships for the 5^th con­sec­u­tive time and our men’s team rep­re­sent­ed GB in the first Euro­pean Eco­nom­ic Com­mu­ni­ty Team Cham­pi­onships, fin­ish­ing 4^th. 

Anoth­er peak for the City of Leeds. Adri­an Moor­house won 2 gold medals and 1 sil­ver medal at the Com­mon­wealth Games and Jonathan Broughton won a bronze Medal. City of Leeds was also rep­re­sent­ed at the Games by Mur­ray Buswell, Cathy White, Ter­ry Deni­son (Eng­land) and Tony Day and Max­ine McK­in­nell (Wales).

At the World Cham­pi­onships which fol­lowed, Adri­an fin­ished first by a metre in the 100m breast­stroke final and for five min­utes the score­board showed Adri­an as Britain’s first World Cham­pi­on since 1975. Then came major dis­ap­point­ment – Adri­an had been dis­qual­i­fied for a faulty turn. 7000 spec­ta­tors hissed and whis­tled their oppo­si­tion but the dis­qual­i­fi­ca­tion stood. Adri­an was left, how­ev­er, with the sat­is­fac­tion of post­ing a Euro­pean record and the fastest time in the world in 1986 with his heat swim. 

We had 4 swim­mers rep­re­sent­ing GB in the Euro­pean Cham­pi­onships and Adri­an won Gold in the 100m breast­stroke. Tony Day went on to win Bronze in the World Stu­dent Games and the year end­ed on a high note with 5 swim­mers select­ed for the York­shire Bank senior squad and 3 for the Esso Nation­al Youth squad. 

Adri­an Moor­house was 4^th in the Olympic 100m breast­stroke and Andrew Ast­bury won our first ever Olympic medal with a bronze in the Men’s 4 x 200m freestyle relay. 

Four swim­mers from Leeds Cen­tral – Andrew Ast­bury, Adri­an Moor­house, Peter Mus­grave and Louise Tate – were select­ed to rep­re­sent Eng­land in the Com­mon­wealth Games in Brisbane. 

Andrew won: 

• 2 gold medals: 200m freestyle (British record) and 400m freestyle (British record)
• 1 sil­ver medal: Men’s 4 x 200m freestyle relay
• 1 bronze medal: Men’s 1500m freestyle

Adri­an won: 

• 1 gold medal: 100m breast­stroke (British record)
• 1 sil­ver medal: Men’s 4 x 100m med­ley relay
• 1 bronze medal: 200m breaststroke

In Sep­tem­ber, the Leeds Train­ing Scheme was fur­ther devel­oped when Leeds City Cor­po­ra­tion decid­ed to employ a full time swim­ming coach for the city. The per­son appoint­ed was Ter­ry Deni­son, already coach to Leeds Cen­tral SC and Great Britain. On 14th Octo­ber, an Extra­or­di­nary Gen­er­al Meet­ing of club mem­bers decid­ed to com­plete the union of swim­ming club and train­ing scheme by chang­ing the club name. From 1st Jan­u­ary 1983, we became the City of Leeds Swim­ming Club. 

The con­cept of a ​‘super’ club in Leeds was first moot­ed before World War II by Richard Ash­ton of the Leeds Cor­po­ra­tion Baths Depart­ment, but the idea was slow to reach fruition. It was not until Decem­ber 1963 that Mr. Ash­ton’s dream became real­i­ty. By this time, he was the Direc­tor of Baths in Leeds and presided over the foun­da­tion of the Leeds Cen­tral Swim­ming Club. 

Pri­or to the for­ma­tion of Leeds Cen­tral, a lim­it­ed amount of spe­cial train­ing was avail­able to the City’s top swim­mers through the Leeds Olympic Train­ing Scheme which met each Fri­day evening at Cookridge Street Baths. Dur­ing 1963, the lead­ing com­pet­i­tive clubs of Leeds and Dis­trict ASA worked towards the for­ma­tion of a ​‘super’ club hav­ing decid­ed that if Leeds was to be placed firm­ly on the swim­ming map then its swim­mers should com­pete as one club. Var­i­ous names were sug­gest­ed for the new club and it was decid­ed that the club should be called Leeds Cen­tral Swim­ming Club. 

Dur­ing the ear­ly days of the club, there was a need for it to be ​‘sold’ not only with­in Leeds, but the coun­ty of York­shire in gen­er­al and no indi­vid­ual worked hard­er to do this than the first Hon­orary Sec­re­tary, Mr. Sam Hazel­wood, whose name should rank along side that of Richard Ash­ton as real pio­neers of Leeds Cen­tral Swim­ming Club. Full recog­ni­tion must be giv­en to Leeds Cor­po­ra­tion who in these ear­ly days of ​‘super’ clubs backed Leeds Cen­tral by grant­i­ng a con­sid­er­able amount of free facilities. 

The year 1964 brought a great boost to the new­ly formed club when Pamela John­son (Bram­ley SC) was select­ed to rep­re­sent GB in the Tokyo Olympic Games. It was to be a long wait before the club next pro­duced Olympians in the gold­en year of 1980 when both Kaye Lovatt and Andrew Ast­bury were select­ed for the Moscow Olympics. 

Dur­ing the 60s, club head­quar­ters were at Cookridge Street Baths and train­ing took place there and at oth­er small pools around the city such as Hol­beck, Hun­slet, Union Street and Lawnswood and Round­hay School Pools. The club was age group dom­i­nat­ed and had some suc­cess in coun­ty age group cham­pi­onships, win­ning the George Lester Tro­phy in 1965 – 66 and again in 1968 – 69. 

In 1967, the club moved its Head­quar­ters to the new­ly opened Leeds Inter­na­tion­al Pool and had 50m train­ing avail­able on one night per week. In 1972 anoth­er mile­stone was passed when we first began morn­ing train­ing and set up a sys­tem of train­ing groups sim­i­lar to those of present day. Up to that time the club had pro­duced 1 Olympian, 3 full inter­na­tion­als and 2 junior inter­na­tion­als in its 9 year history. 

In Octo­ber 1973, Leeds Cor­po­ra­tion began the Leeds Train­ing Scheme direct­ed by ASA Nation­al Tech­ni­cal Offi­cer, Derek Stubbs, and in April 1974, the new­ly formed City Coun­cil decid­ed to con­tin­ue the exper­i­men­tal scheme, tak­ing on Derek as an offi­cer of the city’s Leisure Ser­vices Depart­ment. He was Direc­tor of the Train­ing Scheme with Ter­ry Deni­son as the scheme Head Coach. The scheme has been invalu­able in pro­vid­ing train­ing facil­i­ties which are as good as any in Britain. The club and its swim­mers have respond­ed accord­ing­ly and in the 12 years up to 1985, pro­duced 3 Olympians, 19 senior inter­na­tion­als and 23 junior inter­na­tion­als. The club won the Nation­al Swim League Cham­pi­onship in 1980 – 1984. In 1981 and 1985 it received the Hen­ry Ben­jamin Tro­phy as Britain’s top senior men’s club and the age group teams won the Nation­al Age Group Cham­pi­onships Boy’s Top Team Tro­phy in 1980 and the Girl’s Top Team Tro­phy in 1981 and 1982.

In 1983, 1984 and 1985 we were Nation­al Club Team Champions.