Swift Ladies Cup

[Comp Sec]

Some of the old timers might remember that we used to award a cup donated by Roger and Barbara Swift based on performances at our Curborough sprints. The last time this was awarded was 2012 and it seems appropriate to now revive this in memory of Barbara.

So this year the cup will be awarded to the lady competitor who scores the highest combined number of points over the 2 Curborough sprints. And Roger will be at Curborough in August to present this and the other awards.

For those who don't remember the great work that Roger and Barbara did for the club, I received this from Roger today......

I don’t know if you are aware of Barbara’s involvement with the club sprints?
It’s hard to realise but at one time (early 90’s) the club only very occasionally had driving events. Individual areas might hire a car park and have some fun but nothing regular was arranged. After helping at one of these ad hoc events Barbara and I decided that we would organise something at curborough as it was very close to where we lived. We had no experience and learnt on the job. Regs needed to be written, marshals arranged, first aid cover, timing,entry lists etc etc (you will be familiar with this). It wasn’t easy. Because we weren’t msa registered. Timekeepers and marshals were very reluctant to commit. Barbara sweet talked them and between us we got the event running. It was a success so we did it the next year and the following year and for many years after that. It became so popular that if you didn’t apply immediately the event was announced you wouldn’t get a place. The answer was to run two events each year and that continues till today. As well as doing the bulk of the organising, Barbara was the kind face that competitors met at signing on and she worked hard to quell the nerves of the many novices we had at that time. Not content with organising, Barbara also competed with some success. We noted that there were very few lady competitors and so donated the Swift Ladies Cup to encourage them (there was also a Swift cup for male novices which sadly seems to have gone missing…).
Presenting the ladies cup will keep Barbara’s connection with the club and curborough alive (.she also served on the management committee or ‘Team” as it was then known).

Look forward to seeing you on the 28th
Regards
Roger

[SLR No.77]

What a lovely and interesting piece of background information, thank you Roger, and to Graham for posting.

Stu.