Shiverers Swimming Club
Club History
Many locals believe ‘Shiverers’ was the nickname given to swimmers used to swimming in the sea all year round, before forming the club and swimming indoors – but this is a local myth!
According to the club’s Annual Report for 1934, Shiverers gained its name because a few newcomers to Hove in the winter of 1919/20 found that all the local swimming baths closed down in the evenings. They approached Hove Council agreed who agreed to open the pools in the evenings provided there was a guaranteed minimum attendance of twenty-four swimmers.
In 1929 the Shiverers ladies team were crowned Sussex Champions
The necessary guarantors were found, and the group were dubbed “The Shiverers”. The name stuck, and The Hove Winter Shiverers SC was formed in October 1920. The club soon expanded to do winter and summer swimming and the name was shortened during its first year to Shiverers SC. At first the club trained in the Medina baths on sea font in Hove.
During the club’s early days, perhaps its most famous member was John Besford. He was British and European backstroke champion and won the British backstroke title seven times from 1927-1936.
His most memorable feat was in 1934 at Magdeburg in Germany. German Chancellor Adolf Hitler was so confident that his German champion, Ernst Kuppers would win the forthcoming European 100-metre backstroke championship that he commissioned the ‘Hitler Trophy’. This was a magnificent bronze Eagle, weighing over 50kg and standing over 70cm high. and was to be presented to the victor of the race by him personally.
John Besford won the race, by a whisker. Hitler was so annoyed and frustrated his champion lost that he refused to present the trophy to the Englishman and stormed out of the stadium. The Bronze Eagle was finally presented to him by one of Hitler’s officials and was brought home to England.
For many years the trophy sat on the mantelpiece of his Besford’s dental practice in Davigdor Road. When John died his son, John Besford JR, inherited the Eagle and apparently it now currently resides on the mantelpiece of his own dental practice in London.
John Besford receiving the Eagle
During the 1930s the ‘Hove Marina’ sports centre was built almost next door to the Medina baths. The pool complex was state of the art with a 110 feet (33.5 metres) long main pool and a second minor pool which was 75 feet (22.86 metres) long and 30 feet (9.1 metres) wide. The water was drawn from the sea and then passed through filtration and an ozone plant. There was also a restaurant, roof garden and 52 private bathrooms, with a choice of hot or cold freshwater, hot or cold seawater or Zotofoam, bowling greens and a car park for 450 cars
Just before the centre was due to open to the public in 1939 it was commandeered by the Royal Navy as a shore establishment and commissioned as HMS King Alfred. Throughout World War 2 the centre was a training centre: by the end of the war, 22500 officers had graduated from HMS King Alfred.
In August 1946 was handed back to Hove Council and training resumed. In 1952 the pool hosted the ASA National Championships.
During the 1950s Shiverers SC was particularly strong in water polo and in 1956 won the All-England Junior Water Polo Championship
For many years Shiverers hosted the main water polo team in Brighton and Hove, with some Brighton SC swimmers playing polo at Shiverers. In the 1980s, when the King Alfred was redeveloped, polo moved wholly to Brighton.
King Alfred main pool in the 1950s
In recent years perhaps Shiverer’s most well-known alumni were Stephen Akers and Karen Pickering MBE – who were both age group swimmers at the club.
Stephen competed in the 1500m for England in the 1990 Commonwealth Games. He also swam for the British at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.
Karen represented Great Britain in freestyle and relay events at several European and World Championships as well as the Commonwealth Games and Olympics from 1990 to 2002. She won 13 Commonwealth Games medals (including 4 golds), 8 World Championship medals (including 4 golds), 14 European Championship medals, 38 National Championship titles and 2 World Records.
