Club news,
social events
and notices

General notices

Swim Details

IMPORTANT: Swims cancelled until further notice - please keep an eye on this website for further updates.  (Wednesday, 13 March, 2024)

The Tewkesbury Leisure Centre, Gloucester Road, Tewkesbury, GL20 5SX, will be open for Severn Vale swims on the 2nd, 4th and 5th Sundays in each month with every fifth Sunday being a "costumes optional" swim for anyone who wants to see what our club is like but feels a little too shy to undress completely. In addition to this, the first one or two visits to a swim by any lady are now also costume optional For further details including swimming times, please contact the club on 07988 271760 or 07988 271750, or via e-mail at clubsecretary@severnvalesc.org

Charges

Entry fee
The entry fee for Members is £5 and for visitors, £8.
Although cash is acceptable, it would be greatly appreciated if you could pay by card on entry to the swim.

Contact us
Please note:
It is important that all non-members contact the club before attending a swim for the first time. See the “contact us” page for details.
In addition, time can be saved at the door if you print and complete a “Visitor Registration Form”. You can download the form by clicking the link below under Club Notices.

Current cost to join
Currently, the annual cost of membership is £10 for members renewing before the last swim in June and £15 thereafter. New members are charged £15 for the first year only. Please note that membership renewals will be discussed at the forthcoming AGM, the details of which will be made available at a later date.

Charges

Entry fee

The entry fee for Members is £5 and for visitors, £8. 
Although cash is acceptable, it would be greatly appreciated if you could pay by card on entry to the swim.

Contact us

Please note:
It is important that all non-members contact the club before attending a swim for the first time. See the “contact us” page for details.
In addition, time can be saved at the door if you print and complete a “Visitor Registration Form”.
You can download the form by clicking the link on the right under Club Notices.

Current cost to join

Currently, the annual cost of membership is £10 for members renewing before the last swim in June and £15 thereafter. New members are charged £15 for the first year only. Please note that membership renewals will be discussed at the forthcoming AGM, the details of which will be made available at a later date.

Social Events

The British Naturism Swimming Gala

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The 2022 BN swimming gala took place at the Woodside Leisure Centre in Watford on 7th May. Severn Vale was well-represented with eight swimmers and three spectators (2 children, 3 ladies, 6 men). Woodside was a great venue with plenty of room for spectators and the event was well-organised. The gala had heats for 50m breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly and freestyle races as well as various relays (4x 50m freestyle club relay, 4 x 50m medley relay and 3x 50m family relay). The various age-groups were combined together so In your heat, you could find yourself swimming alongside people of different ages, but the results were arranged by age-group - so although you might not win your heat, you could still end up winning a medal.

However, the main emphasis of the gala was of having fun and taking part and I and others were hoarse by the end of the evening from cheering everyone on. In fact, the slowest swimmers were often the ones who got the biggest cheer of all for taking part - and finishing.

However, the main emphasis of the gala was of having fun and taking part and I and others were hoarse by the end of the evening from cheering everyone on. In fact, the slowest swimmers were often the ones who got the biggest cheer of all for taking part - and finishing.

I personally only took part in one event (50 metres breaststroke) and was beaten into 4th place by 10 seconds. However, the rest of the swimmers in the Severn Vale team did the club proud, entering multiple events and winning 28 medals between them (18 gold, 7 silver, 3 bronze). There were points awarded for entering a race and 2pts for 3rd place, 3pts for 2nd place and 4pts for 1st place. Based on the points awarded, Watford Swim won with 89 pts with Severn Vale and Desford equal second on 74pts. 

However, one contributor to the BN forums quoted the ‘Norman Truss Swimming Regulations’ which allow for greater ‘weighting’ of teams with fewer competitors. Under those regulations, Severn Vale with only 8 swimmers would have come top with a weighted result of 93 with Desford just behind on 91 - and Watford, with 16 swimmers, considerably lower on 54pts. However, different points award schemes aside, I’m pleased to be able to report that Severn Vale won all three of the relay events! So all in all, a great evening.

Some of who took part in the gala are already practising for next year’s event and trying to perfect the swim strokes we can already do and to learn the strokes we can’t. For example, I’m going to try and learn to do front crawl and backstroke so I can take part in more races next time. Perhaps you are reading this and are inspired to take part next year? If so, that would be great and maybe we improve on our 2nd place result and retain the relay trophies?

(Thanks to our Treasurer, Melvyn, for this account)

Skittles 2019

A successful skittles social was held on 13 October at the Civil Service Club in Tewkesbury Road. 17 members attended and played 6 hands of skittles before indulging in a fine spread of sandwiches and finger food. Best scores of 44 were achieved by JohnH and LynF, winning them some very drinkable prizes. After the buffet, most people enjoyed a game of ‘Killer’ with the cash prize going to Dave P.

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Winter Party 2024

The club's Winter Party will take place on Sunday 28th January 2024 in the Leisure Centre foyer. There will be no need to book, and there will be no charge for the party. The swim will start at 17:00 as usual and will finish early for the party to begin, although anyone not wishing to join the party can use the pool for longer.

Members, guests and visitors are requested to bring a plate of finger food to share for a buffet (finger food only please). Ideally, the food should be brought along in the original container or in tins or plastic boxes and with the contents of sandwiches displayed. The Club will provide soft drinks, beer and wine along with disposable plates/serviettes etc.

Please remember that for safety reasons, china, glassware or knives must not be brought into the Leisure Centre. Good food hygiene must be maintained. All items that need to be kept cool (anything that would be in the chiller cabinet at your local supermarket cooked meats, mayonnaise etc) should be brought in a cold bag, which will be opened just before the party.

Should you want any containers returned to you at the end of the party, they should be marked accordingly.

INF Swimming Gala

Duncan H and other SVSC members were in the British Naturism (BN) team at the International Naturist Federation swimming gala in Paris recently and helped the BN team gain 24 gold medals and plenty of others.

The German team won overall as they always do, as they turn up with a large team of very good young swimmers, who take it all very seriously – and apparently they only undress to get in the water,  wearing a team uniform in between swims! Duncan managed to win several medals in his age group (70-75), with a gold in the backstroke, a silver in the butterfly and a bronze in the breaststroke. He missed the freestyle silver by 2/100 of a second!

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The German team won overall as they always do, as they turn up with a large team of very good young swimmers, who take it all very seriously – and apparently they only undress to get in the water,  wearing a team uniform in between swims! Duncan managed to win several medals in his age group (70-75), with a gold in the backstroke, a silver in the butterfly and a bronze in the breaststroke. He missed the freestyle silver by 2/100 of a second!

Duncan has posted a personal report on the BN website forum (only visible to BN members), here: Home > Forums > Bare Necessities > Events > 48th INF-FNI International Swimming Gala (Paris)">48th INF-FNI International Swimming Gala (Paris)

INF Swimming Gala

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Duncan H and other SVSC members were in the British Naturism (BN) team at the International Naturist Federation swimming gala in Paris recently and helped the BN team gain 24 gold medals and plenty of others.

The German team won overall as they always do, as they turn up with a large team of very good young swimmers, who take it all very seriously – and apparently they only undress to get in the water, wearing a team uniform in between swims! Duncan managed to win several medals in his age group (70-75), with a gold in the backstroke, a silver in the butterfly and a bronze in the breaststroke. He missed the freestyle silver by 2/100 of a second!

Duncan has posted a personal report on the BN website forum (only visible to BN members), here: Home > Forums > Bare Necessities > Events > 48th INF-FNI International Swimming Gala (Paris)">48th INF-FNI International Swimming Gala (Paris)

Summer Party 2024

Details still undecided at this time

The Club AGM

28th April 2024?, date & venue to be confirmed.