Clive Smith and Jim Peto named Cherriman Award winners

This year the Home Country Masters Swimming Management Group (HCMSMG) received some great nominations for the Cherriman Award which is presented to the person or organisation that has done the most to promote and foster the cause of Masters swimming in Great Britain.

This year the group are pleased to announce the award has gone to the joint nomination of Clive Smith and Jim Peto.

This dynamic duo have recently retired from the East Midlands Masters Committee after putting in many years hard work for Masters swimmers in the region.

Jim has been the chair of the Regional Masters committee for many years and is now the Northamptonshire Masters representative.

He has run the formal side of the committee with great efficiency to make sure everything happens as it should. He has also represented the region at national level, and personally undertaken a lot of the work the region is responsible for.

This includes the regional development day, assisting the successful running of the Midlands Masters Championships and the inception of the East Midlands Challenge Gala.

Alongside this, he is an enthusiastic coach at Wellingborough SC and also regularly volunteers for other jobs such as marshalling at the nationals.

Clive Smith has been the Derbyshire county representative for eight years, and in this capacity has personally organised and team-managed the county team for both inter-county galas in a very efficient manner, getting a large number of swimmers to participate.

As the county rep, he has also been a member of the East Midlands Masters Committee for many years and has been Jim’s right hand man.

He has also made an exceptional contribution by meticulously keeping the East Midlands records for many years.

Clive goes way beyond the call of duty by going through the results of all the major and regional meets to pull out the records himself.

This is a time consuming and thankless task but a very important and valuable one for swimmers.

Clive also sits on the Etwall Eagles Masters Open Meet Committee and has been team manager for Derbyshire for many years.

Both Jim and Clive have promoted Masters swimming through everything they have done, encouraging swimmers of all levels to participate, become competitive and help through volunteering.

Both are visible at all the events in the region, not only organising the events but also competing in both the pool and open water and always carrying out tasks with a smile on their faces.