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On May 5th 2000, Team TH Swimming Club and
Mentone Bayside Swimming Club decided to unite to form
a larger club. This new club is now known as Bayside Swimming Club
Inc.
Both clubs have a proud history.
Team TH Swimming Club
History
Team TH was formed in 1995 by interested parents
whose children swam at Toby Haenen Swim Centre, Chelsea Heights.
With tremendous assistance from Toby and Kim Haenen and others,
the club grew and prospered. In January 1998, it was decided to
expand by including families from Toby Haenen Swim Centre,
Sandringham. This proved successful with excellent results being
achieved at swim meets at district and state level.
The club became known for their bright red
bathers and giant red coats, which gained Team TH a lot of
attention at swim meets and everybody wanted to know who they
were. Some even referred to them as the "Red Coat
Mafia"! Team TH was a great club for young kids who
didn't have tremendous swimming experience. They loved every
moment of club nights, being inspired by the senior level
swimmers. Winter Interclub was always exciting and many pennants
were won over the years, and are still being won these days.
Nobody will ever forget the memorable bus rides to Interclub... =
)
With the opening of Mentone Grammar Aquatic
Centre, (now Bayside Aquatic Centre), many of the senior swimmers
began their squad training at Mentone. Close ties were formed with
Mentone Bayside Swimming Club as many of the swimmers from both
clubs trained together. It seemed a natural progression to
investigate a merger of the 2 clubs.
Mentone Bayside Swimming Club History
The Mentone Bayside Swimming Club Inc (MBSCInc)
affiliated with the umbrella swimming organisation Swimming
Victoria Incorporated (Swim Vic Inc) on 8 November 1998 and
commenced swimming at the Mentone Aquatic Centre from 29 January
1999.
MBSCInc was established by incorporating
Sandringham Brighton Swimming Club Inc (SBSInc) which was the
surviving club from a succession of mergers of the original Port
Philip Bay swimming clubs.
In the early years, swimming was largely
confined to Port Philip Bay, the Yarra river and inland waterways.
Port Philip Bay was the Mecca of swimming and the Brighton
District was well to the fore. Seawater baths were established in
St. Kilda, South Melbourne, Middle Park, Middle Brighton, Brighton
Beach, Sandringham and Sorrento and by 1999 the only functional
baths left are at Middle Brighton.
MBSCInc's original precursor clubs have been
affiliated with Swim Vic Inc and its antecedent the Victorian
Amateur Swimming Association (VASA) which was formed on 25 October
1893 as follows:
- Brighton Swimming Club joined 1895
- Sandringham Swimming Club joined in 1926 (subsequently changed
name to Dendy)
- Dendy Swimming Club credited as having joined in 1926
- Brighton Beach Swimming Club joined in 1928
- Sandringham Brighton Amateur Swimming Club joined in 1979
- SBASC incorporated as Sandringham Brighton Swimming Club Inc. on
21 Dec 1983
As segregated swimming was strictly enforced
during the early half of the twentieth century, separate ladies
and men's clubs had been formed to conform to the then prevailing
standards of public decency. These included Brighton Ladies
Swimming Club and Brighton Beach Ladies Swimming Club.
During the years memberships at each of the
clubs waxed and waned and changes to swimming venues became
necessary especially as the pressure to develop still water pools
increased to satisfy the need for year-round swimming. These
situations were addressed by amalgamations between the men's and
ladies clubs and then between the geographic clubs as their venues
were destroyed by storms or fires (or both) and not rebuilt by the
local councils.
One of the early amalgamations was between
Brighton and Brighton Beach both Men's and Ladies Clubs to form
Brighton Districts ASC and the merged club subsequently moved to
the now demolished Dendy Pool at the rear of the Dendy Theatre in
Church Street Middle Brighton. The Sandringham ASC had already
relocated to this pool.
The desire for merging clubs to maintain at
least part of their old name in the amalgamated entity often had
to bow to pressure of pool owners wanting to publicise their venue
and so the name "Dendy ASC" emerged from the merger of
Brighton (Men's) and Ladies ASCs.
In turn the merger on 29 May 1968 of Brighton District ASC and
Dendy ASC gave rise to the name "Dendy ASC Incorporating
Brighton District and Sandringham ASCc".
The Dendy pool was the venue for a period in the
late 1960's to the three clubs named Dendy, Brighton Districts and
Dolphin ASC, despite the latter having its home pool in Toorak.
Indeed they were crowded times then as all three were programmed
to swim on Sunday morning and it was inevitable that something had
to give to resolve the space issue and competition for new
members.
The Brighton clubs resolved the issue in 1970
initially by amalgamating and adopted the name Brighton Amateur
Swimming Club (Formerly Dendy Amateur Swimming Club, Incorporating
Sandringham Amateur Swimming Club and Incorporating Brighton
Districts Amateur Swimming Club). Then finally in 1979, after
some20 years of occupation of the Dendy pool, moved to the newly
opened Lifestyle King Club pool in Sandringham Leisure Centre in
Tulip Street Sandringham. This move enabled the club to revert its
name to further reflect its geographic base and in recognition
that the club's new venue was in the Sandringham municipality the
Sandringham Brighton ASC name was created and changed to SBSC Inc
following incorporation. SBSC Inc was based at the King Club pool
for 20 years.
SBSC Inc resolved on 8 November 1998 to change
its name to Mentone Bayside Swimming Club Inc in anticipation to
the Mentone Aquatic Centre. Thus the name captures both the
history and the future of the club.
• Our history goes back over 100 years and
incorporates swimming clubs from the Sandringham and Brighton
localities. These two suburbs form a major part of the City of
Bayside, and this is now part of our name.
• The future is represented by our current occupation of the
swimming complex at Mentone Grammar School, and the Mentone part
of our name reflects our link to our new competition and training
base.
The move to the Mentone Aquatic Centre was
affected on 29 January 1999 and thus began another phase of
competitive swimming which had its roots in the original Brighton
Swimming Club formed back in 1895.
The rest is history and an exciting new club
named Bayside Swimming Club is the result
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