Relays [Swimming the English Channel]

English Channel Relays are an unique team experience. The long training programme; the first cold water swims together; the two-hour qualification; and then the actual swim itself. It really brings to life the expression “the team is only as strong as its weakest link”…

…but the experience – and the team that you do it with – will live with you for a lifetime. It is for this reason that I have felt for a long time that there ought to be a single integrated database to celebrate “the oldest”; “the first sisters”; the “Aussie Backstrokers” and all the charities that have benefited from English Channel Relays.

However – and it is a BIG “however” – there are 6 people in a standard relay. It has taken me 16 years to get some form of “stability” and “factual accuracy” into the English Channel Solo Database – and, stating the obvious, a solo only has one swimmer in it! I spend endless hundreds of hours each year trawling the internet and reaching out to swimmers to confirm all the details of their swims (and in the process collecting hordes of fascinating personal stories). To attempt the same for Relays is plain suicidal…

…and so this is my Christmas 2020 gift to you all: in a year that has seen such challenges, personal sadness and huge heroics, it feels like the right time to release my first ever version of the English Channel Relay Database – and to start the journey of refining and enhancing it with the help of you, the Relay swimmers!

So to the caveats…and there are quite a few:

1. The database is full of holes – in particular the dates and times of the early swims are not recorded publicly so I have had to place them in order of CSA and CSPF databases. Obviously as Teams provide me with the information, I will re-sort them
2. The level of detail is much less than the Solo Database – in particular I have only incomplete data on Team members and no ages/nationalities (yet). I plan to cross-reference to the Solo Database but obviously it will take time to take it to the next level
3. There are no “back stories” – often Relays represent a family or friends getting together for a special purpose. In my case, the two Relays were parents of children in our village school who made the mistake of being in the pub with me one evening talking about raising funds for the school/scouts! The “hangover” the next day was a year spent training for a Relay in 2006; and then again in 2010 as part of an Arch-to-Arc Relay “triathlon”… and a huge amount of fund raising for the local and national charities! I want to capture these backstories and celebrate what makes each Relay unique (and identify the most “unique” in the process!)

…and so comes the “ask” of the swimming community. If you know the (self appointed or not!) “team leader” for one of these English Channel Relays then please ask them to email me at julian@critchlow.org with the following details:

• Unique ID for the English Channel Relay (as per my database – to ensure we are speaking about the same relay!)
• List of team members in swim order (#1, #2, #3 etc)
• For each team member, their gender, date-of-birth and nationality. I don’t publish the date-of-birth but it enables accurate age calculations (which is one of the most common questions “are we the oldest/youngest/most handsome bunch of mid 40’s relay swimmers on record?”). Please include a statement that you have the permission of the other team members to send this information!
• Back story for your Relay – from the mundane (“we felt like doing it on Monday so swam on Tuesday!”) to the heroic (“we were non-swimmers who wanted to raise money for x, y or z”). And any call outs (e.g. trainer/ coach etc)
• Any website or media story that you would like linked to your swim…
• … and any details from your swim that I am missing: typically date and time of departure (I record swims in order of their finish time…which can be calculated from the start and the length of the swim!); boat and pilot; stroke etc

Finally the database can be downloaded from here… it will (hopefully!) be updated regularly as information is received!