The inaugural Jeff Case Celebration Gala took place at Water Lane Leisure Centre. The event celebrates the life of Jeff, who was a valued coach of Lowestoft and Oulton Broad Swimming Club for many years and was greatly regarded by all at the club before sadly passing away last year.

In attendance were Felixstowe Waves, Beccles Kingfishers, Leiston & District and Lowestoft & Oulton Broad, who entered two teams, a blue and a yellow team.

Ultimately, it was the Blue team that took top spot with 258 points and the newly-commissioned trophy was presented by Jeff’s family to James Boots and Lily Charlesworth.

Sunday saw LOBSC host a ‘Sponsors Time Trial’ event at the Sentinel Leisure Trust pool at Water Lane.

For the past nine months the club have embarked on the huge task of raising enough funds to purchase essential equipment to continue its operations and provide the club with a platform on which to move forward.

Many fundraising events have taken place with the swimmers themselves taking part in ‘Hell Week’ where each swam 100km in a week in a bid to raise funds to purchase a block. Cake sales and various raffles also added to the pot, but ultimately, without the collective generosity of the sponsors and the excellent turn out at the clubs’ first Open Meet the fundraising target would not have been met.

In the end a massive £14,221 was raised and new Olympic style blocks have been installed along with a PA system.

In honour of this achievement, the club held a Sponsors Time Trial Event, to which major sponsors were invited. This was for the club to showcase the equipment that has been purchased with their support.

The evening was a great success, with 12 sprints covering swimmers aged seven to 20, in a sprint format, which covered distances from 25m up to 50m and it shows how well the club does to cater for such a wide range of ages. A few personal bests were achieved and the sponsors could see how important their contribution was.

The club would like to offer sincere thanks to: Sentinel Leisure Trust, Ange & Co Independent Estate Agents, Hughes Electrical, Lowestoft Lions, Harrod UK; The Third Crossing and many other businesses.