Double celebration for Horsham & Littlehampton Wave Life Saving Clubs

Members of Horsham Life Saving Club and the ‘daughter club’ Littlehampton Wave Life Saving Club gathered at The Horsham FC clubhouse to celebrate their achievements in 2021 and 2020 – as last years event was postponed due to Covid.

Both clubs are part of the Royal Life Saving Society UK, a drowning prevention charity founded in 1891 in the UK.

Jeremy Quinn, MP For Horsham, presented cups and medals to the winners from the recent Horsham Club competitions.

Abbie Tanner was awarded first place in the Ladies Speed Event, beating Grace Smith (second) and Lara Stewart (third) to the top prize. George Hall won the men's event, with Dan Smith finishing second and Tom Ralph finishing third.

Jasper Rumble, Grace Smith, Guy Morgan and Tom Baker won the Set Piece Events in the Novices, Ladies, Men and Senior categories respectively. While in the Dry and Wet Staged Incident Events – Jasper Rumble won the Novice event, Lily Smith the Ladies, Guy Morgan the Mens and Kate Hall the Seniors.

Abi Smith won the Rookie Lifeguard Event, while Olivia Chapman picked up her second winners prize of the night, when she was crowned the Novice Lifeguard Champion. The Overall Lifeguard Champion was Dan Smith.

Councillor Dr David Skipp presented Outreach Certificates, recognising a considerable amount of water safety activity undertaken in the Horsham community in the last two years, ranging from providing safety cover at the Annual Triathlon Relay at Southwater Lake – a day-long event around the town centre during the RLSS Drowning Prevention Week – and a number of other water safety and CPR related events

Cllr Dr Skipp – the Chairman of Horsham District Council – also presented the Achievement Cup to Abi Smith, recognising her considerable progress, and enthusiastic involvement in all the club activities.

On behalf of the Royal Life Saving Society, Debbie Hunt presented Certificates of Recognition in the 2021 National Honours Awards to Horsham Members Robin Akers and Lee Wright, as well as a Certificate of Merit to Olivia Kidd of Littlehampton Wave.

Friends of The Society Certificates were presented to Gina Stainer from Horsham and, in absentia, Hannah Hendey from Littlehampton.

Debbie Hunt, Deputy President Royal Life Saving Society UK, also presented, or acknowledged, all the Life Saving Efficiency Awards achieved in 2020 and 2021 by both Horsham (65 and 137) and Littlehampton (42 and 44). These included a phenomenal 12 distinction level awards in the Survive and Save syllabus exam, which relatively few people in the UK achieve each year.

At the end of the evening, after all the members’ votes had been counted, Debbie Hunt presented The Horsham Club Member of the Year Cup to Sam Clark.

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