When we were in 4th year at school (1955-56) Bathgate Amateur Swimming Club won the Eastern District Men’s Junior League. The team, with their individual events, was: Tom Belcher, 50 yards backstroke; Billy Russell, 50 yards breast stroke; Andrew McLeish, 50 yards freestyle; and Euan Dunsmore, 100 yards freestyle. There was also a medley relay race where we all did 50 yards – Tom Belcher started to be followed by Billy Russell, Andrew McLeish and Euan Dunsmore.
If you came first you were given one point; for second you gained two points and so on.
The final placings were Bathgate 53½, Warrender 87½, Portobello 115, Gala 128½, Carnegie 139½, and Abbey 147½.
We went round the various clubs to compete. The first gala was held in Dunfermline and the last was in Bathgate. In this final gala Euan came first equal and all the other races were won.
I still have my medal. The obverse shows a lion rampant with these words: Scottish Amateur Swimming Assn. Eastern District. The reverse is inscribed: Mens Swimming League Junior 1956.
We were coached and trained by the excellent Neil Samuel. He was so highly regarded as a coach that swimmers came from Edinburgh to his Sunday morning sessions. He liked to start us off with ten lengths just to get us warmed up. Neil was the Bath’s-master and his son, also called Neil, told me that when he went to Loughborough College for a conference they were trying to fill their new olympic-sized swimming pool from a tap. He had to show them how the pool pump-system worked so they could fill the pool in hours rather than weeks.
Bathgate Old Times 