In the Big Swim with Pip and Jack (From The Northern Echo)
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In the Big Swim with Pip and Jack
5:23pm Monday 9th January 2012 in Blog
WEDNESDAY'S Echo Memories is going to be the second part of my story about Jack Hatfield. I think he must be the Tees Valley's greatest Olympian, and with this Olympics year marking the centenary of his Olympics, it seems appropriate to tell his story.
Attached to this post - and I hope it can be properly read without too much squinting - is a snippet that isn't going to make Wednesday's article. It is a cartoon by Pip - the Echo's great and prolific pre-World War Two cartoonist who has featured here very recently - about the 1934 Big Swim.
The Big Swim was sponsored by The Northern Echo. It was over five miles from Stockton to the Transporter Bridge in Middlesbrough. It was first swum in 1930 and the inaugural winner was Jack in 1hr 24 mins and 57 seconds - a time that was never surpassed. He was watched by a staggering 50,000 people.
He won the Big Swim again in 1931 (1:30.37) and, after a break, for the last time in 1934 (1:33.55).
When receiving his third medal, the 41-year-old revealed that he'd first swum the course 21 years earlier as a training exercise - a factlet picked up upon by Pip.
I'd love to know who the Mr FT Nattrass, who is mocked by Pip for being large.
