Counting the counties - A 50th birthday challenge
Congratulations to Top Tit Sally Ward from Nottingham/Derby Bluetits for the completion of her 96 UK counties swim before her 50th birthday.
Here is a wonderful ‘Ode To Sally’ from her dear friend and swim buddy Alan White….
SALLY AT FIFTY
Sally at last has arrived at fifty
Her recent performance has surely been nifty.
Of course we know she’s amazingly crafty.
She knits and crochets wonderfully deftly.
Joint top Blue Tit hasn’t been shifty.
Blue Tit ambitions have been ever lofty.
And you must admit she’s done it briskly.
Some of her schemes have been downright risky.
Her first silly stunt has showed she’s no softy.
A fight with killer whales can get a touch pesky.
A black and white monster can be awfu’ frisky.
Her attitude to this turned out to be feisty.
Another aim was races in distant Tallinn.
She found this fairly frigid if you know what I mean.
The races should have been civilised and unctuous,
But raucous Blue Tits made the atmosphere rambunctious.
Top class ice swimmers, fierce competition,
Against this, fun and mischief, icy sedition.
A relay race with eight hundred in the team,
World record for a feat supremely extreme.
As if she were not enough of an oddity,
She invented a crazy swimming Odyssey:
To swim in every county, unless she fails,
In England, Scotland and in Wales.
A formidable task, I think you will agree,p
To start at Lands End going past the Scottish Dee.
Preparing equipment, poring over maps;
Logistics and driving to the point of collapse.
Alone would be tough, a friend would be better,
One with the bounce of an Irish setter,
A selfless guy who would never forget her.
When she’s tired he’ll be there to pet her,
And lucky she found a real go getter.
She’ll bless the day when he first met her.
With many months crisscrossing the land
Things could easily get out of hand.
When many trips were performed in winter
It wouldn’t be odd for her courage to splinter.
When swimmings varied from a torrent to a puddle
Clothing and equipment dissolved into a muddle.
But undeterred, our Sally battled on
And wouldn’t give up until the job was done.
And what variety! what a thrill!
To falollop near famous Flatford Mill.
And only determined women and men
Cope with torrents and midges in Campsie Glen.
And how I wish it could happen to me
To bathe in the classical Linn of Dee.
Another place I’d like to be
In rainstorms at bleakest Withernsea.
And finally when the Odyssey’s won,
The pellucid coves of Ynys Môn.
Congratulations, Sally, you scored a massive hit.
You truly are an astonishing Top Tit.
