SAXONS

WHO ARE ‘THE SAXONS’?

The Saxons were originally formed in March 1992 with Dave Robinson as Chairman and Pat Neate as Hon. Secretary. They reversed these roles at the AGM in December 1992 and Dave has been the Hon. Secretary ever since.

The Saxons comprised of Bury Beavers and Mildenhall with Newmarket joining a couple of years later. The main reason for forming the joint Team was to compete in the East Midlands Speedo League. Bury dropped out in 1998 when they merged with Haverhill to become West Suffolk.

There was a quiet period between 1997 and 1999 when no competitions were entered and the Club would have ceased if not for Bert Girling who was the Mildenhall Coach at that time and then, later, Newmarket Coach. He thought it a good idea to revive the Saxons to give the swimmers extra water time. Lakenheath joined with Mildenhall and Newmarket and the idea was to have training at all three pools.

Competition was revived with the Suffolk Winter League and Junior and Senior Fenland Leagues entered. The name of the Club was changed to ‘Forest Heath Saxons’ in January 2001. After a few years Lakenheath drifted away with the constant change of personnel within that Club.

FH Saxons have gone from strength to strength progressing from winning the ‘C’ final of the Junior Fenland League in 2001, the ‘B’ final in 2003 and 2005 to competing in the ‘A’ finals in 2006 and 2007. In 2007 the Team were 4^thoverall in the JFL behind the ‘big’ teams of Peterborough, Deepings and Boston. They also won the ‘B’ finals of the Senior Fenland League in 2002 and 2003 and in 2007 came 4^th overall behind Peterborough, Cambridge and Kings Lynn.

Steve Molyneux has been the Team Manager of FH Saxons for the past few years and has been a great influence over the camaraderie and Team spirit held within the Club. It is a credit to him, his team and the Coaches at Newmarket and Mildenhall that the swimmers have done so well.

The FH Saxons team is always picked from the fastest swimmers available in each age group from both the Newmarket and Mildenhall Teams so keep working hard at your training to gain a place in the Squad.

Extra training for Saxons is available on a Thursday at Newmarket and Sunday evening at Mildenhall by invitation; see the Club notice board for details.