Our President for 2025 – 2026 is is Ian Liversedge (March Marlins)
It came as a huge surprise in 2024 when I was asked by Anna Rothwell if I would become President Elect, to succeed Ian Knight as President of Swim England Cambridgeshire in 2025; an honour I was delighted to accept.
Compared with my predecessors I have been involved with swimming for only 5 minutes! It started when my son, Theo, transferred his swimming lessons from Wisbech to March. A March Marlins training session immediately followed his lesson. I watched for a while along with Theo who became hooked on the idea of joining Marlins.
Like many before me and since, I answered the call to train as a timekeeper so that Marlins could run their Club Championships. A face-to-face course was held at the pool, led by Paula Durrant, who talked about officiating and progressing from timekeeping. Having been a cricket official and a hockey umpire I decided being a swimming official was for me. Sarah Nooteboom led a face-to-face course that got me on the road towards becoming a Judge Level 1, which I achieved fairly quickly following lots of mentoring, gaining experience in various roles and a formal poolside assessment.
In January 2019 I suffered a stroke a few weeks before having planned heart surgery to replace my aortic valve. It was a few months later that I returned to officiating, something I was determined to do, but I remember feeling very unsteady standing on the bulkheads at Cambridge.
Then came the COVID pandemic and everything stopped. As Health & Safety Officer I supported the Chair (my wife Emma), and others in developing our return to swimming plans, and was delighted to have played a part in March Marlins being the first club in Cambridgeshire to get back into the water, closely followed by COPS, after each of the various lockdowns were lifted.
Theo’s swimming career didn’t last long. Like many he lost the bug having got out of the habit of training and competing during COVID, and ‘retired’ not long after swimming resumed. However I continued my involvement, officiating all over the place and training and qualifying to become a Judge of Stroke (J2) and later a Starter (J2S). As a J2S I feel I can be of the most use to Marlins and other clubs as I can start races at any level and can referee in low level club events, which are the starting points for our young competitors. I really enjoy officiating at club, County and Regional events and watching swimmers progress.
Away from swimming my main sporting love is cricket. I have been a member of March Town Cricket Club for 50 years and have recently stepped down as their Chair. I am however the Ground Chairman and 1st XI scorer. Theo plays and is the groundsman, and Emma plays too.