Penguin members – West London Penguin

Gill’s still making a splash

20 March 202320 March 2023
Masters Swimming, Penguin members

Gill sitting in an armchair, wearing swimming costume, swim hat and goggles

Such an inspiration, our masters swimmer Gill has been featured in the London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust ‘s Fit for Life series…

Like to get in shape but worried you are too old or out of puff to start? Here is our fifth Fit for Life interview with a Londoner who shares their life-long love of exercise.

Gill Turner enjoys hanging out with the Penguins three times week. The west London swimming club has been a home from home for the 80-year-old for more than half a century and she emerges from the pool ‘tired but happy’ after the hour-long sessions.

“I swim in the ‘slow’ lane and we usually complete anywhere between 60-80 lengths depending on how much energy we have. I’ve made some nice friends over the years and enjoy the social side of the club.”

It seems age is just a number to the octogenarian who “likes a challenge” in the shape of long-distance walking, trail marathons and taking the somewhat murky plunge into open water swimming with two of her friends, the self-styled Wet Suit Wonders.

“I like to think of these things as an experience and it was certainly that trying to get in and out of my wet suit for the first time. I haven’t made my mind up about open water swimming yet although the greatest danger we faced was a couple of angry ducks who didn’t like sharing the lake with us.”

Gill has also completed several long distance walks including the 192-mile Coast to Coast, the West Highlands Way and the mountainous Tramuntana Trail in Mallorca.

Her sports mad dad instilled a love of exercise in her but she says it is important to find an activity that you enjoy.

“It’s what I would call a healthy habit and is part of my routine along with several long walks a week. I don’t pay much attention to my age. You shouldn’t use it as an excuse not to do things.”

The article is published on the NHS website here: https://www.lnwh.nhs.uk/news/gills-still-making-a-splash-8076

It also featured in local press:

Ealing Times: https://www.ealingtimes.co.uk/news/23358723.swimmer-gill-still-making-splash-80-penguins/

Hillingdon Times: https://www.hillingdontimes.co.uk/news/23358723.swimmer-gill-still-making-splash-80-penguins/

Ealing Today: http://www.ealingtoday.co.uk/default.asp?section=info&page=congillturner001.htm

RIP John Martin-Dye, 1940-2022

31 December 20224 January 2023
History, Penguin members, Water Polo

We are sad to say goodbye to John Martin-Dye who died today.

John joined Penguin in 1948 when he was eight, and he grew to be a top swimmer and water polo player who stayed with the Club throughout his life, although also played for Watford in later years.

As a swimmer John was a double Olympian. As a water polo player he represented Great Britain internationally and was part of the Penguin team that won the British Championships in 1965.

Water polo team — 1950s Penguin Water Polo Second Team probably mid to late 50s
Left to right
Back row: Ken Rogers, **John Martin-Dye**, Ted (Curly) Gerald, Terry Bushell.
Front row: Terry Fray, Lewis Bloomfield, Bobby Wollaston.
With the London Water Polo League Referees Cup, the Middlesex County Water Polo League shield and an unknown trophy.

John’s son, Graham, says, ‘John was an amazing father! His ethic in life was inspirational. He always worked hard to achieve anything, and never gave up. He lived life and travelled the world. He was always there for me and supported me in anything I wanted to do. He gave so much of this time back to sport and the community.’

Read more about John in the blog post written by Graham, last year.

Our thoughts are with John’s wife Delia, Graham and all the family.

RIP John.

John and Graham Martin-Dye in their dress suits at a Penguin Dinner — John with his son Graham at a Penguin Dinner.

Happy birthday Nobby Neivens

14 August 202214 August 2022
Penguin members, Water Polo

Happy 97th birthday to our oldest Penguin, Nobby Neivens, pictured on the left with fellow Penguins John Whelan and Malcolm Cromer.

Three men standing in the sunshine

RIP Charlie Mock

4 June 202212 June 2022
Penguin members

We are sad to hear that Charles Mock, legendary Maltese water polo player and coach, great friend and honorary member of Penguin, has passed away.

Charlie wearing his orginal water polo cap on a TV programme — Charlie on TV, demonstrating his original goal keeper’s cap

Charlie’s long association with Penguin started in 1967 when he became friends with our men’s team while they were playing in a tournament in Malta. Charlie was the goalkeeper for the hosting club, Balluta WPC. Read more about how this friendship started in the Penguin100 story by Charlie’s great friend Malcolm Cromer.

Malcolm and Charlie in dinner jackets — Malcolm Cromer with Charlie at the Penguin Dinner in 2013.

Charlie played with Balluta WPC, now San Ġiljan ASC, between 1951 and 1973. During this time, he won the Malta National League title five times.

Charlie Mock in goal — Charlie in action at Balluta – this was one of his favourite photos from his goalkeeping career.

Charlie was a highly respected junior water polo coach who nurtured young players in many clubs across Malta, and he loved distance sea-swimming. He swam the Gozo Channel on four occasions, the last when he was 62 years of age.

Charlie was a great storyteller and he had plenty of anecdotes to share about his water polo career and his friendship with the Penguins. He also loved to relate tales of the parts he had played in a number of films made on location in Malta. These included a small speaking role as a German U-boat sailor in Murphy’s War with Peter O’Toole, and a crowd scene behind Brad Pitt in World War Z.

Our Club’s close association with Malta, through Charlie, is illustrated by this article from the Malta Independent newspaper from Wednesday 23 May 2007:

40th Anniversary of Penguins waterpolo club visit to Malta

It was 40 years ago that London club Penguin SC paid a visit to Malta to play some matches. It was an initiative of Carm Borg, then president and also a player of the local Balluta Waterpolo Club.

Their visit here coincided with a tournament which included the participation of the ASA Selection, Neptunes, Sliema ASC and RAF Cyprus. The tournament was held at the old St Julian’s pitch and it was well attended by the numerous followers of this sport on this island.

After that tournament, the Balluta club organized an evening ‘floodlit tournament’ between local clubs Balluta, hosts, Sliema and Neptunes, as well as two English clubs, Penguin and Otters.

Since those days Charlie Mock, the former Balluta and Malta keeper, maintained constant contacts with Penguin SC old boys, through Malcolm Cromer and the late Terry Bushell, the Londoners’ goalkeeper, both of whom frequently returned to Malta for a holiday. One of their youngest players was Jack Neivens who was around 16-17 when the club played here in 1967.

The latest re-union brought together, among others, the likes of Ron Turner (Penguin SC) and Anglu Tonna, a former Balluta stalwart, who are now octogenarians.

During the reception hosted by San Giljan ASC at their club last Saturday, former Balluta players Carm Borg, Charlie Mock, Anglu Tonna, Freddie Grixti, Peter Bonello, presently the Mayor of St Julians, David Martin, Charlie Galea, Eddie Xuereb, Norman Vella and Joe Debono, again mingled with Terry King, Malcolm Cromer, John Whelan, Gerry Jarrett, Lewis Blomfield and Johnnie Lake who joined Valletta WPC in 1968.

It was a memorable and enjoyable evening where past memories were revived.

Over the years Charlie welcomed a number of Penguin water polo teams back to Malta and he always had a warm reception for his Penguin friends when they were holidaying Malta.

<asters water polo players on the poolside — Charlie with his oldest Penguin friends on a visit to Malta in 2012

Charlie wearning hos Penguin polo shirt — Charlie, proudly wearing a Penguin shirt, with masters swimmers Sarah and Johnny Wren during a visit to Malta in 2012.

Of course we were always happy to welcome Charlie when he was in the UK and he was a special guest at our Penguin Dinner in 2013.

He will be missed by all Penguins who knew him.

Our condolences to Bianca, Stephen, Michael, Peter and the rest of Charlie’s family.

RIP Mr Mock.

From elsewhere:

Read this tribute to Charlie by one of his Maltese friends, originally published in the Sunday Times of Malta: https://theworldnews.net/mt-news/appreciation-charlie-mock

The Hillingdon Penguin girls: our story

4 June 202230 August 2022
Penguin 100 Centenary, Penguin members, Water Polo

This Penguin100 Story is by Lize Crone, a player with our Hillingdon junior water polo section.

The journey

I first started playing water polo in 2017, when my parents introduced me to the sport as a way to get active after my swimming lessons had ended. I had always loved swimming and could be found in the water on any family holiday. So with the encouragement of my family I decided to attend a trial session at the Hillingdon juniors’ section of West London Penguin, and fell in love immediately. Though my speed, ball skills and strength left a lot to be desired, I immediately felt a passion for the game that I had never felt for any other sport. I returned home on a high and could hardly wait for the next session.

Part of the reason I felt so at home was because of the way us girls formed connections with each other. As there was only a small number of us compared to the vast amount of boys who sometimes overshadowed us, we instantly banded together and made sure to always lift each other up and support one another. The tight group we formed often helped me be more confident and secure.

As more girls joined and we welcomed them into the fold, secretly I hoped our number would one day grow to be enough for a competing squad.

One of the most important developments for girls at Hillingdon Penguin came at the end of 2019, when we received funding to start a once a week training just for girls, to improve our strength, fitness and skills. This helped us all to gain confidence in ourselves and our ability. Unfortunately, COVID halted much of the exciting growth we were making as girls. When we were finally allowed to return to the pool for regular training, girls’ training was unable to return with it until the end of 2021.

However, over the years our group of girls had grown, and we had the numbers to form a squad, albeit a rather bare-bones one. As captain of the team, I am extremely proud to say we were able to bring together enough players together to play at two U16 girls’ tournaments in the London Water Polo League (LWPL). It was an incredible experience to be able to play together for the very first time. While we have definite areas for improvement, we all agree that we performed amazingly and to our utmost extent.

Water polo game — Some of the action from our London Water Polo League game against Croydon, with Thalia on the ball

Yolanda says, ‘Having my first tournament be a girls’ tournament has been an amazing experience, because I know that getting a girls’ team together was such a long process I am extremely happy to help towards creating this awesome squad.’

team talk on the poolside — Team talk just before the last game of our second tournament ever

Development for girls

In the last year or two, the way I play water polo has changed from being just a hobby, to being an ambition too. I first realised I could take water polo further when I was offered the opportunity to trial for the London Regional Academy in September 2021, along with fellow Hillingdon Penguin girls Sophie, Thalia and Órlaith. This helped us to improve our fitness, ball-handling skills and tactical knowledge, as well as providing us an extra night a week to simply enjoy the sport. Our fellow Hillingdon Penguin girl Zahra has also joined the Academy this May, and we are very excited to see the progress she will make.

Sophie, Órlaith and I went on to represent the region at the 2021 U16 Inter-Regionals in Walsall and the 2022 U18 Inter-Regionals in Blackpool, which were very exciting opportunities to play with and against some of the best players of our age.

three water polo girls with their coach — Sophie, Órlaith and I at U16 Inter-Regionals in Walsall with coach Shaun, who came to visit

In November of 2021, some of us also had the opportunity to play together with the Penguins from Latymer at the annual South-East Inter-County Championships for U16 girls, from which we came away with silver medals.

Hillingdon Penguin girls Sophie, Robyn, Órlaith and I with girls from the Latymer Penguins, wearing our silver Inter-County medals.

Sophie says, ‘I think it’s awesome that we can go and compete together as we help each other grow as a team. As someone who has competed at a higher level with the London regional team, being part of development at my own club is really nice as I can help newcomers and younger girls with the knowledge I have picked up but also develop my own skills such as communication and leadership. In general it is great to be involved in a whole team of girls eager to participate in (and get better at) such a physically demanding sport. I hope we can recruit more girls to expand our little water polo family into a big one.’

Personally, I think it is amazing that as a regional player I have the opportunity to pioneer a pathway of development which will hopefully allow many girls like myself to improve their skills and achieve their water polo dreams.

It is clear to see that not only my development, but the development of all the girls at Hillingdon Penguin is down to the amazing nurturing environment that is created by Sue and the coaches and the opportunities that they offer, so a big thank you to all of them. We all know we would be nowhere without their support.

Young and old

Looking back at my initial months of water polo, seeing older girls at training was really important in allowing me to be confident in my identity as a girl playing water polo. Now that I am one of the older girls, I feel inspired to look after and nurture younger and newer players. It is an incredible joy to witness the passion for our wonderful sport grow in younger girls.

On the occasions that I have been asked to coach at our girls’ session because Shaun, our usual coach, wasn’t available, I have found it an absolute privilege and it has increased my love for the sport even more than I thought possible.

Coach Shaun says, ‘I’m very grateful to have such a wonderful group of athletes at Hillingdon Penguin. It makes coaching so rewarding, I look forward to seeing how far we can take these players. They have so much potential and talent considering we only train once a week. It’s been a privilege seeing them grow through my program. I’m so proud of all my players.’

Water polo players — The girls who train together on a Tuesday evening

Elizabeth (one of the U12s) says, ‘My time at the girls water polo trainings are great, I love training with the older girls to learn new things, and girls my age too. I always look forward to it.’

Robyn says, ‘Joining a male dominated sport was always a daunting task but due to the support and kindness of others it quickly became a very enjoyable weekly activity. Personally I think it is such a great way of joining in with a fun sport. The skills developed can help with future life skills and improve our understanding of teamwork. There are many ways you can take part and take up roles to help younger girls enjoy the sport as much as I do now. Joining a girls team was an exciting change and a challenge to take part in. The training is great for younger girls as the older ones can help pass their knowledge onto the next generation of players.’

Once more, I’d like to extend a thank you from all the girls at Hillingdon Penguin to all the coaches and others behind the scenes who support us to be the best players we can be. We would be nowhere without you!

Find out more about playing junior water polo with us.

This post is part of our Penguin100 series; stories from Penguins past and present, sharing what being a member of the Club means to them as we celebrate our Centenary.