Swimming From Scratch

One Sunday in early February 1933, Bill Walker splashed out of the murky water and up the sandy bank of Stoney Creek near Toronto, Lake Macquarie. Puffing from swimming the 200-yard (183-metre) race, the 20-year-old was in fine form – beating his competitors in the very respectable time of 2 minutes and 46 seconds.

That year, Bill won at least six championships of the Stoney Creek Swimming Club and was awarded this 1933 Championship trophy. It was the first club championship trophy Bill had ever won, and it would not be the last.

Born in Killingworth, West Wallsend, William ‘Bill’ Walker (1913-1975) was one of the founding members of the Stoney Creek Amateur Swimming Club (SCASC), which first began amateur races in 1930, in a roped-off section of the popular swimming hole at the creek. By 1932, it was considered one of the best organized swimming clubs in the Lake Macquarie region, hosting regular swimming carnivals, meets, lessons, dances, and card parties.

Bill was such a strong swimmer that he became known as a backmarker, meaning he started races with a handicap. Sometimes waiting until his competitors had reached the other side of the creek before he dived in, giving them a huge headstart. Usually, Bill won the race anyway.

When swimming from scratch (entering the water at the same time as his competitors) in November 1933, Bill came in second place at the men’s senior final and was proclaimed by the Newcastle Sun as ‘a swimmer of class with excellent prospects.’ The newspaper was right.

At carnivals and meets at Toronto and around NSW over the following two decades, Bill was placed first, second or third in over fifty events. He won the SCASC club championship trophy numerous times, and dozens of other trophies, but this 1933 trophy probably held special meaning for Bill as his very first.