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Sutherland Road Baths


stevo

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  • 3 months later...
The Brush ..i remember it well...He (Mr Scott) came up to me as I was splashing around in the Shallow end and he said "Can you swim??" I said "no Sir" and then he said "come with me boy"..He made get in the deep end under the diving board and I was clutching the hand rail on the side for dear life..He held out the brush and said "grab this" so I let go of the rail and lunged out for the brush..But he moved it out of my reach and I started to drown..as I came up the brush was just in front of me he shouted "Grab it" so I reached out again for the brush only he moved it away again..For the next 15 minutes I was going under, coming up grabbing at the moving brush, crying and trying to get to the side, only to be shoved away again by the brush..This went on until my feet reached the bottom at the shallow end...but I did it, and got my 1st 25 yard swimming certificate..Lets face, it for better or for worse he taught me to swim..and in double quick time.

 

He did all that to me as well, but by the time I reached the shallow end my bladder was full but the bath's were empty.

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  • 6 months later...
From some of the postings to this thread, it would seem Mr. Scott got worse as he aged. I had him for a swimming instructor from 1951 to 1955. He taught me through all the life saving certificates to the Bronze Medalion and continued on to the Complete Swimmer Certificate. He was a hard task master but found him to be fair and he would never pass you if he felt you wasn't good enough. I remember he also was a coach for my girl friend who was a top swimmer and would I be in trouble if I even spoke to her while she was in a training session.
Well said Tom from another Scottie fan,
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Well said Tom from another Scottie fan,

 

I was taught by him and he scared me to death,although i did win a few swimming galas for my school.He was from the old school.Maybe we need some teachers to be a bit more like he was and then there would be not so much disrespect from kids..

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I went to Owler Lane School so Sutherland Rd was where some of us recieved our swimming and life saving skills, unfortunatly I was not one of them. As I recall we used to walk to Reform Chapel Upwell St and catch the bus there, the teacher gave the conductor a bunch of bus tokens for our fare. The bus travelled along Petre St to Sutherland Rd. I was terrified of the instructor and the whole swimming period was an exercise in staying out of his way until it was time to leave. He seemed in his element when he was, throwing kids in, pushing and holding kids under water and his best of all, hitting you on the backside with his flat hand or even better with a wet towel. I had forgotten his name but am sure it was the dreaded Mr Scott that everyone has been mentioning. I remember walking up Sutherland Rd many times clothed but still sopping wet underneath, because he had a habit of coming into the cabins if he thought you wer'nt getting ready fast enough.

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I went to Hucklow Road school and we were taken to Sutherland Road baths. I was 'taught' to swim there. The method was to make you get in at the deep end and goad you to start 'swimming'. The 'teacher' then had a long pole which he mainly used to push you away from the side as you desperately reached out for it to stop yourself drowning. I can still taste the chlorine and feel my eyes stinging 40 years later.. :-D

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  • 3 weeks later...

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