Cro and Lord Byron.

 

There is no question that Lord Byron was a pretty strange character.

Born with a 'Club Foot', nothing could hold him back; either romantically or sportingly.

I was recently reminded that he always claimed his greatest achievement to have been to swim The Dardanelles aged 22. The 5 km swim being notoriously difficult on occasions.

Personally I have never been a great distance swimmer, but I did once swim between Brighton's two piers; so we almost have something in common. These days, 10 lengths of our pool is enough.

I'm afraid that I couldn't find a photo that shows the distance between the two piers (one now defunct), so the above will have to suffice. The old West Pier, at the bottom of the picture, was burnt down in 'suspicious circumstances' back in 2003; only a few bare bones now exist out at sea.

The swim is about 1 km in distance, and if I remember correctly was against the tide. My mother was there on the prom to watch and follow with my towel and clothes, although what she could have done had I got into trouble, I don't know.

I was probably no more that 30 metres out from the beach, and I swam breaststroke all the way. I began my swim underneath the old West Pier, and finished just on the other side of a stone jetty in front of the Palace Pier.

I don't remember it being particularly arduous, but did (like Byron) consider it a great achievement. I must have been about 15 or 16 years old. I really can't remember, but it must have taken me about 20 mins. We lived just up the coast behind Worthing at the time.

There, I'm afraid, is where any link between myself and Lord Byron ends. We both enjoyed swimming; FULL STOP.