HIS SECOND SUCCESS

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 4, 6 January 1936, Page 9

HIS SECOND SUCCESS

CLARIDGE'S FINE SWIM

HARBOUR CROSSED AGAIN

Looking little the worse for having, spent 4hr 14min 30sec in Wellington Harbour yesterday, C. E. Claridge, after a wait of several weeks for favourable conditions, was successful in swimming the harbour for the second time. His object was to reduce his previous figures of 3hr 25min, but while the conditions were more .or less suitable in the initial stages of the swim, they became progressively more difficult in the middle portion, and under the circumstances Claridge contented himself with completing the distance, finishing his seven-mile effort with a fifty-yard sprint, which he won comfortably from D. L. Plank, of the Wellington Club.

It was his intention to make the attempt on Saturday afternoon, but when it was found that the weather at Eastbourne was not conducive to the making of good time, it was decided to postpone the swim until Sunday. Conditions were well-nigh ideal when Claridge and his party were making preparations prior to entering the water, but when the swimmer left Okui-Iti Point, Eastbourne, at 11.18 a.m., the outlook was not so promising. Claridge was accompanied by the Star Boating Club's cutter, and for the first hour C. B. Eversleigh, of the Maranui Club, swam with him.

Despite the change in conditions (the sea was now choppy), good time was made as far as Ward Island, but at this point Claridge, swimming on his right side, had to contend with increasingly choppy water from the south. His progress from Ward Island to Point Halswell was, as a consequence, considerably retarded, and though conditions improved over the concluding stage, once he was under the lee of the land he relaxed his efforts to make good time.

Eversleigh was relieved in turn by Plank, R. H. Durant, and H. C. Downs, the last two being from the Maranui Club. Over the final 600 yards Plank resumed, and Claridge, just to show that he had suffered no ill-effects, outsprinted him over the last 50 yards to land at the Eastbourne Ferry Wharf just after 3.30 p.m.