For over 40 years the Dartes training scheme has evolved in to what it is today. A collaboration between numerous clubs throughout the largest Metropolitan Borough in the country.
A History of Performance
How it all Began
In 1976, the small village clubs of the Doncaster Metropolitan Amateur Swimming Association (DMasa) were finding things difficult competing against Yorkshire's big city clubs. Their solution was to band together so that all of Doncater's swimmers could compete as one -- DARTES is the result.
The Early Years
Up until the mid 1980s, most training was still undertaken by the local clubs with relatively little water time available to the training scheme. Even so, with coaches of the calibre of Bill Mosey and Hans Hindle, the club became a dominant force at Yorkshire & NEC Championships and Open Meets across the North East. Not to mention being regularly represented at Nationals.
The Golden Period (Part 1)
Up to that point, the club's most successful years spanned the late 1980s and 1990s. Mick Nicholson's tenure as head coach saw our arrival at Hall Cross School's pool as well as our first National Champion in Pamela Trickett (Drn).
In 1987 (with financial aid from Doncaster council) Paul Bright was appointed as full time head coach. Under his guidance the club soared to new heights (5 individual national champions in 1992 and again in 1995, along with 30/19 individual NEC gold medals in those same years). In 1991, at the Age Group National Championships at Coventry, in the Girls 11/12 Years Teams, DARTES achieved a Gold Medal in the freestyle event (Gemma Sugden, Jane Dumville, Danielle Carpenter and Emma Parker) and a joint Silver Medal in the medley (Emma Parker, Anna Nicholas, Gemma Sugden and Danielle Carpenter)
It was during this period that Emma Parker (Adw) collected 8 National Gold medals which would see her top the Dartes medal table until 2016. Dartes also boasted a number of junior internationals during this period.
The New Millenium
With the withdrawal of council funding, Dartes returned to a purely volunteer coached club. Mick Gartside stepped up to the plate at the end of the 1990s to help the club through what was probably it's most challenging period. Despite the difficult times, Mick Guided our swimmers to Nationals and picked up many medals at Yorkshires and North Easterns along the way.
A Plan for Swimming
During most of the early years of the new century, the DMasa and Doncaster Council were negotiating a swimming development plan for the Doncaster borough. This eventually resulted in the council employing a full time Swimming Development Officer. Then, in September of 2005, they also provided a full-time Head Coach in Roy Shepherdson.
Roy lead the club forwards for the next 2 years. A major restructure of the club took place to make it a more focused, elite, performance orientated training programme. He introduced additional morning training, the notion of compulsory hours, and even greater hours than those available to the top squad during the 1990s. In short, Dartes became a programme comparable in structure to many of the top clubs in the country.
Unfortunately, with just 2 years at the helm before a return to his home club Kingston upon Hull, Roy didn't reap the rewards from the changes he made. Instead, that would come over the next 10 years.
The Golden Period (Part 2)
With the departure of both the SDO and then later Roy in November 2007, council funding disappeared and the club was left alone to replace a full-time position. At the time, the club had been investigating ways to fund a part-time assistant coach position for Andrew Wallace. Negotiations for funding via the North East Region were almost complete as Roy left, and that funding quickly shifted to the full-time role instead.
Andrew was appointed Head Coach and took responsibility for the top squad and older half of the club, with long term volunteer David Cuthbert continuing in an assistant coach role with the younger half of the club. Over the next 10 years the club grew in size. It took on more pool-time to accommodate a larger Junior Development Squad overseen by Kevin Nicholas. That allowed more focused roles for Andy to concentrate on Phase 5 and Dave to concentrate on Phase 4.
Medals at National level began to roll in. After a 15 year wait for National Gold, 2012 delivered 3! Max Litchfield (Spa) and Jarvis Parkinson (>Arm) spearheaded a medal charge that would eventually see Jarvis topple Emma Parker from the top of the Dartes medal table.
It was a period that enjoyed a 6 year spell of Dartes boys being selected for British Junior teams. A number of British age-group records were claimed, and more boys Yorkshire short-course records were owned by Dartes than any other club. This generation produced two future Olympians (the Litchfield brothers) and a number of Commonwealth Games competitors/medallists.
After 10 years at the helm of another Dartes Golden Period, Andy left for a post with British Swimming. His departure ushered in a new face to lead the club forwards. Matthew Cross came on board for 12 months before leaving to take up a post in Africa.
A New Beginning
Then in 2019, long-term volunteer Dave Cuthbert was appointed part-time Head Coach, with JDS Coach Jordan Allerton promoted to the full-time Assistant Head Coach role. Half way through the season, one of Dave's former National stars, Harvey Williamson, came on board to run JDS part-time too.
It proved to be a successful coaching trio with the promise to match the achievements of the previous team (Andy, Dave, and Kevin). The first season saw the club's best ever results from NER Age-Group Championships and a welcome return to double digit National Squad representation and a British Silver medal. In 2020 the club looked set to match its biggest ever national squad of 16 swimmers until disaster struck in the form of a pandemic and the championships were cancelled for two years.
Merger and Trying Times
Returning from the pandemic for the 2022 season, Dartes merged with Rossington ASC creating a full-pathway club for the first time, and setting the club up for an exciting future, albeit with a different coaching team.
First, Harvey took on a Director of Swimming role elsewhere in Yorkshire. Then mid-season, Jordan took the Doncaster SDO role with DCLT, prompting the appointment of Rob Hudson as his replacement as the full-time Assistant Coach.
A difficult season came to a successful climax with 10 swimmers qualifying for the national summer meets; Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals were won at British. Following that, after three decades of coaching within Doncaster Swimming, and the last 20 years on deck with Dartes, the club and Dave agreed to part ways. He took on another Head Coach role in the North East, leaving Rob Hudson to lead the way through the 2023 season.
A difficult 2023 season came to an end with Head Coach Rob Hudson leaving the club to seek new pastures and former Assistant Head Coach Jordan Allerton making a return as Interim National Squad Coach to see out the rest of the season. The 2023 season ended with 4 swimmers in Kiera Binns, Jessica Hubery, Greta Highfield and Lucas Lee qualifying for the English Summer Nationals. For 3 of the 4 qualifiers it was a first time experience, with them performing admirably and Kiera Binns achieving her first final in the 200m IM finishing in 8th while Lucas Lee achieved 4th in 100m Backstroke.
The start of the 2024 season saw Jordan Allerton appointed Head Coach, tasked with the responsibility of building the club back to its pre-pandemic success with Dan Dickinson acting as Assistant Head Coach. It’s proven to be a successful coaching duo with positive results achieved in the 2023 Winter Yorkshires and NER’s as the club continues to grow from strength to strength over the past 6 months.
