They’ve done it!

“SUCCESS...and all home 
safely.” That was the comment from swimming coach Peter Nield after a team of six boys crossed the English Channel not once but twice last week.

The pupils from Warwick School, led by 18-year-old Will Hopkins from Lighthorne, took 13 hours nine minutes to swim in relay from Dover to Abbeville in Calais - before turning round and swimming right back again.

Meanwhile, another intrepid six from nearby King’s High School completed the first schoolgirl attempt to swim in Channel in 46 years.

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Giant jellyfish, porpoises, ferries, tankers and freezing waters had to be dealt with by both groups as they swam relentlessly on, in most cases for just one gruelling hour before a rest - although in the case of 15-year-old Alice Quinn for three hours! Each team was raising money for the Get-A-Head charitable trust for head and neck cancers.

“Realising we had to turn round and come right back again was perhaps the worst bit,” admitted Will, who’d taken on the same challenge last year although on that occasion only one way. “And getting tangled up in seawood in the dark wasn’t much fun,” he added.

Max Clarke, aged 14, the youngest on the Warwick School team, which received sponsorship from organisations like Leamington estate agents Heritage Property, added: “Probably waiting to get into the water was the worse - we were all freezing after just a few minutes.”

The return journey, with less wind and a good tide, was completed in 12 hours 28 minutes.

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The other members of the squad, were Josh Harridine, from Hatton and Patrick Haynes from Warwick, both 17, James Foster from Warwick and Callum Ellis from Lighthorne, both 16, and boat support team member Angus Preston, from Warwick, aged 15.

Members of the King’s High team, who are also raising money for charity, were 15-year-old Alice Quinn, who lives in Warwick, along with fellow 15-year-olds Hope O’Dwyer from Warwick, Sophia Cockell from Kenilworth and Laura Ewell from Rowington, Rhianne Oscroft, aged 17, from Leamington and team captain Evie Gill, also 17, from Snitterfield.

Rhianne said: “It was an amazing experience and yes, I would be willing to do it again!”

To make a donation to the Get-A-Head charity visit www.getahead.org.uk