A surviving programme from the early days indicates that there were only 44 events then compared to the present 50. Events added since are the gala-opening women’s and men’s individual medleys and girls’ and boys’ medley relays for the two youngest age groups. That early programme also reminds us that many pools were 33.3 metres or 100 yards long in those days. Open and under 16 races were swum over three lengths, under 14 races over two lengths and under 12 events as one length. Relays were four times one length for the under 12s and four by two lengths for the rest.

Mergers, squad systems and the advent of swimming scholarships make it difficult to define the ‘average club’ today but the local leagues continue to attract a wide range of members. ‘There is no such thing as an average club now but your little club can still participate by competing in a lower division,’ says the present NASL secretary Ian Mackenzie.

​The appointment of a ‘host club’ to organise and promote each gala is another tradition that has survived since the early days. The original thought was that host clubs would help to engender ‘friendly rivalry’ and bring about ‘maximum co-operation and efficiency’. Taking the hosting responsibilities to someone else’s pool may be considered normal now but was an innovation in 1970.