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

To date, the club's most successful years span 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 Pam Trickett.

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).

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, restructuring the club into a more focused, elite, performance orientated training programme. He introduced additional morning training with even greater hours than those available to the top squad than during the 1990s, and comparable to the top programmes in the country.

The Present Day

With the departure of both the SDO and then later Roy in November 2007, along with the subsequent pulling of council funding, it was Roy's assistant coach, Andrew Wallace, who took over the reigns.

The focus of the Dartes scheme remains on elite, performance swimming (County level and upwards) leaving Doncaster's clubs to provide opportunities up to County level.

Under coach Wallace, the future is looking bright once more. Performances are rapidly returning to National standard and interest in the Dartes programme is starting to rise again.