A WOMAN whose name was synonymous with swimming in North Herefordshire through much of the 1970s and the 1980s has died in New Zealand at the age of 49.
At an early age, Pat Mathias (nee Newman) learned to swim at the old uncovered Sydonia Pool in Leominster, where she was raised and schooled. She swam competitively and represented Herefordshire, her speciality being breast-stroke.
Pat was the first pool attendant to be employed at the Sydonia when it reopened in 1975 after its conversion to an indoor pool.
Instructor
In 1980 she was made a pool supervisor and began teaching swimming to children and adults alike. In 1982 she was appointed county schools swimming instructor based at Leominster, responsible for 21 schools and swimming instruction to 1,000 pupils a week. She was a regular judge at Leominster's annual swimming galas.
Her life-long passion for swimming was never better reflected than during her involvement in synchronized swimming in Leominster. She founded a synchronized swimming club in 1979 with just six members.
It was quickly taken under the wing of the Leominster Kingfisher's Swimming Club and at its peak it had 40 members, male and female, aged from six to 16, including her daughter Christine.
Pat organised and choreographed several major synchronized swimming productions at Leominster, including Synchro goes Pop, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty.The club also gave several small-scale displays of synchronized swimming in Herefordshire and Shropshire.
When she left England with her husband Peter - a Hereford Times journalist - and Christine for a new life in New Zealand in 1989 she presented a cup, The Pat Mathias Trophy, for the most improved swimmer to be presented annually at the Leominster District Council's annual schools swimming gala.
Pat was back swimming teaching within about two weeks of her arrival in Christchurch, New Zealand, firstly at the Wharenui Swimming Club, where she taught mothers and babies to pensioners and everyone in between.
Her aquacise classes were hugely popular with up to 100 attending some classes; she only gave up taking them when she was struck down by an immune system disorder which severely weakened her muscles and which she battled until her death.
Sons
In 1994 she moved to the QE II Swimming Pool in Christchurch where she continued to teach swimming and was heavily involved with the running of the QE II Swimming Club. Both her sons, Mark, aged 14, and John, 13, swim competitively and have taken part in national swim meets in New Zealand.
Pat died suddenly at home in Christchurch. She is survived by her husband Peter, daughter Christine, sons Mark and John, sister Chris Fishpool, of Goodrich, Ross-on-Wye, and brother Sid Newman, of Leamington Spa.
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