About our Club
Linslade Crusaders is a Swim England SwimMark accredited club.
We’re a friendly, passionate and inclusive club where every swimmer counts. Our aim is to help each individual develop their full swimming potential – whether they’re just starting out in competition or working towards County, Regional or National level. Through our structured squad pathway, swimmers build strong technical foundations while developing speed, endurance, confidence and team spirit.
We welcome swimmers from Learn to Swim Stage 5 through to Stage 10, and onwards into Academy, Skills, Competitive and Performance squads. We’re proud to support swimmers of all backgrounds and abilities, including those with disabilities, and we’re committed to making reasonable adjustments to help every swimmer thrive.
Our dedicated team of teachers and coaches are all DBS-checked and qualified to Swim England standards. All sessions are overseen by our Head Coach, Adrian Smith, who holds the Swim England UKCC Senior Coach qualification. He is supported by our Assistant Head Coach, Simon Wright, a qualified Swim England UKCC Level 2 coach.
Crusaders History
Crusaders Swimming Club was started following an unsuccessful attempt to form a training squad for swimmers in the South Bedfordshire area. At that time there was, and still is, a high demand for learn to swim lessons, and as a result water time was obtained on Sunday afternoons at Lewsey Pool in Luton, and under the supervision of Colin Moore, the original Crusaders Club Coach, with the assistance of Colin and Pauline Swaithes and Mr and Mrs Tom Nairn, the Crusaders Self Help Learn to Swim scheme was launched. From this grew our current club, which at the moment has a membership of approaching 170.
Linslade Crusaders was one of the original founding members of the Chiltern League, which was formed in the late 1980s to give the young, inexperienced novice swimmers the experience of competitive swimming. In 1996 Linslade Crusaders took the decision to enter two further leagues, the Home Counties and the prestigious National Speedo League. The club currently swims in not only the Chiltern League, division 1, junior league division 2 but also Arena League 3.
Our Club is very proud of its beginnings, especially its Learn to Swim scheme, where many of our current swimmers started their swimming journey. This demonstrates the loyalty of the Club’s swimmers to the Club, coach and teachers.
Linslade Crusaders also helps to develop school swimming by hosting a successful schools gala for the town’s middle schools.