The water wonder!

He formed his own club so that swimmers -- including his two daughters -- did not have to travel out of the town to train.

He's committed his time, energy and money to bringing the best out of his swimmers who, in turn, have gone on to succeed at county and national level.

And he's earned an MBE for his services to swimming -- an award he richly deserves.

Now aged 65-years-old, the founder of the Burnley Bobcats Swimming Club still has an unquenchable thirst to pass on his fountain of knowledge at poolside.

For while there are swimmers to coach, Alan will coach them.

It was back in 1976 that Alan started his swimming quest. Realising there was a void in Burnley for swimmers to realise their true potential, Alan went about forming his own club.

"Burnley had the facilities but not the club for swimmers of a higher level. At the time, swimmers were having to travel out of the town to train and it simply wasn't acceptable."

At the time, his youngest daughter Rosemary achieved the national qualifying time as an 11-year-old.

But when the only training slot she could get was 10 o'clock at night, Alan decided enough was enough.

"I did some research in to what we needed and approached Burnley Borough Council to see if we could start something up."

Alan's trial sessions at Padiham pool proved to be so successful that the Bobcats -- which stands for Borough of Burnley Competition Amateur Training Swimmers -- was formed.

The club held six morning sessions and five evening sessions a week at Thompson Leisure Centre and Padiham Pool.

Alan took on the positions of head coach and secretary -- positions he still holds to this day.

"Very little has changed over the years apart from when we first started out we used to have to get the keys off the night watchman to open up the pool for our morning sessions.

"Today, for health and safety reasons we need to have a life guard on hand."

Back in 1977, when the club first formed, Alan started with 12 swimmers but in the past 28 years hundreds have been overseen by the man who prides himself on his attention to detail.

Amazingly, Alan has never sat any training exams but his experience more than makes up for that.

"Back in 1978, I attended a clinic at Crystal Palace which was held by Doc Councilman who was legendary in swimming.

"He was a former Olympian and wrote a book about science and swimming. I took on a lot of the Doc's methods."

And they are methods that have worked as Burnley Bobcats have had many swimmers who have gone on to compete at national level.

Chris Rushton was the club's first junior international while the current young star is Martin Handley who had an outside chance of making the Olympic relay team for Athens until he broke his leg.

"You do get some days when you wish you didn't have to get up early to coach but those days are very few and far between.

"You only have to look how dedicated the swimmers are to realise what it is all about. Some of the swimmers are in the pool at 5am in the morning."

Handley, 15, is an example of that dedication to sport. For the youngster, who took part in the European Youth Olympics before his injury swims between 40,000 and 50,000 metres a week.

Now on his way back to full recovery, Handley has been invited to take part in the prestigious Australian Age Group Championships in April.

He will also take part in trials for the Olympic relay squad.

Alan can take a certain degree of satisfaction in the success of his swimmers.

"Martin is an outstanding swimmer and is our best hope of a medal in Australia. We will be deciding in the next couple of weeks if he will be making the trip."

Alan said that his young prodigy had a good chance of making the relay squad before breaking his leg when he was kicked by a horse.

"Those chances are a lot slimmer now because he was out of the pool for five weeks. He will be attending the trials so we will have to wait and see."

Handley's success also proves that Alan and the Bobcats can still churn out quality swimmers.

"That does give me a lot of satisfaction. We have had far too many national standard swimmers to mention over the years but it is good that we are still producing them.

"We are not a club living in the past."

The Bobcats could lay claim to being one of the most successful in the area.

For the club regularly has swimmers competing in national championships -- eight took part in the most recent event -- while they take part in Open meetings, Northern Counties and swim in the Speedo League.

Alan obviously rates the MBE he received in 1998 as his personal highlight in swimming but admitted it came as a bolt out of the blue.

"I had no idea I was up for the award. I was nominated by some people at the club and it was a real surprise. To go to Buckingham Palace was a wonderful honour."

How successful the club can be in the future largely depends on funding.

Spiralling costs for pool hire has hit the club hard -- at one stage he lost a quarter of the swimmers.

However, numbers have swelled to 50 in recent months and the club seems to be getting back on track.

"Our pool costs triple in one year and that really hit us hard. The truth is that the better a swimmer gets the more expensive it becomes. I have tried to help out where I can but if we could get some companies to come in and sponsor the club or individuals it would be a great help."

Anyone who would like to sponsor the club can contact Alan Moorhouse on 01254 381869.