MY PLAN had been to take a swim on Sunday morning at the Hinksey swimming pool.

The weather forecast was good, the water nicely heated to a temperature of 25C, according to a board at the entrance.

What fun it would be, I thought, to pen a paragraph or two about an outdoor swim in Oxford on a November day.

But then I thought it would be even more fun to write the piece – this piece – without actually being the one doing the swimming.

After all, if I could spend five weeks on a Greek island without once venturing into the sea, as I did this year and last, then why get wet in the piffling cause of entertaining Gray Matter readers?

Substitute bathers were there aplenty, splashing about in the day’s glorious sunshine. Staff on duty told me that the turn-out was the best seen during the period of extended autumn opening. This was the last day of it.

Among those I chatted to there was local mum Frances Townend, of Chilswell Road. Her two boys can be seen enjoying the water in the photograph below.

It was intended that Mrs Townend would supply identification of the lads by email, since I was a journalist sans notebook. But owing to a cock-up on the technological front – of my making, I am sure – this had not happened at the time of writing.

This was the first year that Oxford City Council has kept open the pool beyond the end of September, at significant cost, I imagine, with so large a quantity of water to keep warm and the air above it so cold.

There was a meeting being held in the South Oxford community centre last night to gauge public reaction to the experiment.

This would have been a very positive one, I expect, to judge from the enthusiasm shown by Mrs Townend and her family during their talk with me.