What does 'swallow' mean in this context?

I have a report of the Peace Celebrations 1919 written by the vicar of a village in Kent (a county in the southeast of England) in which he describes some of the sporting competitions staged in the afternoon, including:

'The sight of all these contests stirred the blood of old and young. Wager matches were made and run off, Mr. J. Prior beating Mr. E. Orpin, and Mrs. Checksfield, after a good swallow, proved more than a match for her husband.'

What could he have meant by 'after a good swallow'? Google, as you can imagine, is no help as the top ten results for 'a good swallow' are probably quite different in meaning to what the good vicar intended. My one thought is that as this is a celebration in a quintessentially English village, Mrs Checksfield's 'swallow' is a gulp from an emboldening cup of tea.

I'm writing an article to commemorate the centenary of these celebrations next year and want to include the most likely meaning of this phrase.

Swallow in this context means swallow. Whilst it doesn't happen much in reality, in drama a person will often 'gulp' when fearful or concerned. You'll see the phenomena a million times in tv and movies where the shot is taken of the bobbing adam's apple as a character swallows/gulps in fear.

You're right to make the emboldening link, but it does not require that anything actually be consumed...this isn't to be taken that she was literally fearful of her husband, rather that she apparently needed to work herself up to the effort.

The meta for the OED reports: "Saran swallowed, fear and nervousness suddenly finding their way back.' 'I swallowed hard, recalling that the man I was verbally jousting with has enjoyed his own significant share of that patronage down the years.' 'Micah swallowed hard to control the fear inside of her."

Swallowing your fear(apprehension) is a common enough phrase that no more complicated explanation for the usage seems necessary.