But only slightly dramatized.

Back to the topic at hand, I don't know if the rules at the Palace pool indicate "no horseplay", but I'd be pretty sure they do list "no unsupervised children", without exceptions for budding Olympic swimmers of any stripe. Further, they do have a rule that the only inflatable toys allowed are armbands for kids. I guess one could consider a ball such an inflatable toy, and clearly verboten.

As for "poolboy", I've never seen a poolboy or poolgal or whatever you want to call them be so forward as to admonish boorish guests. They usually let is slide (unfortunately) or somebody more senior would come in and remind the guests not to be such white water buffalo.

And as far as I know, none of them have lifeguards (public pools do), so their authority is limited by design (unlike lifeguards, which are more like airplane pilots in their scope and range). I am surprised this fellow took it upon himself to enforce the rules (and possibly some rules not clearly spelled, like touching the swim lane divider). Even if he were in the right (and that is not clear, at least for some of his possibly invented arguments), it sounded like he had an axe to grind.