London League Water Polo Juniors

Sunday 15th October 2017

Whitgift School, South Croydon

We travelled to Whitgift School with a young squad knowing that we would be playing three very tough matches against teams that include a number of very talented boys and girls. It proved to be a tough day but all of our squad played well and will have learned a great deal from the experience.

The individual match reports are as follows; –

Worthing 5, Croydon 6 (H/T 2-2)

This was a game that we should have won but we missed far too many chances, particularly in a dominant first half, and we were punished for some poor defending at key moments. We did play very well at times and we really should have secured a win but our relative lack of experience eventually proved costly.

Scorers; – Oscar 2, Akos 1, Josh 1, Jamie 1. 

Worthing 2, Beckenham 11 (H/T 1-5)

A tough game against a very talented team and although the final score indicates a heavy defeat we actually played well for long periods. We were punished with a very strong counter attack when we lost possession but we never gave up and we did score two very good goals.

Scorers; – Oscar 1, Jamie 1

Worthing 2, Chelmsford 7 (H/T 0-2)

Another very tough game against a team that is very similar to Beckenham but we defended well for most of the game and we frustrated the opposition on many occasions. All of the squad made a significant contribution and we probably should have scored more goals but our finishing was not at its best.

Scorer; – Josh 2

Squad in full; – Toby Masray, Josh Coulson, Jamie Bond, Oscar Silk, Caitlin Silk, Grace Byford, Maisie Standen, Josh Luff, Mattie Smith, Akos Hausknecht, Ben Bolton.

We knew that this would be a tough event for us but the boys and girls will benefit greatly from having played against some very talented opponents. We never gave up and all of the squad worked incredibly hard throughout three very hard matches.

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BWPL 2nd Weekend Match Reports

TheBritish Water Polo League Division 3

Lancaster Salt Ayre, 7^th/8^th October 2017

Worthing 14, Southampton 2

Quarter Scores; – 3-0, 4-0, 3-1, 4-2

The fixture secretary of the national league produced an interesting schedule for the season that resulted in the south coast derby taking place 300 miles from home at Salt Ayre in Lancaster.

We took a squad of 12 players to play against our familiar rivals and we produced a really solid display that was based on a very good defensive display. With Marc back in goal and utilising an aggressive pressing defence, we dominated proceedings from the start and we probably should have won by a greater margin if we had taken more of the many chances that we created.

All of the squad enjoyed a good amount of water time and it always helps to have fresh players on the bench ready to come in and contribute. Stefan scored his first goal playing in the national league and Matt led the scorers with 5 but this really was a very solid team performance.

Scorers; – Matt 5, Joao 2, George 2, Richard 1, Ben 1, Stefan 1, toby 1, Alastair 1

Exclusions; – George 1, Ben 1, Stefan 1, Jacob 1.

RSunday 8th October 2017

Worthing 13, Bridgefield 7

Quarter scores; – 2-1, 4-1, 4-2, 3-3

This was always going to be difficult game against an opposition who take a very old fashioned approach to water polo. To a number of our younger squad members this was the first time that they had played in this type of match when our opponents did all they could to slow down our swimming game.

They were partly successful but we always looked in control of the match even if we didn’t play our best water polo and we eventually ran out comfortable winners.

We looked a little tired and perhaps the effort we put into the Southampton game on the Saturday, when we had played so well, had taken its toll.

Scorers; – Matt 5, George 2, Stefan 2, Joao 1, Toby 1, Jacob 1, Richard 1.

Squad in full; – Marc Guimera, Archy Burnell, George Wood, Richard Hooper, Ben Curtis, Stefan Berechet, Joao Martins, Toby Underwood, Jacob Nash, Akos Hausknect, Matt White, Alastair Hardinge.

Overall this was an excellent weekend when we secured the two wins that have taken us a stage closer to playing in Championship 2 in the second phase of the competition. This will then give us the possibility of promotion to division 2 for next season.

We complete the first phase of the competition with a busy 3 game weekend at the Haberdashers school pool in Elstree in three weeks time.