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England Club news round-up for December 2016 - December 1, 2016
Welcome to our Club news round-up. We aim to showcase what has been going on in English Water Polo clubs over the last month, and trail events in the coming month. If you have any news that you would like to share about your club please contact Anne Huck at ah@waterpoloengland.org.
November has been a busy month in the British Water Polo League. Congratulations to all the teams who have competed, particularly those that have got through to the Super 5s. Further information can be found at the BWPL website – www.bwpl.org or on Twitter @BWPL_org
November seems to be awards month and we have seen a number of water polo players receive recognition –
Naya Patel was named Young Sportswoman of the Year at the Lincolnshire Sports Awards. Naya plays for Hucknall Ladies and Grantham Water Polo Club as well as being on the GB squad.
Aaron Winstanley, who plays for City of Manchester Water Polo Club, received the Athlete of the Year award at the Annual ASA Aquatic Awards evening on 26 November 2016.
Dylan Green, who also plays for City of Manchester, received the Performance Athlete of the Year award for Water Polo at the Annual ASA Aquatic Awards evening.
Congratulations to you all. It is great to see recognition for the hard work put in by our players.
Our coaches are also receiving some well-deserved praise –
Andy McGinty, a coach for City of Manchester and Bolton School, has won the 2016 British Water Polo Coach of the Year Award, awarded by British Swimming on 5th November. Andy was presented with the title at the prestigious annual British Swimming Awards, held at The Connaught Rooms in London.
Richard Brough from Handsworth Grammar School Old Boys Water Polo Club has been named as a finalist at the West Midlands Community Sports Awards, recognizing community-sporting heroes from across the region. The finalists will be announced on 30 November 2016. Fingers crossed for you Richard!
Looking forward, Otter women’s water polo team is competing in the LEN European Cup from 2-4 December in Padova. The LEN European League is the top club competition in Europe for women’s water polo teams. Otter have competed in the League every year since 2012. The London team, the only English team to enter the competition, will face CN Mataro who won the LEN Trophy in 2016 as well as the 2016 Spanish Copa de la Reina, hosts Plebiscito Padova, previous Len Trophy 2015 winners and Lille UC, the French 2016 Champions.
The team will be lead by Captain Brooke Tafazolli, who played for Great Britain in the 2015 World Junior Championships.
Otter have a lot of strong young players this year – Lily Turner and Katy Cutler (2001), Sophie Jackson (2000), Kathy Rogers and Izzy Dean (both 1998) all of whom played for GBR in the 2016 European Junior Championships in the Netherlands as well as Dani Brazier (1999) and Mhari Nurthen (1998) who went to the 2015 Baku European Olympic Games in 2015 and Anna Szyszko (1998). Good luck
Exeter’s Quintuple Success
In what is a first in the history of the South West Region, the Exeter Water Polo Club has managed to win all three of the top flight Regional Club competitions (Senior Mens, Senior Ladies and Junior Mixed) in a single season.
The first Championship title to be secured was the Senior Men, who defeated Swindon Dolphins in September to secure top place in the Table over Cheltenham (2nd), Frome (3rd) and with Welsh Wanderers managing 4th place. Jack Cutting and Kamz Powell were the top marksmen for the Exeter side, and aged just 16 and 18, the future looks bright for the Team. That is not to say there wasn’t a place for experience in the squad, with familiar names in the form of Phil Sydenham and Steve Margetts both finding the back of the next well over 20 occasions each during the course of the season.
The second Championship title came courtesy of the Ladies Team, coached for the past 5 years by a young and aspiring coach Luke Bray. Once again a mixture of experience in the form of Claire Hart, Andrea Norris (former GB) and Meritxell Carrizo (former ESP) enabled younger players in the ranks to drive home key victories against the likes of Bristol Central and BWPL sides, Devonport and Welsh Wanderers. The ‘winner takes all’ match against Cheltenham Ladies saw a fiercely fought first half with Vicki Hawkins proving key to Cheltenham’s defence and attack. A half time score of 4-4 fairly reflected the match, whilst the final tally of 11-5 was in no way indicative of the standard of play.
The third Championship saw one of the most closely contested leagues in the South West’s history. Welsh Wanderers, Bristol Central, Newton Abbot and Exeter were all in contention to take the title with only two matches each left in the season. Exeter had the uphill struggle of having to defeat Newton and Cheltenham in their home pools. After a 16-10 victory over Welsh Wanderers (with young Bob Whittaker scoring 7 despite being one of the youngest players in the pool), it was left to the Welsh to defeat Newton Abbot in order to give Exeter the title which they did 11-9 at Cardiff.
The Exeter U18 Team also lifted the NAGs Title earlier this year and its BWPL Team have also reached Championship 1 for the first time since the re-organisation of the BWPL saw a two-stage format to the competition.
Club Chairman and Head Coach James Baker (‘Jaggers’) commented ‘…this year’s success reflects the hard work and commitment of so many coaches, volunteers and the players and their parents. It is not often that a Club gets the chance to celebrate success at every level competitively…’. The Club has recently had some additional good news, with Harrison Clayton relocating from the North East to join the Club’s coaching team going forward from the New Year.
Exeter’s NAG’s Championship Title Team:
Back Row: Luke Bray (AssC); Tom Hutchens; Will Hutchens; Scott Wilson; Sam Alberici; Guy Geeson; Stuart Noyce (C)
Front Row: Eric Perkin; Brad Watts; Reece Trapani; Kamz Powell (Captain); Spencer Wilks; Sam Rayner; Jack Cutting.
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Latest News
England Club news round-up for December 2016 -
Welcome to our Club news round-up. We aim to showcase what has been going on in English Water Polo clubs over the last month, and trail events in the coming month. If you have any news that you would like to share about your club please contact Anne Huck at ah@waterpoloengland.org.
November has been a busy month in the British Water Polo League. Congratulations to all the teams who have competed, particularly those that have got through to the Super 5s. Further information can be found at the BWPL website – www.bwpl.org or on Twitter @BWPL_org
November seems to be awards month and we have seen a number of water polo players receive recognition –
Naya Patel was named Young Sportswoman of the Year at the Lincolnshire Sports Awards. Naya plays for Hucknall Ladies and Grantham Water Polo Club as well as being on the GB squad.
Aaron Winstanley, who plays for City of Manchester Water Polo Club, received the Athlete of the Year award at the Annual ASA Aquatic Awards evening on 26 November 2016.
Dylan Green, who also plays for City of Manchester, received the Performance Athlete of the Year award for Water Polo at the Annual ASA Aquatic Awards evening.
Congratulations to you all. It is great to see recognition for the hard work put in by our players.
Our coaches are also receiving some well-deserved praise –
Andy McGinty, a coach for City of Manchester and Bolton School, has won the 2016 British Water Polo Coach of the Year Award, awarded by British Swimming on 5th November. Andy was presented with the title at the prestigious annual British Swimming Awards, held at The Connaught Rooms in London.
Richard Brough from Handsworth Grammar School Old Boys Water Polo Club has been named as a finalist at the West Midlands Community Sports Awards, recognizing community-sporting heroes from across the region. The finalists will be announced on 30 November 2016. Fingers crossed for you Richard!
Looking forward, Otter women’s water polo team is competing in the LEN European Cup from 2-4 December in Padova. The LEN European League is the top club competition in Europe for women’s water polo teams. Otter have competed in the League every year since 2012. The London team, the only English team to enter the competition, will face CN Mataro who won the LEN Trophy in 2016 as well as the 2016 Spanish Copa de la Reina, hosts Plebiscito Padova, previous Len Trophy 2015 winners and Lille UC, the French 2016 Champions.
The team will be lead by Captain Brooke Tafazolli, who played for Great Britain in the 2015 World Junior Championships.
Otter have a lot of strong young players this year – Lily Turner and Katy Cutler (2001), Sophie Jackson (2000), Kathy Rogers and Izzy Dean (both 1998) all of whom played for GBR in the 2016 European Junior Championships in the Netherlands as well as Dani Brazier (1999) and Mhari Nurthen (1998) who went to the 2015 Baku European Olympic Games in 2015 and Anna Szyszko (1998). Good luck
Exeter’s Quintuple Success
In what is a first in the history of the South West Region, the Exeter Water Polo Club has managed to win all three of the top flight Regional Club competitions (Senior Mens, Senior Ladies and Junior Mixed) in a single season.
The first Championship title to be secured was the Senior Men, who defeated Swindon Dolphins in September to secure top place in the Table over Cheltenham (2nd), Frome (3rd) and with Welsh Wanderers managing 4th place. Jack Cutting and Kamz Powell were the top marksmen for the Exeter side, and aged just 16 and 18, the future looks bright for the Team. That is not to say there wasn’t a place for experience in the squad, with familiar names in the form of Phil Sydenham and Steve Margetts both finding the back of the next well over 20 occasions each during the course of the season.
The second Championship title came courtesy of the Ladies Team, coached for the past 5 years by a young and aspiring coach Luke Bray. Once again a mixture of experience in the form of Claire Hart, Andrea Norris (former GB) and Meritxell Carrizo (former ESP) enabled younger players in the ranks to drive home key victories against the likes of Bristol Central and BWPL sides, Devonport and Welsh Wanderers. The ‘winner takes all’ match against Cheltenham Ladies saw a fiercely fought first half with Vicki Hawkins proving key to Cheltenham’s defence and attack. A half time score of 4-4 fairly reflected the match, whilst the final tally of 11-5 was in no way indicative of the standard of play.
The third Championship saw one of the most closely contested leagues in the South West’s history. Welsh Wanderers, Bristol Central, Newton Abbot and Exeter were all in contention to take the title with only two matches each left in the season. Exeter had the uphill struggle of having to defeat Newton and Cheltenham in their home pools. After a 16-10 victory over Welsh Wanderers (with young Bob Whittaker scoring 7 despite being one of the youngest players in the pool), it was left to the Welsh to defeat Newton Abbot in order to give Exeter the title which they did 11-9 at Cardiff.
The Exeter U18 Team also lifted the NAGs Title earlier this year and its BWPL Team have also reached Championship 1 for the first time since the re-organisation of the BWPL saw a two-stage format to the competition.
Club Chairman and Head Coach James Baker (‘Jaggers’) commented ‘…this year’s success reflects the hard work and commitment of so many coaches, volunteers and the players and their parents. It is not often that a Club gets the chance to celebrate success at every level competitively…’. The Club has recently had some additional good news, with Harrison Clayton relocating from the North East to join the Club’s coaching team going forward from the New Year.
Exeter’s NAG’s Championship Title Team:
Back Row: Luke Bray (AssC); Tom Hutchens; Will Hutchens; Scott Wilson; Sam Alberici; Guy Geeson; Stuart Noyce (C)
Front Row: Eric Perkin; Brad Watts; Reece Trapani; Kamz Powell (Captain); Spencer Wilks; Sam Rayner; Jack Cutting.
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