Our ‘welcome to Spring’ England water polo club news is out! - April 1, 2023

This has been another action-packed month of water polo in the BWPL Super 5s and promotion tournaments. We have also had the Swim England National Age Group Championships and the finals of the London League Winter Championships.

We start our news round up with the National Age Group Championships. This year the Championships are for boys and girls in the under 19, under 17 and under 15 age groups. The early qualifying rounds for the under 19 boys took place at the beginning of March. The early rounds for the under 17 boys were split and took place on 11th March with the next session being on 2nd April. The girls’ qualifying rounds will take place in April with the under 15 rounds to be confirmed.

Worthing boys under 19 squad had a strong start to the competition playing against tough opposition. They beat Northampton (4-1), Penguin (6-4) and Invicta (5-2) to qualify for the finals weekend at the end of April.

Worthing Water Polo under 19s

Watford’s boys under 19s also started their campaign in strong style beating Grantham 8 goals to 2. They also went on to defeat Barnet water polo 17-1. Sadly, they miss out on the finals after a 2 goals to 3 defeat to Cheltenham.

Watford under 19s

A total of 15 teams are taking part in the under 17 Boys preliminary round. 9 of these were in action on 11 March. Congratulations to West London Penguin who were comfortably through to the under 17 NAGS Championships with 8 points at the top of group A. City of Manchester are through to the finals as the winners of group B.

West London Penguin

In the women’s Super 5s City of Manchester remain undefeated as they go into the finale weekend on 1/2 April. They need only 2 points to become the Super 5s Champions. If they succeed, they will win the title for the 4th consecutive time. This month has seen them complete convincing wins against Hucknall (10-2) and Coventry (10-6). Otter are 3 points behind Manchester. Hucknall is third on 5 points with Liverpool Lizards and Coventry on 2 points.

In the men’s Super 5s, Penguin retained their unbeaten record when they defeated Lancaster 17-7 and Cheltenham 13-6. They will go through to the finale weekend with a one point lead over City of Manchester. Polytechnic are third with Cheltenham fourth and Lancaster fifth.

Sheffield Sharks sealed the women’s Division 1 title with a 12-7 win over Otter Lutra. Congratulations also to Cheltenham who won promotion to Division 1 for the first time after a hard fought victory over Penguin Emperors (7-5) who take the third spot.

Sheffield Sharks

Sutton & Cheam won the Men’s Championship 1. Welsh Wanderers and City of Bristol taking the remaining promotion places.

Sutton & Cheam

The Women’s promotion to Division 2 play-offs took place in Bolton. The two places were hotly contested by Watford, Mid Sussex Marlins, Caledonia and Manchester Comets. West Sussex Marlins won the tournament with an impressive two wins and one draw over the weekend.

West Sussex Marlins

Congratulations to City of Manchester Comets who have also been promoted to BWPL Division 2 next season after winning two games and losing one. This is a massive achievement for a young team who only three seasons ago were at the bottom of Division 3. Great job!

Manchester Comets

Portobello won Men’s Championship 2 with Southampton defeating Manchester Hawks to finish as runners up. Hucknall took 3rd promotion place.

Portobello

This month has also seen the finals of the London League Winter Championships. Well done to Team Penguin, who won the Under 16 Girls’ Division 1 Championship.

Team Penguin

Congratulations to the Hillingdon under 16 squad who are the worthy winners of the Boys’ London League Winter Championships Division 2.

Hillingdon

Congratulations also to Kingston Royals Water polo who are Surrey League winners 2022/23. Very well done.

Kingston Royal

And finally, it is great to see Penguins enjoying themselves at South Africa Masters Water Polo Tournament.

Penguin Masters

This month we are looking forward to the Super 5s finale weekend on1/2 April and the NAGS.

That’s it for this month’s round up of club news. We are always happy to publicise news from clubs around England so if you have any news you would like to share, please let us know by emailing ah@waterpoloengland.org

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