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Welcome to December’s England Water Polo Club news - December 1, 2023
Welcome to our December News in which we take a snapshot of what has been going on in our clubs across England.
We start off this month celebrating those who have been nominated for Swim England National Awards in water polo. These awards celebrate the very best of aquatic sport and the individuals who contribute so much to make it the success it is. The National Award for Club of the Year went to Grantham WPC. This is a fantastic achievement and we send the club our very best wishes. We also congratulate Winchester WPC which came second and Colchester which came third.
Izzy Howe was named Coach of the Year. Izzy plays water polo for her club (City of Manchester) and the GB national team. She qualified as a coach as soon as she could and shares her passion for the sport with the squads she coaches. She is enthusiastic, committed and talented. She is well respected by all those who know her. Izzy is a rising star in the coaching world. We are proud to have her in our sport. Well done Izzy!
The pool of talent in this year’s Coach of the year was very strong. Gabrielle Williams of Sheffield took silver and Lauren Hand took bronze.
Aside from the glitzy awards, there has been a lot of water polo this month. Enfield Masters returned to Skopje, Macedonia to compete in a 13-team Over 30s tournament featuring teams from North Macedonia, Croatia, Turkey, Slovakia, Montenegro and Bosnia. The team finished 12th and described the hosts, Vadar, as “the absolute best – the event was incredible and so much fun for us and all the teams.”
Enfield in Macedonia
Congratulations to Enfield’s Senior Men’s team who have been crowned London Water Polo League Division Two champions. A remarkable season saw them win all but one game. They have also qualified for the 2023 London Water Polo League Referees Cup grand final after beating Reading 16-12 in a thrilling semi-final played at Eton College.
Enfield seconds also completed a successful season finishing runners up in Division 3.
Enfield 1st and 2nd senior men
Watford U18s have been competing in the latest round of the Junior National Conference League. They defeated Sheffield 24-4 and were narrowly beaten by Birmingham by one goal 10-9.
Watford U18s
Watford Ladies competed in the final round of BWPL Division 3 at Northampton and needed two wins from three to secure their place in the top two. The weekend began with a match against Welsh Wanderers which Watford won 20-5. Next up were Sheffield Stingrays who were defeated 21-2. The pressure was now on to finish the season undefeated which they did by beating Birmingham 30-3. The team will now participate in the play-offs in April 2024 for a place in Division Two in the 2024/25 season.
Watford top of Div 3
In Women’s Division 2 Manchester Comets finished their season with 5 wins and 4 draws. This amazing young team will play in Championship 1 next year. Well done ladies!
Manchester Comets
In Women’s Division 1, City of Manchester were too strong for their opponents defeating Hucknall (13-3) and Penguin Emperors (19-7). This impressive team thus completed phase one with no losses.
We also learned this month that the teams qualifying for the Women’s Super 5s will be City of Manchester, Liverpool Lizards, Coventry, Sheffield Sharks and Otter.
In Men’s Division 1 there was some controversy after City of Manchester were late to a key match against Polytechnic after getting caught up in traffic following an accident on the motorway. The BWPL committee determined the match could not be rearranged and awarded the points to Polytechnic with a 0-0 scoreline. Manchester went on to beat Sutton & Cheam 12-8 and sit second in the table on 6 points behind Welsh Wanderers on 9 points.
Watford were in fine form for the latest round in Men’s Division 2. They completed a hat-trick of wins against Hucknall (9-6), Southampton (13-8) and Portobello (12-10). They sit comfortably at the top of the league table on 8 points with the final round on 2/3 December.
Watford – top of Div 2
Sedgefield are sitting pretty at the top of Men’s Division 3 after some fine water polo this month defeating Rotherham Metro (7-25) and Manchester Hawkes (10-16).
Sedgefield
This year has been the inaugural year for the National Conference Water Polo League that has replaced the BWPL Division 5. After the first weekend at Walsall Colchester were undefeated and went into the second weekend in second place behind Coventry on goal difference. The final weekend took place over the weekend of 11/12 November at the Jason Kenny Sports Centre. Colchester were in great form and defeated Northampton 12-10 to face fellow unbeaten team Coventry in their final match. After a hard fought match Coventry took the game 18-10.
Colchester
Grantham Water Polo took three teams to Matlock for a tournament for U13s and U15s. All the teams put out some fantastic polo, with some of the C team players making their first-ever appearance. It was a noisy atmosphere at the Arc Leisure Centre with two matches taking place concurrently, meaning lots of Ref whistles and spectator enthusiasm. The club took home some medals, smiles and a good measure of experience.
Grantham Water Polo
Kingston Royals Water Polo celebrated another ‘First’ this month when they fielded their first ever Ladies team. The team was made up of all ages ranging from 12 years to 17 and played an up and coming Surrey University team. Great to see more women participating in the sport.
Kingston Water Polo Ladies
Swindon Dolphin Water Polo Women’s Team finished third in the Lamb Trophy in Plymouth earlier in the month.
Swindon Dolphin Women
Swindon also hosted a junior tournament where they were joined by teams from Andover, Frome, Bradford on Avon and Weston-super Mare water polo clubs. This presented a great opportunity for the players to gain valuable match experience and a great time was had by all.
Swindon’s Junior Tournament underway
Looking forward to upcoming events, City of Manchester will be running a Winter Water Polo Festival in 13 January 2024 for 2010-11 boys and Girls (not mixed) and 2012-13 Boys, Girls or mixed. Please contact the club if you wish to participate.
On the weekend of Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st July 2024, Jersey Water Polo Association (“JWPA”) are planning an outdoor tournament (both men’s teams and ladie’s teams) at Havre Des Pas Bathing Pool, St Helier, Jersey to celebrate their 50th anniversary. Expect a weekend full of water polo, party and fun at one the most beautiful salt water pools in the world. Team registration is on a first come first served basis so be quick if you wish to take part. More information can be found at: https://www.jsypolo.com/2024-tournament.
The Havre Des Pas Bathing Pool
And finally, two more sets of congratulations. Firstly, we would like to congratulate Harriet Dickens (City of Manchester and GB) who has signed for Michigan University on a Water Polo Scholarship starting in August 2024. This is a tremendous achievement and richly deserved. She will be following in the steps of Kathy Rogers and Sophie Jackson.
Congratulations also to Lize Crone who was awarded the November Outstanding Achiever award from the Jack Petchey Foundation. Lize has represented her club at local, county and regional level and is now a fantastic role model as a volunteer coach. Well done Lize!
Lize Crone with coach Shaun Hill (who has been named Water Polo Coach of the Year for the London Region).
That’s it for this month. Please do contact us if you want to publicise all the good things happening at your club by emailing ah@waterpoloengland.org
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Latest News
Welcome to December’s England Water Polo Club news -
Welcome to our December News in which we take a snapshot of what has been going on in our clubs across England.
We start off this month celebrating those who have been nominated for Swim England National Awards in water polo. These awards celebrate the very best of aquatic sport and the individuals who contribute so much to make it the success it is. The National Award for Club of the Year went to Grantham WPC. This is a fantastic achievement and we send the club our very best wishes. We also congratulate Winchester WPC which came second and Colchester which came third.
Izzy Howe was named Coach of the Year. Izzy plays water polo for her club (City of Manchester) and the GB national team. She qualified as a coach as soon as she could and shares her passion for the sport with the squads she coaches. She is enthusiastic, committed and talented. She is well respected by all those who know her. Izzy is a rising star in the coaching world. We are proud to have her in our sport. Well done Izzy!
The pool of talent in this year’s Coach of the year was very strong. Gabrielle Williams of Sheffield took silver and Lauren Hand took bronze.
Aside from the glitzy awards, there has been a lot of water polo this month. Enfield Masters returned to Skopje, Macedonia to compete in a 13-team Over 30s tournament featuring teams from North Macedonia, Croatia, Turkey, Slovakia, Montenegro and Bosnia. The team finished 12th and described the hosts, Vadar, as “the absolute best – the event was incredible and so much fun for us and all the teams.”
Enfield in Macedonia
Congratulations to Enfield’s Senior Men’s team who have been crowned London Water Polo League Division Two champions. A remarkable season saw them win all but one game. They have also qualified for the 2023 London Water Polo League Referees Cup grand final after beating Reading 16-12 in a thrilling semi-final played at Eton College.
Enfield seconds also completed a successful season finishing runners up in Division 3.
Enfield 1st and 2nd senior men
Watford U18s have been competing in the latest round of the Junior National Conference League. They defeated Sheffield 24-4 and were narrowly beaten by Birmingham by one goal 10-9.
Watford U18s
Watford Ladies competed in the final round of BWPL Division 3 at Northampton and needed two wins from three to secure their place in the top two. The weekend began with a match against Welsh Wanderers which Watford won 20-5. Next up were Sheffield Stingrays who were defeated 21-2. The pressure was now on to finish the season undefeated which they did by beating Birmingham 30-3. The team will now participate in the play-offs in April 2024 for a place in Division Two in the 2024/25 season.
Watford top of Div 3
In Women’s Division 2 Manchester Comets finished their season with 5 wins and 4 draws. This amazing young team will play in Championship 1 next year. Well done ladies!
Manchester Comets
In Women’s Division 1, City of Manchester were too strong for their opponents defeating Hucknall (13-3) and Penguin Emperors (19-7). This impressive team thus completed phase one with no losses.
We also learned this month that the teams qualifying for the Women’s Super 5s will be City of Manchester, Liverpool Lizards, Coventry, Sheffield Sharks and Otter.
In Men’s Division 1 there was some controversy after City of Manchester were late to a key match against Polytechnic after getting caught up in traffic following an accident on the motorway. The BWPL committee determined the match could not be rearranged and awarded the points to Polytechnic with a 0-0 scoreline. Manchester went on to beat Sutton & Cheam 12-8 and sit second in the table on 6 points behind Welsh Wanderers on 9 points.
Watford were in fine form for the latest round in Men’s Division 2. They completed a hat-trick of wins against Hucknall (9-6), Southampton (13-8) and Portobello (12-10). They sit comfortably at the top of the league table on 8 points with the final round on 2/3 December.
Watford – top of Div 2
Sedgefield are sitting pretty at the top of Men’s Division 3 after some fine water polo this month defeating Rotherham Metro (7-25) and Manchester Hawkes (10-16).
Sedgefield
This year has been the inaugural year for the National Conference Water Polo League that has replaced the BWPL Division 5. After the first weekend at Walsall Colchester were undefeated and went into the second weekend in second place behind Coventry on goal difference. The final weekend took place over the weekend of 11/12 November at the Jason Kenny Sports Centre. Colchester were in great form and defeated Northampton 12-10 to face fellow unbeaten team Coventry in their final match. After a hard fought match Coventry took the game 18-10.
Colchester
Grantham Water Polo took three teams to Matlock for a tournament for U13s and U15s. All the teams put out some fantastic polo, with some of the C team players making their first-ever appearance. It was a noisy atmosphere at the Arc Leisure Centre with two matches taking place concurrently, meaning lots of Ref whistles and spectator enthusiasm. The club took home some medals, smiles and a good measure of experience.
Grantham Water Polo
Kingston Royals Water Polo celebrated another ‘First’ this month when they fielded their first ever Ladies team. The team was made up of all ages ranging from 12 years to 17 and played an up and coming Surrey University team. Great to see more women participating in the sport.
Kingston Water Polo Ladies
Swindon Dolphin Water Polo Women’s Team finished third in the Lamb Trophy in Plymouth earlier in the month.
Swindon Dolphin Women
Swindon also hosted a junior tournament where they were joined by teams from Andover, Frome, Bradford on Avon and Weston-super Mare water polo clubs. This presented a great opportunity for the players to gain valuable match experience and a great time was had by all.
Swindon’s Junior Tournament underway
Looking forward to upcoming events, City of Manchester will be running a Winter Water Polo Festival in 13 January 2024 for 2010-11 boys and Girls (not mixed) and 2012-13 Boys, Girls or mixed. Please contact the club if you wish to participate.
On the weekend of Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st July 2024, Jersey Water Polo Association (“JWPA”) are planning an outdoor tournament (both men’s teams and ladie’s teams) at Havre Des Pas Bathing Pool, St Helier, Jersey to celebrate their 50th anniversary. Expect a weekend full of water polo, party and fun at one the most beautiful salt water pools in the world. Team registration is on a first come first served basis so be quick if you wish to take part. More information can be found at: https://www.jsypolo.com/2024-tournament.
The Havre Des Pas Bathing Pool
And finally, two more sets of congratulations. Firstly, we would like to congratulate Harriet Dickens (City of Manchester and GB) who has signed for Michigan University on a Water Polo Scholarship starting in August 2024. This is a tremendous achievement and richly deserved. She will be following in the steps of Kathy Rogers and Sophie Jackson.
Congratulations also to Lize Crone who was awarded the November Outstanding Achiever award from the Jack Petchey Foundation. Lize has represented her club at local, county and regional level and is now a fantastic role model as a volunteer coach. Well done Lize!
Lize Crone with coach Shaun Hill (who has been named Water Polo Coach of the Year for the London Region).
That’s it for this month. Please do contact us if you want to publicise all the good things happening at your club by emailing ah@waterpoloengland.org
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