August is typically a quieter month when our players take some well-earned time out to relax before the BWPL starts again in September. Some of us even managed to find the time to attend the LEN European Championships in Barcelona and were treated to some world class polo in the sunshine, and some less than world class mascot dancing, see the video clip below!
With the endless summer heatwave on its way back in the UK perhaps it’s time to take polo out of the pool into the great outdoors like they do in mainland Europe?
The 2018 British Championships were played out in glorious sunshine in the beautiful setting of the Sandford Parks Lido over the weekend of 2nd/3rd June. Saturday semi-finals saw Solihull and
Cheltenham through to the finals for the men and Manchester and Otter through for the women.
In the women’s event Otter went down 8-7 to Manchester in the final. Having trailed for much of the match Manchester had a fantastic last quarter to turn the result around.
First off, wasn’t it great to see British water polo featured on Sky Sports for two hours on a Sunday evening? The channel showed the highlights from this year’s Super Fives including interviews with the team captains who came across as professional and poised. Internationally in May, our GBR U19 men qualified Europe for the first time in a decade, and both our England Men and U19 Women won the 2018 EU Nations Men’s and Women’s Tournaments.