Our England Water Polo news is out - February 28, 2023

Welcome to the March edition of Water Polo news in which we showcase what clubs have been up to in February.  This is a busy time of the year as clubs vie with each other for positions in the British Water Polo League competitions. Men’s’ and Women’s Super Fives, Championship 1 and Championship 2 matches have all taken place this month.

In the Super Five’s Women’s competition, City of Manchester have shown their dominance with two emphatic wins against Liverpool Lizards (11-4) and against their closest rivals, Otter, who they beat 14-11.  In the latter game four COM players scored hat tricks.  This means the North West team have won all of their games played in the competition so far.

In the same competition Hucknall have continued to show great form as well defeating Liverpool Lizards 11-9 and Coventry 11-7.  Otter beat Coventry 16-7.

City of Manchester in the Super Fives

The Men’s Super Fives is a much closer event with Penguin and Polytechnic both having 6 points, City of Manchester have 5, Cheltenham have 3 and Lancaster have none.  In this month’s games, City of Manchester started off well with an emphatic victory over Lancaster 13-2.  Their next game was against Penguin and it was a much closer affair with a final score of 13 all.

Polytechnic retained their 100% record with a 17-7 victory over Cheltenham but then lost to Penguin in a tense match that ended 9-8.

Cheltenham beat Lancaster 13-6.

In Women’s Championship 1, current leaders, SheffieldSharks, maintained their form defeating Exeter 15-7 and Rotherham Metro 16-5.

Cheltenham drew with Tyldesley 12 all and then went on to win their games against Rotherham Metro 18 to 14 and Liverpool Liver Birds 12 to 11.

Cheltenham’s Championship 1 team

Otter Lutra started the weekend’s matches with a 7 all draw against Rotherham Metro.  They went on to a narrow 14-12 win over Tyldesley and then drew 9 all against Penguin Emperors.

Tyldesley had a good weekend drawing 12 all with Cheltenham and beating Exeter by 12 goals to 9.  They lost t12 to 14 against Otter Lutra.

In Men’s Championship 1 Watford beat Invicta 10 goals to 7.  The star of the match was Josh Barrett who scored a three minute hat-trick to help his team to the lead.  Well done Josh!

Josh Barrett – Watford

Welsh Wanderers started the weekend strongly with 17-12 win over Caledonia with 7 goals being scored in the final period.  Their winning streak came to end however, when they were defeated 16-13 by City of Bristol.   They bounced back the next day by defeating Sheffield 8-6.

Sutton & Cheam have also enjoyed a strong month of water polo.  They defeated Exeter 17 goals to 11 and Invicta 12 goals to 9 and sit top of the league on 9 points.

Exeter celebrated their first win in Championship 1 when they defeated Watford 11 goals to 10.

Exeter’s Championship 1 team

In Men’s Championship 2, Portobello maintained their 100% record to keep top of the league on 10 points by defeating Manchester Hawks 15 goals to 7, Hucknall 13 goals to 6 and Cheltenham Spartans 16 goals to 6.

Southampton are currently second in the league having beaten Otter 13-9 and Castleford 10-7.  They drew against Rotherham Metro with 9 goals all.

Worthing’s under 14 squad did very well to qualify for the London League Championships play-off finals with four wins from four at Whitgift school.  The event saw them defeat Kingston 13-1, Beckenham 8-0, Croydon Amphibians 6-1 and Sutton & Cheam 7-2.

Worthing under 14s

The final event was won by Watford under 14s A team.  In the final round they came back from a narrow loss to Basingstoke (3-2) to defeat Worthing, 7-5,  Croydon 7-1 and finally 9-2 against Penguin Latymer to become the London Winter League Division under 14s winners.

Watford under 14 squad London Winter League Division One winners

The Watford under 18 team started their London Winter League campaign in impressive style by beating Penguin Latymer, 6-3, Beckenham Boys, 10-5, and Hillingdon, 9-2.