Water Polo
Here is a permanent link to Worthing Herald serarch for Water Polo News page.
100K in a day2/8/2010 National League 2010 fundraising program 24 hour relay starting at 07.00 on Friday 3rd September at the Aquarena Please click here for details |
Match Review26/7/2010
We have
had a very busy and successful week
with the under 15 squad winning all
three matches in the London league on
Sunday and the senior team winning two
county league matches.
The under
15 review has already been filed but
following are the details of the
senior matches.
1.
Wednesday 21st July 2010.
Sussex
County Senior League.
Worthing
17, Brighton "A" 7.
(Quarter scores: 4-2, 3-1, 4-1, 6-3)
This was
our first home match for some time and
we were looking forward to a tough
match against a much improved Brighton
team.
We are
lucky to be able to field a very
strong team at the moment with a
number of our players who are away in
full time education now being back at
home and available for selection.
Having
enjoyed a good win at Crawley on
the previous Wednesday, we knew that
Brighton would offer a good standard
of opposition who would give us a
proper test. This proved to be the
case and although the final score may
indicate a relatively easy win this
was a tough match, particularly
in the early stages.
That said,
we always controlled the match and we
were guilty of missing a number
of chances that we would normally have
expected to score from.
Defensively
we worked hard to limit the opposition
to a relatively small number of
chances and Ben Alcorn produced a
number of fine saves when called upon.
Overall a
satisfactory win that again gave a
good indication of the
ability of this talented group of
players.
Scorers:
Scott Martin 6, Joel Abbott 5, Ziggy
Tate 3, Matt White 2, Alastair
Hardinge 1.
Exclusions:
Adrian Irbe 1, Ziggy Tate 1, Alastair
Hardinge 1.
Squad in
full: Ben Alcorn (G/K), Jon Gray,
Adrian Irbe, Tim Brazier, Sam Abbott,
Dominic Cranford, Scott Martin, Ziggy
Tate, Nathan Hart, Joel Abbott, Matt
White, Alastair Hardinge.
2. Friday
23rd July 2010.
Sussex
County Senior League.
Brighton
"B" 4, Worthing 17. (Quarter
scores: 5-1, 5-1, 4-2, 3-0)
The second
match in 48 hours was against the
second string Brighton team at the
Prince Regent pool which is shallow
and narrow and far from ideal for the
playing of water polo.
With
several players unavailable we had a
much smaller squad and we
included Joe Hazeldine, who only
turned 13 years of age in January, for
what was a remarkable debut in
senior water polo.
The match
itself was of a reasonable standard
and Brighton defended well for long
periods without looking particularly
threatening in attack.
We always
created chances and we scored a number
of well worked goals and Joel Abbott
was particularly prolific scoring 7
times.
Joe was
slightly reticent to make his entry
into the match but in the third
quarter he produced a hugely
entertaining cameo scoring two
excellent goals shortly followed by
being excluded for a major foul and
then managing to injure his thumb. As
a result he played no further part but
he had made his mark and he is
undoubtedly the youngest Worthing
scorer in a senior match for many
years.
Scorers:
Joel Abbott 7, Sam Abbott 3, Matt
White 2, Joe Hazeldine 2, Ben Alcorn
1, Andy Cawdery 1, Dominic Cranford 1.
Exclusions:
Sam Abbott 1, Alastair Hardinge 1,
Andy Cawdery 1, Joe Hazeldine 1.
Squad in full:
Alexander Cranford, Dominic Cranford,
Joel Abbott, Sam Abbott, Alastair
Hardinge, Andy Cawdery, Joe Hazeldine,
Ben Alcorn, Matt White, Alastair
Roberts.
The squad
continues to train throughout the
summer as we build up to the national
league season which commences in
September at Ponds Forge, Sheffield.
Regards,
Alastair.
|
Match Review19/7/2010
London
League Under 15 Championship.
Tournament
3.
Whitgift
School, South Croydon.
Sunday
18th July 2010.
We
travelled to the latest tournament in
this season's championship having
enjoyed some excellent results in the
two previous events when the potential
of our young squad was finally being
rewarded with improved performances.
The team
is now much more competitive and now
looks particularly well organised
defensively as well as having a much
improved attacking threat.
At this
event we looked forward to three
matches against Basingstoke, Enfield
and West London/Ealing and we were
confident that if we played well we
would have a chance of three wins.
These are
the individual match reports:
Match 1.
Worthing 8, Basingstoke 1. (H/T 4-0)
This was a
satisfactory win against an
enthusiastic opposition but we were
always in control of the match and the
final score was a fair reflection of
our dominance.
Our speed
on the counter-attack always caused
the opposition problems and we scored
a number of good quality goals as a
result.
Ben, Joe
and Sam shared the goals but this was
a good all-round team performance.
Scorers:
Ben Goddard 3, Joe Hazeldine 2, Sam
Wildman 2.
Exclusions:
Ben Goddard 1.
Match 2.
Worthing 6, Enfield 1. (H/T 3-1)
Another
good win when the team defended well
but didn't quite play with the same
attacking skill as in the first match.
Too many
shots were taken when a pass should
have been made to a team-mate in a
better position and as a result we
wasted a number of chances.
We always
controlled the match and we were the
better team throughout and the final
score again indicated our overall
dominance.
Scorers:
Ben Goddard 3, Joe Hazeldine 1, Karen
Chan 1, Olly Rainford 1.
Exclusions:
Olly Rainford 1, Ben Goddard 1.
Match 3.
Worthing 8, West London/Ealing 3. (H/T
3-1)
A good
performance to finish the day when
we again dominated and were well
worth another fine win.
Once
again, we defended well and Henry made
a number of good saves when required.
We scored
a number of good goals and it was
particularly pleasing to see Harleigh
score her first goal after good play
from Joe and Ben.
Ben
unfortunately didn't see the end of
the game having had his lip
cut after an accidental elbow in
the final few minutes.
Scorers:
Joe Hazeldine 3, Ben Goddard 2, Sam
Wildman 1, Harleigh Goddard 1, Karen
Chan 1.
Exclusions:
None.
Squad in
full: Henry Jackson (G/K), Joe
Hazeldine, Ben Goddard, Harleigh
Goddard, Karen Chan, Olly Rainford,
Sam Wildman & Callum Craven.
Overall
this was another encouraging
performance from our younger squad.
The team
is now beginning to make real progress
and this is illustrated by the much
improved results.
We now
enjoy a break for the holiday period
before the final tournament in
September.
Regards,
Alastair.
|
Match Review18/7/2010
Sussex
Senior League.
Wednesday
14th July 2010
Crawley 9,
Worthing 20. (Quarter scores: 7-2,
5-2, 4-2, 4-3)
The trip
to Crawley is now a highlight of the
county water polo season because we
play against a much improved, and as a
result competitive opposition, at the
excellent 50 metre deep water pool at
the K2 complex. Crawley are making
good progress as a water polo club
with a significant increase in junior
players mainly due to these vastly
improved facilities. Lets hope that
the replacement pool for the Aquarena manages
to incorporate some of these more
modern type of facilities,
particularly the inclusion of
variable water depth in the main swimming
pool.
The match
itself was an entertaining affair
which we controlled throughout,
particularly after a very positive
start in the first quarter.
Crawley
struggled to deal with our attacking
play with Matt White and Joel Abbott
always causing problems from the
centre forward position. Our swift
counter-attacking also led to a number
of goals but we really should have
scored more but our finishing was
never at it's best.
We
experimented for long periods with a
zonal defence and although it worked
relatively well we did concede a
number of disappointing goals that
really should have been avoided but we
will learn from this and improve in
future games.
Overall, a
satisfactory win but we knew that we
hadn't played our best water polo.
Scorers:
Joel Abbott 6, Scott Martin 6, Matt
White 5, Jon Gray 1, Alastair Hardinge
1, Sam Abbott 1.
Exclusions:
Nathan Hart 1.
Squad in
Full: Alexander Cranford, Jon Gray,
Adrian Irbe, Ben Alcorn, Matt White,
Sam Abbott, Dominic Cranford, Scott
Martin, Ziggy Tate, Nathan Hart, Joel
Abbott, Andy Cawdery, Alastair
Hardinge.
The next
match is another county senior league
game against Brighton at the Aquarena
this coming Wednesday (21st July).
Regards,
Alastair.
|
Match Review4/7/2010
London
League.
Junior
Boys Championship
Tournament
3, Sunday 4th July.
Whitgift
School, Croydon.
We
returned to the familiar setting of
Whitgift School for the latest round
of this years London League.
The
excellent 25 metre, 8 lane all
deep pool is always a good venue to
play at and we were looking
forward to three tough matches against
Sutton & Cheam, Croydon Amphibians
and Watford.
Unfortunately
we were missing a number of players
with Scott Martin away at GB training
in Sheffield and Sam Maloney and
Charlie Jones also unavailable.
Our squad of 8 players knew that they
would have to work hard and these
are the individual reports:
1.
Worthing 5, Sutton & Cheam 4. (H/T
1-1)
A tough
and physical opening match against a
strong Sutton team.
We
actually should have made the match
safe during the first half but we
contrived to miss several
opportunities that we really should
have taken.
This kept
Sutton in the match and they
eventually equalised with just over a
minute left. Sam Abbott scored a
late winner which secured the points.
Unfortunately
Peter Flynn was deliberately punched
in the eye during the match in an
incident that was missed by the
officials, but even though the
swelling almost closed the eye
completely, he continued to play his
part in a good win.
Scorers:
Sam Abbott 2, Alexander Cranford 2, Nathan
Tonkin 1.
Exclusion:
Peter Flynn 1.
2.
Worthing 7, Croydon Amphibians 1. (H/T
5-1)
A really
good win against our old rivals when
we played some really good and
controlled water polo.
Our
defensive play was of a high standard
and limited the opposition to a small
number of chances.
In attack
we always looked likely to score and
Sam and Alexander both posed the
opposition lots of problems from the
centre forward position.
Overall an
excellent win which demonstrated the
high standard of water polo that
we are able to play at times.
Scorers:
Sam Abbott 5, Alexander Cranford 1,
Nathan Tonkin 1.
Exclusions:
Olly Rainford 1, Kevin Chan 1,
Alastair Hardinge 1.
3.
Worthing 1, Watford 5. (H/T 0-3)
Unfortunately
we finished with a disappointing
defeat against a much improved and
well organised Watford team.
We never
really recovered from a poor start
which saw the team concede a poor
defensive goal in the opening play.
This
seemed to knock our confidence and we
never really found our true form as we
tried to get back into the match.
Too many
basic errors were made and we
were punished on several occasions.
Scorer:
Alexander Cranford.
Exclusions:
Kevin Chan 1, Olly Rainford 1, Sam
Abbott 1.
Squad in
Full: Sam Wildman (G/K), Sam Abbott,
Alastair Hardinge, Peter Flynn,
Alexander Cranford, Olly Rainford,
Nathan Tonkin & Kevin Chan.
Overall,
this was a mixed day for our boys
team and obviously we were
disappointed to lose the last match
but we played well in fist two games
and deserved the wins.
All the boys
worked really hard and Peter Flynn was
particularly heroic to play on despite
being able to see out of only one
eye.
We will
learn from the defeat and the
squad can be pleased with a great deal
of the play they produced.
Regards,
Alastair.
|
Match Review12/6/2010
Sussex
Senior Knock-out,
Thursday
10th June 2010.
Hastings 7
(1 + 6 goal handicap) , Worthing
17.
(Quarter
scores: 0-2, 0-6, 0-4, 1-3)
The trip
to Hastings is the longest journey
that we make during the county season
and it was interesting this year to
compare and contrast the playing
facility with the excellent new pool
that our juniors played in on
Sunday in Watford.
The
Hastings pool is an old fashioned 25
metre, 6 lane, deep-shallow facility
that compares poorly with the new
modern 25 metre, 8 lane pool with
variable water depth like the recently
opened £13m Watford leisure
centre. How strange that Worthing
Borough council have decided to build
a new pool, at the significant cost of
£17m, which will be the same format
as Hastings and not the more modern
design that is rapidly becoming the
norm in the UK.
The match
itself was a one sided affair with the
6 goal handicap being overtaken as
early as the mid-point of the second
quarter.
Our
defensive play was always far too
strong for Hastings and the small
number of chances they created were
dealt with by Ben Alcorn in the
Worthing goal. Ben found time to come
out of goal and help himself to a
couple of goals and our overall
attacking play always created chances.
We
actually might have scored a number of
more goals but we missed several
chances when it probably was
easier to score.
Overall a
satisfactory win, highlighted by the
excellent chips on the way home!
Scorers:
Sam Abbott 6, Paul Phillpott 4,
Alastair Hardinge 3, Ziggy Tate 2, Ben
Alcorn 2.
Exclusions:
Alastair Hardinge 2.
Squad in
full: Ben Alcorn, Sam Abbott, Alastair
Hardinge, Paul Phillpott, Andy
Cawdery, Ziggy Tate, Nathan Hart,
Alastair Roberts.
Regards,
Alastair.
|
Match Review8/6/2010
London
League Junior Boys Championship.
Tournament
2.
Woodside
Leisure Centre, Watford.
Sunday 6th
June 2010.
The second
tournament in this seasons London
league junior championship was played
at the excellent new 25 metre, 8 lane, deep
water pool in Watford.
With
Worthing Borough Council about to
spend potentially £17m on the
replacement pool for the Aquarena, it
would make sense for the decision
makers to take a drive round the M25
to see what can be achieved with
only £12.5m.
On Sunday
we faced three tough matches against a
fast improving Basingstoke, West
London Penguin and the home team.
These are
the individual match reports:
1.
Worthing 13, Basingstoke 3. (H/T 6-1)
This was a
satisfactory opening performance
against a Basingstoke team that has
much improved over the past few
months.
We were
quickly into our stride playing with
an aggressive defence which limited the opposition
to a small number of chances.
In attack
we always had too much pace, strength
and know-how and we scored a number of
quality goals.
Scorers:
Scott Martin 6, Sam Abbott 3,
Alexander Cranford 2, Alastair
Hardinge 2.
Exclusions:
None.
2.
Worthing 7, Watford 2. (H/T 4-1)
Another
good win against a better standard of opposition
who always made things difficult for
us.
That said,
we never quite took control of the
match as we are capable of, but we were
still comfortable winners and we
again scored a number of quality
goals.
We
defended soundly and we never
looked like conceding many goals.
Scorers:
Sam Abbott 3, Scott Martin 2,
Alexander Cranford 1, Alastair
Hardinge 1.
Exclusions:
Kevin Chan 1, Alastair Hardinge 1.
3.
Worthing 4, West London Penguin 6.
(H/T 2-4)
This was a
disappointing performance when we
failed to play anywhere near the
standard that we are capable.
Having
defended so well in the previous
matches we lost our shape and
discipline, particularly early on, and
we were
punished as a result.
Our
overall play was nowhere near our
normal standard and we committed far
too many unforced errors and we were
particularly guilty of giving the ball
away.
Towards
the end we were pushing hard for an
equaliser but we were eventually
undone by the award of a harsh penalty
which resulted in the final two
goal deficit.
One
positive to take form the match was an
outstanding display in goal from Sam
Wildman, who is the youngest member of
the squad. He made a number of fines
saves that always kept us in the
match and he should be very pleased
with the way that he played.
Scorers:
Scott Martin 2, Sam Abbott 2.
Exclusions:
Alastair Hardinge 1.
Squad in
Full: Sam Wildman (G/K), Sam Abbott,
Alastair Hardinge, Scott Martin,
Alexander Cranford, Kevin Chan, Olly
Rainford & Charlie Jones.
In
conclusion, although it was
disappointing to lose the last match,
we still played some very good water
polo at times. The three young squad
members (Olly, Charlie and Sam
Wildman) all played well in this older
age group and will have gained a great
deal from the experience.
The final
event takes place back at the familiar
surroundings of Whitgift School in
Croydon in July when we still will have
a chance of taking the overall
title.
Kind
regards,
Alastair.
|
Match Review17/5/2010
London
League Ladies Championship (Division
2)
Tournament
2,
Whitgift
School, South Croydon.
Sunday
16th May.
After the
first tournament two weeks when we won
all three matches, we travelled once
again to the familiar
surroundings of Whitgift School for
the second event in this summer's
championship.
We enter
this competition jointly with
Basingstoke and unfortunately we
were missing a number of players who
were involved at the first event, but
we still had a squad of 9.
The
program would see us play tough
matches against Penguin and Beckenham
and these are the individual match
reports.
Match 1.
Worthing/Basingstoke
3, Penguin 4. (H/T 2-2)
A
frustrating result to a match that we
certainly didn't deserve to lose but
we suffered ultimately from missing
too many chances as well as a couple
of defensive errors.
We
actually played well for long periods
and our speed of swimming and
attacking play always caused the
opposition problems. As already
mentioned, we created the chances but
failed to convert some key
opportunities.
Penguin
were always struggling to deal with
our play and that is best illustrated
by the exclusion count which saw the
opposition commit 6 major fouls.
The final
few seconds ultimately cost us even a
well deserved draw. We had a good
chance to score the winner but we
missed the shot and from the
resulting Penguin attack we conceded a
poor goal.
Overall a
frustrating end to a game which we
definitely deserved to take something
from.
Scorers:
Jenny Willett 2, Hannah Chilton 1.
Exclusions:
None.
Match 2.
Worthing/Basingstoke
2, Beckenham 6. (H/T 0-3)
We had to
play this match straight after the
Penguin match and this was reflected
in a poor start when we conceded 3
quick goals.
Our play
in the first half was not of our
normal standard and we found it really
hard to get going.
The second
period saw some improvement and we did
manage to score two good goals but we
also contrived to miss several other
chances that we probably should have
converted.
It is
never easy to play back to back games
but our girls will learn from the
experience and I am sure that we will
be better prepared for this the
next time we play.
Scorers: Jenny Willett
1, Chrissy Pilcher 1.
Exclusion:
Pauline Lipscombe 1.
Squad in
Full: Fi McMullan (G/K), Hannah
Chilton, Sarah Hickey, Pauline
Lipscombe, Jenny Willett, Chrissy
Pilcher, Rachel Piper, Tara Osborne
& Laura Joseph.
Overall we
were disappointed not to win at least
one of these matches but we still can
take a number of positives from the
way that we played.
The team
did play some good quality water polo
at times and the younger players
particularly will learn a great
deal from having had a good amount of
water time.
The next
tournament is played in June but
we are "seeded" to miss that
event. We will play at the final tournament
in July and this will decide our final
position.
Kind
regards,
Alastair.
|
Match Review4/5/2010
London
League Ladies Championship Division 2.
Tournament
1.
Whitgift
School, South Croydon.
Sunday 2nd
May 2010.
This is
the report of the opening tournament
in this summers Ladies London league
campaign.
After the
success last year when we entered a
combined team with Basingstoke ladies
we made the decision that we would
follow the same formula that worked
so well.
Most of
the girls from the two clubs know each
other well and they enjoy playing
together in the same team.
The format
for this tournament would see our
girls play three matches against West
London Penguin, Beckenham and
Southampton and this looked to be demanding
program.
These are the
individual match reports.
1.
Worthing/Basingstoke 5, Beckenham 1.
(H/T 2-1)
This was
an excellent match of a good quality
against a young but well
organised opposition who always made
things difficult for us.
We defended
really well using an aggressive full
press throughout the match and
Beckenham found it hard to create many
chances. Attacking wise we always
looked likely to score and it was only
some poor finishing that cost us
a number of other goals.
Overall
this was a satisfactory win that saw
the team play some good water polo.
Scorers:
Jenny Willett 3, Fi McMullan 1, Amy
Styles 1.
Exclusion:
Debby Willett 1.
2.
Worthing/Basingstoke 4, West
London Penguin 2. (H/T 2-0)
A high
quality match against a talented and
physical opposition when we had to raise
our game to secure a really hard
fought win.
We also
had the problem of scoring past an
outstanding opposition goal-keeper who
made a number of excellent saves. But
we played well enough to create a
number of chances and again our
defending was of a high quality which
frustrated the opposition for long
periods. Our speed on the
counter-attack always caused the
opposition problems and this was
reflected in the high number (6) of
exclusions that they conceded.
The key
moment in the game was when we led 2-1
in the second-half and Amy made an
excellent save. From the resulting
counter-attack we scored again to give
us a 3-1 advantage which soon
became 4-1.
Penguin
scored late on but we had still done
enough to secure a well deserved
win
Scorers:
Jenny Willett 2, Chrissy Pilcher 1, Fi
McMullan 1.
Exclusion:
Sarah Hickey 1.
3.
Worthing/Basingstoke 4, Southampton 2.
(H/T 2-1)
Another
tough match against a team with a
number of players who have experience
playing in the national league.
We played
well again with our defending limiting
the opposition to a small number of
chances and as in the previous matches
we always looked dangerous on the
counter-attack.
Once
again, it was only our inability to
take a number of the chances that we
created that kept the winning margin
down, but we always looked the team
most likely to score.
Jenny hurt
her shoulder during the first period
and had to sit out the second-half but
we continued to play well and we
secured another good win.
Scorers:
Hannah Chilton 1, Fi McMullan 1,
Claire Liggins 1, Sarah Hickey 1.
Exclusions:
Debby Willett 1, Hannah Chilton 1.
Squad in
Full: Amy Styles (G/K), Kayley Alcorn
(G/K), Claire Liggins, Hannah Chilton,
Sarah Hickey, Fi McMullan, Jenny
Willett, Debby Willett, Chrissy Pilcher,
Tara Osborne, Laura Joseph.
Overall this
was an excellent tournament for our
combined team. All the squad members
played well and we produced a very
good standard of water polo for long
periods.
The two
youngest members of the squad, Tara
and Laura, both played well and
enjoyed a good amount of water time
and they will have learnt a great deal
from this opportunity to play with
senior players.
We return
to the same venue in two weeks time
for the second tournament of this
competition.
Regards,
Alastair.
|
Match Review26/4/2010 London League Junior Boys Championship (1992 + Younger)
Tournament
1, Whitgift School, South Croydon
Sunday
25th April.
We
travelled to the familiar surroundings
of Whitgift School for the first round
of this summer's junior London league
competition.
With Peter
Flynn still stuck in New York
because of the travel chaos caused by
the Icelandic volcano and Luke
Helmer unavailable due to work
commitments, we were only able to take
a squad of 9 players including the
three under 16 squad members Olly
Rainford, Charlie Jones and Sam
Wildman.
The
individual match reports are as
follows:
Match 1.
Worthing 6, Sutton & Cheam 1. (H/T
4-1)
A
satisfactory win against an
enthusiastic opposition but we really
should have won by a much greater
margin if we had taken our chances.
We
defended well but we contrived to miss
several opportunities when it looked
easier to score. Sam Wildman, who
is the youngest squad member,
produced one excellent save when
required but this was really a
workmanlike rather than spectacular
win.
Sam Abbott
had a good game at centre-forward and the
opposition always struggled to deal
with him
Scorers:
Sam Abbott 5, Scott Martin 1.
Exclusion:
Scott Martin.
Match 2.
Worthing 7, Basingstoke 3. (H/T 3-1)
This was
better performance against a fast
improving team who always made it
difficult for us.
We always
looked the better team but we never
really dominated until we scored a
couple of late goals but some below
standard defending gave Basingstoke a
couple of goals that we were
disappointed to concede.
This was a
deserved win but we realised that we
still hadn't really played as well as
we would have hoped to.
Scorers:
Alastair Hardinge 3, Sam Abbott 2, Sam
Maloney 1, Kevin Chan 1.
Exclusion:
Kevin Chan.
Match 3.
Worthing 5, Croydon Amphibians 4. (H/T
3-2)
The final
match was against our old rivals who
always give us a good game,
particularly in their home pool.
We knew
that we would probably have to play
something near our best to beat this
talented opposition but we knew
that we should be capable of getting a
positive result.
Unfortunately
we started poorly and conceded a bad
goal early on but we eventually got
going and started to take control. At
the mid-point we looked like we would
go on and win fairly comfortably but
we again missed some chances and as a
result Croydon were always in the
game.
Sam
Wildman made another excellent save,
(with his face!) and eventually a goal
by Sam Abbott finally
secured the win.
Scorers:
Sam Abbott 4, Alastair Hardinge
2, Scott Martin 1.
Exclusion:
Kevin Chan.
Squad in
Full: Sam Wildman (G/K), Alexander
Cranford, Sam Abbott, Sam Maloney,
Scott Martin, Kevin Chan, Olly
Rainford, Charlie Jones & Alastair
Hardinge.
Overall
this was a good tournament for our
junior team and we were delighted to
win all three matches.
That said,
we never quite played as well as we
can but still did enough to win the
three games.
We are
looking forward to the next tournament
which takes place at the excellent new
deep water pool complex in
Watford in June.
Regards,
Alastair.
|
Match Review19/4/2010
London
league Under 15 Championship. (Born
1996 + younger)
Tournament
1.
Whitgift
School, Croydon.
Sunday
18th April.
We
travelled to the first tournament of
this summer's competition looking
forward to playing three tough matches
against Croydon Amphibians,
Enfield and West London/Ealing.
The squad available
included two of our youngsters (Nathan
Jones and Harley Goddard) who
were making their competitive debut in
junior water polo but they were both
looking forward to the opportunity.
The
individual match reports are as
follows:
1. Croydon
Amphibians 5, Worthing 3. (H/T 4-0)
This was
very much " a game of two
halves" when we performed poorly
in the first period before dominating
the second-half.
This
uneven performance was probably as a
result of not having played for a
while and we were guilty of conceding
three very poor goals in the first
half. We managed to re-organise things
at the half-time interval and as
result we put Croydon under a huge
amount of pressure resulting in three
quick goals. We were pressing for an equaliser
when Croydon managed to score a
break-away goal which made the game
safe.
Scorers:
Sam Wildman 1, Karen Chan 1, Joe
Hazeldine 1.
Exclusion:
Ben Goddard.
2.
Worthing 14, Enfield 0. (H/T 6-0)
This was a
good performance against a young and
inexperienced opposition.
The
Worthing youngsters played well
throughout and scored a number of
excellent goals and it was nice to see
5 different scorers. Our defending was
of a high standard and when Ealing did
create some chances, Henry
Jackson in goal produced a number of
good saves.
It was
nice to record a relatively
comfortable win which we hoped would give
us confidence in the final match of
the afternoon.
Scorers:
Ben Goddard 4, Sam Wildman 4, Joe
Hazeldine 3, Callum Craven 2, Karen
Chan 1.
Exclusions:
None.
3.
Worthing 3, West London/Ealing 2. (H/T
2-1)
A highly
exciting match against a talented and
physically imposing opposition.
We
stressed at the pre-match meeting that
we needed to utilize our swimming
speed on the counter-attack and we
always looked dangerous when we had
these opportunities.
After a
good start we soon led 2-0 but the
opposition equalised just before
half-time. The second period was
a close affair but we kept creating
chances and we were worried that if we
didn't take one the opposition
might sneak a winner.
In the
end, we managed to score in the final
minute when Nathan Jones (who was
making his debut) scored with an
excellent shot into the corner.
This was a
good win in the type of match
that previously we might have
contrived to lose but the team now has
greater experience and ability.
Scorers:
Sam Wildman 1, Joe Hazeldine 1, Nathan
Jones 1.
Exclusions:
None.
Squad in
Full: Henry Jackson (G/K), Karen Chan,
Harley Goddard, Ben Goddard, Joe
Hazeldine, Sam Wildman, Callum Craven, Nathan
Jones.
Overall
this was a good tournament for our
young team with two good wins and a
narrow defeat when we nearly recovered
from the only poor period that we
produced on the day.
This group
of young players are now beginning to
fulfill the promise that they
have shown for a while now and
the win in the final game indicated
the progress that we are now making.
We are
looking forward to the second
tournament when we hope to continue
this improvement.
Kind
regards,
Alastair.
|
Inter-county Water Polo Tournament27/3/2010
WSC members
Sam Abbott, Kevin Chan, Peter Flynn,
Alastair Hardinge and Sam Maloney were
part of the successful Sussex team that
played in 2010 inter-county championship
at Basingstoke which is detail in the
attached report.
|
National League Fixtures 201027/3/2010
Click here
for details.
|
2010 South East Region Championship Photo22/3/2010
Click here
for photo album.
|
Match Review21/3/2010
This is the
latest water polo report of another busy
year.
The men's
senior team travelled to Jersey for the
second tournament of the 2010 south-east
region championship facing a busy
program of 4 matches in two days.
With a
number of our first team players
unavailable this year for a variety
of reasons we only had a squad of 9
players and with the program of
games this looked to be a demanding
weekend. One of the players
unfortunately ruled out of playing
through injury was Richard Hooper
and he took over the coaching duties.
The
tournament was again held at the Les
Quennevais leisure centre pool which has
a very shallow end which makes
attacking very awkward and we always struggle
to adapt our play to these conditions.
The
individual match reports are as follows
Saturday,
13.00
Worthing 11,
Oxford 3.
Quarter
Scores 3-0, 1-2, 2-1,5-0.
An
entertaining and satisfactory start to
the campaign saw the Worthing squad take
control in the first quarter and play
some good water polo.
With a well
organized defence we limited the
opposition to a small number of chances
and we always looked likely to score in
attacking situations.
Joel was
hugely effective at centre forward when
attacking the deep end goal and he ended
the match having scored 6 times.
Scorers Joel
Abbott 6, Ziggy Tate 2, Ben Alcorn 1,
Sam Abbott 1, Nathan Hart 1.
Exclusions
Ben Alcorn 1, Ziggy Tate 1, Alastair
Hardinge.
Saturday,
16.45
Worthing 10,
East Invicta 11
Quarter
Scores 1-3, 3-3, 3-4, 3-1
A very tough
match against a talented team drawn
from several clubs in Kent.
We probably
deserved to take something from this
game and we were denied a perfectly good goal
when Joel scored with a well taken
penalty which the officials failed
to give even though quite clearly
the ball had crossed the
line.
We never
quite played well enough to control this
game and we missed chances at key
moments in the game.
Although we
were disappointed to lose we knew that
two wins in the Sunday fixtures would
see us retain the title.
Scorers Joel
Abbott 3, Ben Alcorn 2, Ziggy Tate 2,
Sam Abbott 1, Nathan Hart 1, Alastair
Hardinge 1.
Exclusions
Ziggy Tate 2, Sam Abbott, Nathan Hart 1,
Joel Abbott 1.
Sunday,
08.45
Worthing 10,
Jersey 7
Quarter
Scores 2-3, 1-2, 4-1, 3-1
Having
thoroughly enjoyed the hosts hospitality
the previous evening, the 08.30 start
time of this match was always going to
be an interesting experience for some
members of the squad.
This proved
to be the case when we made a very poor
start conceding goals that really should have
been avoided and missing a hatful of
chances.
Although we
made such a poor start we did
finally start to convert some of chances
that we continued to create.
This was a
below par performance against an
enthusiastic Jersey team who understood
the way to play in this type of pool and
the final score probably flattered us.
Jersey missed a penalty late on that
would have made the score 9-8 but we
straight down the other end to score
again and make the game safe.
Sunday,
12.15
Worthing 9,
Southampton 3
Quarter
Scores 2-1, 3-0, 2-0, 2-2
A
disciplined performance against a
talented team who had already beaten
Jersey and who would go on to beat East
Invicta.
We knew that
we would have to make a positive
start and defend well to take control.
This proved to be the case and our
defending was really the key to the
victory and after conceding once in the
first period our defence was so dominant
that Southampton only scored again with
two late goals deep into the final
quarter.
Our
attacking play probably wasn't quite at
it's best but we did score a number good
goals including one from Joel after an
excellent pass from Rob Osborne.
Scorers Joel
Abbott 4, Ziggy Tate 2, Sam Abbott 2,
Gregg Candy-Wallace 1.
Squad in
full Joel Abbott, Sam Abbott, Ziggy
Tate, Nathan Hart, Ben Alcorn, Rob
Osborne, Alastair Roberts, Gregg
Candy-Wallace, Alastair Hardinge.
Overall this
was a highly entertaining event and the
three wins meant that we retained the
title that we had won the previous year.
Although we
did have a number of key players missing
the small squad that we played the
tournament with all contributed a great
deal.
Everyone put
in a good "shift" and we had
to play some good water polo at
times to secure victory.
We were
greatly indebted to our noisy and
enthusiastic followers who supported the
team throughout and added a huge amount
of encouragement to the team.
The season
continues with the Sussex county league
fixtures commencing in May building
toward our second season in the
national league which starts in
September.
Alastair
Roberts.
|
Fixtures 201020/3/2010
Click here
for details.
|
Match Review15/2/2010
Please
receive a Report of the first tournament
in the 2010 South East Regional Men's
water polo championships.
Basingstoke
Aquadrome.
Saturday
30th January.
Match 1.
Worthing 23,
Jersey 7.
Scorers:
Matt White 5, Joel Abbott 4, Paul
Phillpott 4, Ziggy Tate 3, Sam Abbott 3,
Alastair Hardinge 2, Nathan Hart 1, Ben
Alcorn 1.
Exclusions:
Joel Abbott 2, Nathan Hart 1, Sam Abbott
1.
Match 2.
Worthing 21,
Southampton 12.
Scorers:
Joel Abbott 10, Ziggy Tate 4, Paul
Phillpott 4, Matt White 1, Sam Abbott 1,
Nathan Hart 1.
Exclusions:
Matt White 1, Sam Abbott 1, Ziggy Tate
1, Alastair Hardinge 1.
Sunday 31st
January.
Match 3.
Worthing 10,
East Invicta 6.
Scorers:
Matt White 3, Nathan Hart 3, Sam Abbott
2, Joel Abbott 1, Paul Phillpott 1.
Exclusions:
Rob Osborne 1, Stuart Stirling 1, Nathan
Hart 1.
Match 4.
Worthing 16,
Oxford 11.
Scorers:
Joel Abbott 8, Matt White 4, Richard
Hooper 2, Stuart Stirling 1, Nathan Hart
1.
Exclusions:
Alastair Hardinge 1, Matt White 1, Paul
Phillpott 1, Jon Gray 1.
Squad in
Full: Ben Alcorn, Matt White, Joel
Abbott, Sam Abbott, Alastair Hardinge,
Paul Phillpott, Ziggy Tate, Nathan Hart,
Rob Osborne, Alexander Cranford, Andy
Cawdery, Jon Gray, Stuart Stirling,
Richard Hooper.
Overall this
was a highly satisfactory tournament
when the team played some good water
polo. This was the first competitive
event for many members of the team since
the end of the national league season at
the beginning of December and it was
obvious that fitness levels will need to
improve in the coming weeks and months.
The second
tournament takes place in Jersey in
March.
Regards,
Alastair.
|
Match Review6/1/2010
Welcome
to the first water polo report of 2010!
With the
year only 3 days old, the 2010 water
polo season commenced with the first
London league junior tournaments.
Having only
finished the 2009 season in mid-December
this seems an incredibly early start to
our competition program but we have an
increasingly busy calendar.
The report
is as follows:
London
Winter League Junior Boys Division.
Tournament
1.
Watford
Leisure Centre.
Sunday 3rd
January 2009.
As already
mentioned, this event was a very early
start to the 2010 season and we
travelled to the new deep water pool in
Watford in freezing temperatures.
Having not
trained for the past three weeks because
of the Christmas break we knew that we
might be a little lacking in match
sharpness but we knew that we would be
competitive.
The three
individual match reports are as follows:
Match 1.
Worthing 3, Beckenham 4. (H/T 2-4)
This was a
disappointing result, particularly after
we took an early 2 goal lead.
Unfortunately,
our lack of match practice was evident
and we missed lots of chances that we
would normally expect to score from. We
also made a number of basic defensive
errors which were punished and we never
quite played to our potential.
We weren't
helped by some bizarre refereeing and
this was to become an issue in all the
games we played on the day.
Scorers: Sam
Abbott 2, Alastair Hardinge 1.
Exclusions:
Sam Abbott 2, Alastair Hardinge 1.
Match 2.
Worthing 7, Watford 4. (H/T 3-1)
A better
performance that we always controlled
and it was good to see a number of the
younger players make significant
contributions.
We still
didn't quite play to our full potential
but we did score some good goals and our
defending was of a much better
standard.
Scorers: Sam
Abbott 3, Alastair Hardinge 1, Nathan
Tonkin 1, Alexander Cranford 1, Kevin
Chan 1.
Exclusions:
Kevin Chan 1, Nathan Tonkin 1, Alexander
Cranford 1, Alastair Hardinge 1.
Match 3.
Worthing 3, Croydon Amphibians 3. (H/T
3-1)
A terrific
match which was spoilt by poor
refereeing which didn't help either team
but served to frustrate the players,
coaches and supporters.
We played
particularly well in the first half and
scored 3 excellent goals as a result of
good all-round team play.
In the
second half Croydon came back into the
match but we were very unlucky to
concede a late equalizer.
The draw was
probably a fair result and Sam Wildman,
who is 4 years younger than this
age group, made a number of excellent
saves in goal.
Scorers:
Alexander Cranford 2, Sam Abbott 1.
Exclusions:
Alastair Hardinge 2, Alexander Cranford
1.
Squad in
Full: Sam Wildman (G/K), Alastair
Hardinge, Sam Wildman, Alexander
Cranford, Kevin Chan, Nathan Tonkin,
Peter Flynn, Olly Rainford, Charlie
Jones.
Overall this
was a slightly disappointing return
because we really should have won the
first match against Beckenham but
unfortunately we didn't quite play well
enough to secure the right result.
But the team
improved with each match and we did play
well, particularly in the first half,
against a strong Croydon team.
We don't
have to wait long for the second
tournament in this competition. It
takes place this coming Sunday (10th
January) at Whitgift school in South
Croydon.
Finally, the junior
girls version of this competition
also started on Sunday and for the first
time Sussex have entered a very young
team with players drawn from Worthing,
Mid-Sussex Marlins and Crawley.
Worthing girls
Tara Osborne, Laura Joseph and Rachel
Piper (who captained the team) were
part of the squad and they played 3 very
competitive matches in the first of
three tournaments.
Regards,
Alastair.
|
Match Review15/12/2009
This is the
latest, and the final, water polo report
of 2009.
We started
the year on the 4th January with a
junior boys tournament at Whitgift
School and it's probably fitting that
the competitive season has ended with
another event at the same venue.
London
Winter League.
Under 16
(1994 & Younger) Mixed Championship.
Tournament
2, Whitgift School, South Croydon.
Sunday 13th
December.
We travelled
to Whitgift school for the final time
this year to play the second round of
this seasons under 16 championship.
Once again
we selected a very young team with only
Jacques Williams, who was playing in his
first competitive matches for the club,
actually born in the top year of the age
group.
As a result
we knew that we faced 4 very tough
matches but the idea is to offer a
competitive level of play for all the
squad that will benefit them in the long
run.
The
individual match reports are as follows:
1. Worthing
0, Croydon Amphibians 10. (H/T 0-6)
This was
very difficult first match for the team
against the best team in the competition and
we struggled to come to terms with
the speed and size of a well
drilled opposition.
The first
half was particularly difficult but we
settled down in the second period and
played a better standard and we
created a number of chances that we
should have scored from.
Scorers:
None
Exclusions:
Sam Wildman 1, Laura Joseph 1.
2. Worthing
1, Mid Sussex/Crawley 3. (H/T 0-1)
A much
better performance when we defended
with a great deal more cohesion and as a
result limited the opposition to a small
number of chances.
The
opposition keeper was always busy and we
forced him to make a number of fine
saves.
Scorer:
Charlie Jones 1.
Exclusions: Sam
Wildman 1, Ben Goddard 1.
3. Worthing
2, Hythe 3. (H/T 0-2)
After the
improvement in the previous match we
were confident of doing well in the
match against Hythe but unfortunately we
played well below our normal standard
and as a result lost a match we really
should have won.
The first
half was the key when we missed chance
after chance as well as conceding two
very poor goals defensively. It was very
disappointing to lose a match we really
should have been good enough to win but
the lack of experience was probably what
cost us the chance of recording a
positive result.
Scorers:
Laura Joseph 1, Ben Goddard 1.
Exclusions:
None.
4. Worthing
3, Sutton & Cheam 5. (H/T 2-2)
A very
exciting match where the team played
much better and were unfortunate not to
at least secure a draw.
We were very
unlucky with two refereeing decisions
that cost us goals but the team kept
going well and created a number of good
chances.
Charlie
scored two excellent goals from 5 metre
direct free throws and Laura also scored
a good goal at the end of a swift
counter-attack.
Scorers:
Charlie Jones 2, Laura Joseph 1.
Exclusions:
Olly Rainford 1.
Squad in
Full: Henry Jackson, Joe Hazeldine, Ben
Goddard, Laura Joseph, Tara Osborne, Sam
Wildman, Olly Rainford, Charlie Jones,
Jacques Williams.
Overall, the
team is showing signs of improvements
and the decision to play some of the
younger players in this age group (Ben
Goddard is 4 years younger) will
undoubtedly be beneficial on the longer
term.
Hopefully
all the squad are learning from playing
against older and in some cases better
players and I am sure that the team will
improve as a result of this competition.
Regards,
Alastair.
|
Match Review7/12/2009
Last weekend
was probably the busiest ever for
water polo at Worthing SC.
Our men's
team completed the national league program
at Walsall and I have already filed the
report of what was an exciting climax to
the end of the season.
On Saturday
our ladies squad competed in the annual
Basingstoke tournament and in the
evening some of our youngsters played in
the under 14 inter-county tournament at
Whitgift School.
A full
report of the Basingstoke event follows
but we should congratulate Joe
Hazeldine and Callum Craven who both
appeared for the county team. Sam
Wildman and Henry Jackson were also
originally selected but unfortunately
were unavailable for this particular
date.
Basingstoke
Ladies Tournament.
Saturday 5th
December 2009.
Basingstoke
Aquadrome.
We always
enjoy the chance to play in this annual
event at the deep water Aquadrome pool.
For this
event we decided to take the opportunity
of playing two of our under 16 girls for
the first time in women's polo and Tara
Osborne and Laura Joseph were looking
forward to playing in a senior
competition.
Unfortunately
a number of our regular senior players
were unavailable for this date for a
number of reasons but we were determined
to play and so two guest players from
Beckenham joined us for this tournament.
The match scores
are as follows:
Match 1.
Worthing 4,
City of Southampton 2.
Scorers:
Debby Willett 1, Anna Newell 1, Chrissy
Pilcher 1, Jenny Willett 1.
Match 2.
Worthing 5,
Bournemouth 5.
Jenny
Willett 4, Anna Newell 1.
Match 3.
Worthing 2,
Basingstoke 5.
Anna Newell
2.
Match 4.
Worthing 5,
Southampton University 2.
Anna Newell
2, Chrissy Pilcher 1, Jenny Willett 1,
Laura Joseph 1.
We finished
as runners-up to the eventual winners
from Bournemouth but all the squad
thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon and the
two youngsters got particularly good
reviews form all the senior players.
Laura scored an excellent goal and Tara
played well and both will have learnt a
great deal from the experience.
Squad in
full: Jenny Willett, Debby Willett,
Chrissy Pilcher, Anna Newell, Eimear
O'Connor, Tara Osborne, Laura Joseph.
Regards,
Alastair.
|
Match Review7/12/2009
This is the
final report of our debut season in the
National League.
The final
weekend is played on the basis of a top
four play-off mini league with the team
finishing top automatically promoted and
the runners-up able to challenge the
second bottom team in Division 3.
With results
carried forward from the original league
program Exeter were strong favorites for
automatic promotion but if results
worked in our favor we hadn't ruled out
the possibility of taking the
title.
To achieve
this we knew that we would probably have
to win all three games but
were travelling with a full squad
and with the longest unbeaten run in the
league. We hadn't lost since the first
weekend at Sheffield and we felt that
tactically we had the game plan to get
the results we required.
These are
the individual match reports:
National
League Division 4.
Play-off
Weekend.
Walsall Gala
Baths, 5/6 December 2009.
Match 1,
Saturday 5th December, 16.40.
Worthing 13, Grantham
13.
Quarter
Scores: 3-5, 4-3, 5-2, 1-3.
A pulsating
game where the lead changed hands on
several occasions with neither team able
to take complete control.
The final
result was probably all that we deserved
to take from a match where we played
poorly at both the start and the
end. It was probably the slow start that
really hurt our chances and at one point
during the first quarter we actually
trailed 1-5. We got back to 3-5 by the
end of the period but the damage had
been done and we never really
rediscovered our composure.
In quarters two
and three we played better and
going into the final period we had a two
goal advantage but we were guilty
of missing other chances that might have
made the game safe.
The final
quarter was full of incident with
Grantham scoring twice to level the
match before a bizarre final minute and
a half. Firstly Grantham scored again to
take the lead and then we immediately
called a time out to try and set a
attacking plan for the last minute. Elan
was then unlucky to be excluded and
after Grantham had called a timeout we
managed to save the shot and regain
possession. We took our final time-out
with 48 seconds remaining but we gave
the ball away poorly and Grantham had a
chance to make the game safe on the
breakaway but the shot was saved. A long
pass to Elan saw us score a
dramatic equaliser with only 8 seconds
remaining and we had stolen a point
at the death.
We realised that
this result wasn't really what we needed
but this was our eighth game unbeaten
and only the later results would tell us
how much this dropped point would hurt
our chances.
Scorers:
Paul Phillpott 4, Richard Hooper 3, Elan
Stark 3, Dominic Cranford 1, Joel Abbott
1, Sam Abbott 1.
Exclusions:
Joel Abbott 2, Elan Stark 1, Sam Abbott
1.
Match 2,
Sunday 6th December, 11.10.
Worthing 13,
Ealing 17.
Quarter
Scores: 4-4, 5-5, 1-5, 3-3.
Another
tough and uncompromising match against a
talented Ealing team.
Once again
we never quite played our best water
polo and although the match was tight,
especially up to half-time, we were
always missing chances and giving away
the odd poor goal defensively.
Ealing are a
physical team but they also feature a
number of talented individuals who can influence
the game if they are allowed the space
to play. Unfortunately our defending was
not quite up to the standard of some of
the previous matches and we were guilty
of allowing them too much time and space
on the ball.
The match
was really decided in the third quarter
when we lost our shape defensively and
as a result conceded a number of poor
goals. We continued to miss chances at
the other end and we started the
final period with a four goal deficit.
The match
unfortunately was held up for five
minutes when one of the Ealing players
suffered an injury at the start of the
final quarter and this didn't help
either teams concentration. We probably
suffered more with the long delay giving
the opposition the chance to re-group
and although we never stopped trying to
get back into the game we didn't quite
have the energy to make things happen.
This was our
first defeat after the long unbeaten
run and it meant that as a result we
would have to beat Exeter, who had
already secured the league title, in the
final match to secure the runners up
position.
Scorers:
Richard Hooper 5, Joel Abbott 4, Elan
Stark 2, Paul Phillpott 2.
Exclusions:
Paul Phillpott 3, Nathan Hart 2, Richard
Hooper 1, Joel Abbott 1, Alastair
Hardinge 1.
Match 3,
Sunday 6th December, 17.00.
Worthing 15,
Exeter 19.
Quarter
Scores: 6-5, 3-4, 5-2, 5-4.
Going into
the final match of the season we knew
that we had to win to secure the
runners-up position and as a result we
would have the chance to play off
for a place in division 3 for next
season.
At the
pre-match meeting we discussed at length
the need to deal with the two Exeter
players who lead the league top scorers
table and we developed a tactical plan
to specifically deal with the threat
that they posed. In the main this plan
worked well at at one stage in the first
period we led 5-1.
As the match
went on Exeter started to to create
more chances and once again we began to
miss at crucial moments which had been
our problem in all the games.
But the team
kept going and we continued to trouble
the Exeter defence forcing the
opposition goalkeeper to make a number
of excellent saves.
Unfortunately
in the second half of the match we
didn't quite play well enough to force
the win that we needed but all the squad
kept going until the end and it was nice
to see Alexander Cranford create our
final goal of the season for Paul
Phillpott.
The defeat
meant that we finished third in the
table which is an excellent effort in
our debut season in national competition
but all the squad were disappointed that
we had come so close to a top two
finish.
Scorers:
Paul Phillpott 5, Joel Abbott 4, Richard
Hooper 3, Elan Stark 2, Nathan Hart 1.
Exclusions:
Elan Stark 2, Alastair Roberts 1,
Richard Hooper 1, Joel Abbott 1, Paul
Phillpott 1, Alastair Hardinge 1.
Squad in
Full: Gregg Candy-Wallace,
Andy Cawdery, Richard Hooper, Dominic
Cranford, Sam Abbott, Alexander
Cranford, Elan Stark, Nathan Hart, Joel
Abbott, Paul Phillpott, Alastair
Hardinge, Alastair Roberts.
Finally, we
travelled many miles to the 5 weekend
tournaments and the team was well
supported by a large number of friends
and family who attended every event. We
are particularly proud of the money that
we raised for Cancer research as part of
our fundraising project that was
developed to help our participation in
the national league. We should also
thank the number of individuals, as well
as the swimming club, who made many
donations that have helped fund the
team throughout the season.
We plan to
be back in 2010 when the experience
gained in this campaign will undoubtedly
be of great benefit.
Regards,
Alastair.
|
Match Review23/11/2009
This is the
latest report of our debut season in
the national water polo league.
Having
played at Sheffield, Walsall and
Marlborough we returned to the
Walsall Gala baths for the final
"regular season" fixtures
before the final tournament play-offs.
This weekend
tournament originally should have been
played at Nottingham University pool two
weeks ago but the event was called off
on the Monday before it should have
taken place. As a result of the change
we have lost money for accommodation and
rail fares that were non-refundable and
Sam Abbott and Alexander Cranford were
unavailable for the re-arranged date.
We knew that
we faced 3 tough matches including a
game against the early pace setters of
the division, west London Ealing
and these are the individual match
reports:
National
League Division 4
Weekend 4,
Walsall Gala Baths 21/22 November 2009
Match 1,
Saturday 21st November, 18.10 start.
Worthing 17,
Ealing 14.
Quarter
Scores: 2-3, 9-6, 2-2, 4-3.
This was a
pulsating game against a talented team
who are highly competitive and very
physical in their approach.
We spoke at
length at the pre-match meeting about
the strength of the opposition are
particularly the playing style that they
employ and it didn't take all the squad
long to realise that this was going to
be a very tough game.
The first
quarter was relatively even with both
teams taking time to find out the
relative strength of the opposition. A
3-2 deficit at the end of the period was
mainly as a result of of two poor
defensive errors that were punished. In
attack we looked dangerous and
Nathan Hart opened the scoring with an
excellent shot into the top corner.
The second
period was a crazy affair with 15 goals
scored with both teams struggling
to deal with the opposition team's attacking
game. We did manage to get ahead
and we ended the period with
a two goal advantage but the match was
far from over.
The third
quarter was the pivotal period of the
match and the key moment was with 1
minute and 2 seconds left in the quarter
when one of the opposition players was
dismissed for brutality after an off the
ball incident with Joel Abbott. As a
result they were punished with an
immediate penalty converted by Richard
Hooper and we also scored 3 more times
in the period of 4 minutes that they had
to play with a man short.
That made
the game safe and we kept
possession well in the final period
while running down the clock.
This was
massive win for the Worthing team
after a really tough game against one of
the best teams in the division.
Scorers:
Richard Hooper 5, Paul Phillpott 4, Joel
Abbott 3, Nathan Hart 3, Elan Stark 1,
Dominic Cranford 1.
Exclusions:
Joel Abbott 2, Gregg Candy-Wallace 1,
Dominic Cranford 1, Paul Phillpott
1, Alastair Hardinge 1.
Match 2,
Sunday 22nd November, 09.10 start.
Worthing 19,
Bedford 7.
Quarter
Scores: 6-1, 5-1, 5-3, 3-2.
The final
score indicates that this was a
relatively easy win against a team who
struggled throughout with our attacking
play and our well drilled defence.
We were
always in control after a dominant first
quarter but we made a number of
elementary mistakes through-out the
match which were hugely disappointing.
We conceded a number of goals that were
down to poor play both individually and
collectively and against a better team
we would have been punished more often.
The most
disappointing aspect of the game was the
dismissal of Richard Hooper for dissent
mid-way through the third quarter. As a
result of the new automatic
sanctions he misses the final match of
the weekend against Newcastle.
A win is a
win, but this was a scrappy affair that
we should not have been drawn into and
the consequences will only be known when
we play Newcastle in our final match of
the weekend.
Scorers:
Joel Abbott 8, Richard Hooper 3, Paul
Phillpott 3, Elan Stark 3, Dominic
Cranford 2.
Exclusions:
Richard Hooper 3, Andy Cawdery 1,
Dominic Cranford 1, Paul Phillpott 1.
Match 3,
Sunday 22nd November, 16.10 start.
Worthing 13,
Newcastle 9.
Quarter
Scores: 3-2, 5-2, 3-2, 2-3.
The final
match of the weekend was against a
strong Newcastle team who feature the
ex-GB international player Neil Bowers.
We were
without Richard but Alexander Cranford
joined our squad for this game on his
way back from Sheffield where he had
been competing.
Newcastle
can be very awkward opponents and
although their results have been mixed
through-out the national league season
they have the ability to play a very
high standard of water polo.
We again
employed our zone defence which has been
successful in the past few games and and
it is designed to frustrate the
opposition forcing shots from distance.
The tactic
worked well again and Newcastle
struggled to create many chances against
our disciplined defending.
The key
period of the match was probably the
second quarter when we increased
our advantage from 3-2 to 8-4. With the
squad tiring after having played the
three games in two days, the second
half of the match saw the team play
good possession water polo to take as
much time out of the game as possible.
We continued
to control the match and the final
score was fair reflection of the
difference between the two teams.
This was
another tough game and we were pleased
to record our 7th win a row in the
regular season.
Scorers: Elan
Stark 4, Joel Abbott 4, Paul
Phillpott 3, Gregg Candy-Wallace 1,
Nathan Hart 1.
Exclusions:
Nathan Hart 3, Elan Stark 2, Joel Abbott
1, Paul Phillpott 1.
As a result
of these three victories we have
finished the season with eight wins
and two defeats which were both at the
first weekend at Sheffield. We have
finished second in the table (subject to
final confirmation) and we will play in
the final weekend top four play-off to
decide the championship.
This is an
excellent result for the squad and we
return to Walsall in two weeks
time for the play-off believing that we
are capable of beating all of the
other three teams that are
involved. (Exeter, Grantham and Ealing)
Squad in
full: Paul Phillpott, Andy Cawdery,
Nathan Hart, Dominic Cranford,
Richard Hooper, Alastair Roberts,
Gregg Candy-Wallace, Elan Hart, Alastair
Hardinge, Joel Abbott, Alexander
Cranford (against Newcastle)
Regards,
Alastair
|
Match Review9/11/2009 London Winter League 2009-2010.
Under 16
Championship (1994 + Younger)
Tournament 1,
Whitgift School, Croydon.
Sunday 8th
November 2009.
We decided to
enter this competition with a very young
team knowing that we would face some
particularly difficult matches
Our team at
this tournament didn't include anyone who
is in the final year in this age group.
(Born 1994) With all the squad at
least a year younger (Ben Goddard is
actually 4 years younger born in 1998), we knew
that we would be facing older, and more
experienced teams from around the
south-east.
The individual
match reports are as follows:
1.Worthing 0,
Sutton & Cheam 7. (H/T 0-3)
A tough match
against a talented team who were
physically stronger than our young squad.
We did play
some good water polo at times and we did
force the opposition goalkeeper to make a
number of good saves.
Scorers: None
Exclusions:
Charlie Jones 2, Sam Wildman 2.
2. Worthing 0,
Hythe 5. (H/T 0-4)
A slightly
disappointing first half when we struggled
to come to terms with the opposition but
in the second period we showed much
greater application and we were unlucky
not to score on several occasions.
Scorers: None
Exclusions:
None
3. Worthing 2, Mid
Sussex 8. (H/T 1-6)
The first half
of this match was probably our poorest
period of play during the four matches and
we defended naively at times.
During the second period we produced a much better display and we created many chances,especially when we turned over possession.
The two goals
scored were fair reward but our first-half
display had left us too much to do.
Scorers: Joe
Hazeldine 1, Sam Wildman 1.
Exclusions:
Joe Hazeldine 2, Sam Wildman 2.
4. Worthing 0,
Croydon Amphibians 6. (H/T 0-2)
An excellent
first half performance when again we
missed several good chances.
The
second-half saw the team start to tire but
we kept going to the end.
Scorers: None
Exclusions:
Ben Goddard 1.
Squad in Full:
Oliver Rainford, Henry Jackson, Laura
Joseph, Tara Osborne, Karen Chan, Joe
Hazeldine, Sam Wildman, Ben Goddard,
Charlie Jones.
This was a
really tough event for the squad but I
hope that they will all have learnt a
great deal from playing against some of
the high quality and more experienced
players in the opposition teams.
We actually
did play some good water polo at times and
the squad will benefit from this type of
tough competition in the longer term.
Regards,
Alastair
Roberts.
|
Match Review25/10/2009
Men's National
League Division 4.
Weekend 3,
Marlborough School.
Sunday 25th
October 2009.
Worthing 15,
Grantham 10. (Quarter Scores: 5-1, 4-4,
4-3, 2-2)
The latest
match in our debut season in the
national league always looked to be a
demanding fixture against a much
improved Grantham team.
The fixture
computer had strangely only allocated us one
match for the weekend and so we faced a
220 mile round trip to the excellent deep
water pool at Marlborough school for
this important encounter.
We were
pleased to travel with a squad of 11 for
this match with the addition of debutants
Andy Cawdery and Alexander Cranford who
became the youngest player to
represent us in the national league.
The match was
always going to be hard-fought affair and
this proved to be the case. We did make an
excellent start and in the first quarter
our zonal defence was again hugely
influential in frustrating the opposition.
We scored a
number of excellent goals during the match
and we always posed Grantham problems
either from the centre-forward position or
with our longer range shooting.
Richard scored with 1 second
left of the third period with a fierce
shot from distance into the far corner and
this was probably the key moment in ending
Grantham's resistance. This made the
match score 13-8 and during the final
period we played our possessions to
run down the clock and secure another fine
win.
Once again our
defensive play was of a high standard and
we continued our excellent record by
conceding only 2 exclusion fouls in this
match.
Scorers:
Richard Hooper 4, Paul Phillpott 4,
Joel Abbott 3, Elan Stark 2, Sam Abbott
1, Andy Cawdery 1.
Exclusions:
Richard Hooper 2.
Squad in Full:
Gregg Candy-Wallace, Andy Cawdery, Richard
Hooper, Alexander Cranford, Sam Abbott,
Elan Stark, Nathan Hart, Joel Abbott, Paul
Philpott, Alastair Hardinge, Alastair
Roberts.
This was
another good win but all the squad
realized that we probably hadn't played
quite as well as at the previous weekend
at Walsall when we won all three
matches. But the win was definitely fair
reward and we will go the final regular
season tournament at Nottingham University
knowing that we still have a good chance
of being involved in the final four
play-off.
At Nottingham
we will play a full 3 match program
against Newcastle, Bedford and Ealing
which will be demanding series of games.
Regards,
Alastair.
|
Match Review17/10/2009
Sussex Senior
League.
Wednesday 14th
October.
Worthing 20,
Hastings 11. (Quarter scores: 6-3, 3-3,
3-2, 8-3)
This was a
straightforward win against a Hastings
senior team that was strengthened by
the appearance of current GB senior
international player, Jack Waller.
The Worthing
team was always in control and a
dominant final quarter saw the final score
give a fair reflection of the difference
between the teams.
Our zonal
defence made it very difficult for Jack
Waller to create many chances and we
coped well with his obvious attacking
threat restricting him to 4 goals.
The Worthing
attack was led by Paul Phillpott, who
after the success of the previous
weekend in the national league fixtures at
Walsall continued his good form with
a 10 goal haul.
Scorers: Paul
Phillpott 10, Ziggy Tate 4, Richard Hooper
3, Jon Gray 1, Sam Abbott 1, Dominic
Cranford 1.
Exclusions:
Jon Gray 1, Dominic Cranford 1.
Squad in full:
Alexander Cranford, Ziggy Tate, Jon Gray,
Richard Hooper, Rob Osborne, Sam
Abbott, Dominic Cranford, Andy Cawdery,
Tony Gray, Nathan Hart, Paul Phillpott.
The next
senior match is in the national league
(division 4) when we play Grantham at the
Marlborough school pool on Sunday 25th
October.
Regards,
Alastair.
|
Match Review11/10/2009 This is the report of the second weekend of Worthing's debut season in Division 4 of the men's national league.
Having played 3
exciting matches at the first tournament in
September at Ponds Forge in Sheffield
winning 1 match with 2 close defeats, we
were very much looking forward to this
event.
The individual
match reports are as follows:
National League
Division 4, Tournament 2.
Walsall Gala
Baths
Match 1.
Saturday October
10th, 12.00.
Worthing 29, RAF
7. (Quarter Scores: 6-3, 8-1, 8-2, 7-1)
A satisfactory
win against an enthusiastic but technically
limited RAF team who made a spirited start
to this match but soon struggled against our
well drilled team play.
The first
quarter saw the Worthing team take time
to get into the match and we conceded 3
goals that really should have been avoided.
We soon worked out the best tactics for this
opposition and we dominated the final 3
quarters of the match.
Our zonal
defence was the key factor in the teams
success, and the RAF always struggled to
create many opportunities once we got
ourselves organized.
In attack we
always posed problems for the opposition and
we scored goals both from the centre forward
position as well as with shots from
distance.
Overall this was
a satisfactory win, but the team realized
that the second match of the day against
Cambridge would probably be a much tougher
affair.
Scorers: Paul
Phillpott 9, Richard Hooper 7, Joel Abbott
5, Sam Abbott 3, Nathan Hart 2,
Elan Stark 2, Gregg Candy-Wallace 1.
Exclusions: Joel
Abbott 2, Nathan Hart 1.
Match 2.
Saturday October
10th, 17.50.
Worthing 14,
Cambridge 10. (Quarter Scores: 2-3, 6-3,
2-0, 4-4)
This was an
excellent match against a talented Cambridge
team who had been unbeaten at the first
weekend.
At the pre-match
meeting we discussed in detail a defensive
plan that was designed to frustrate and
limit the oppositions scoring opportunities
and it was pleasing that for long periods
our tactics were successful.
The first
quarter was a close affair with both teams
finding out the relative strengths of the
opposition and we were a little unlucky to
finish the period a goal down. The second quarter
was the key period in the match and we
scored some excellent goals to take control
of the match. Joel scored 2 excellent goals
from the centre forward position but the
team looked well organized and always
dangerous when in possession.
The third period
saw the team continue to dominate
proceedings and into the final quarter
we maintained possession for long periods
while running down the remaining playing
time.
Overall, an
excellent win built on a fine defensive
display which was highlighted by only
conceding 2 exclusion fouls.
Scorers: Joel
Abbott 4, Paul Phillpott 4, Richard Hooper
4, Elan Stark 1, Alastair Hardinge 1.
Exclusions: Paul
Phillpott 2.
Match 3.
Sunday October
11th, 11.10
Worthing 20,
Otter 1869 4. (Quarter Scores: 4-1, 6-1,
4-1, 6-1)
This was by far
our best performance so far in the National
league and we dominated a team whose
previous results indicated that we would be
in for a tough encounter.
Playing again
with a highly technical zone defence,
we completely disrupted Otter's attacking
game and limited them to mainly speculative
shots from distance.
In attack we
played some excellent water polo and we
scored goals from all areas but Paul
Phillpott and Joel Abbott were particularly
productive alternating in the centre
forward position.
Our defensive
game plan worked so well that we almost went
for half the match without conceding a goal.
Only a defensive slip with 7 seconds
remaining gifted Otter a very late
consolation goal but overall we had played
an excellent game.
Our overall
dominance was also highlighted by the
exclusion count with Otter committing 11
offences while we only conceded 3.
Scorers: Joel
Abbott 5, Paul Phillpott 5, Elan Stark 4,
Richard Hooper 2, Nathan Hart 2, Sam Abbott
1, Alastair Hardinge 1.
Exclusions:
Richard Hooper 2, Joel Abbott 1.
Two national
league weekends played and I think all
the squad and the many supporters now feel
that we are becoming established as a team
to be taken seriously. All the squad
work hard for each other and the tactics
that we employed so successfully for most of
the weekend rely on a huge amount of
teamwork. We know that we still need to
improve but we have made progress since
the first weekend and I am sure that the
team will be even more competitive at the
future weekends.
Finally, all the
squad and our supporters are thoroughly
enjoying the national league experience. We had
an excellent evening out together on the
Saturday evening and and we are grateful for
all the support and encouragement that the
club, along with a number of individuals
have given us to make our participation
possible.
Regards,
Alastair.
|
Match Review4/10/2009 Sussex County Senior League.
Wednesday 30th
September 2009
Crawley 12,
Worthing 17.
Quarter Scores:
5-5, 0-5, 2-2, 5-5.
This was a
workmanlike win against a much improved
Crawley team in a match played at the
excellent all deep K2 facility.
With Crawley now
able to include a number of talented players
this was always going to be a difficult
match but the Worthing team always had the
game under control.
After a level
first quarter we took control in the second
period and Crawley never looked likely to
overhaul our advantage in the second half of
the game.
All the squad of
12 played well and we scored a number of
good quality goals. Defensively we weren't
quite as effective as we normally are but we
still frustrated the opposition for long
periods.
Scorers: Paul
Phillpott 8, Richard Hooper 5, Ziggy
Tate 2, Sam Abbott 1, Dominic Cranford 1.
Exclusions:
Dominic Cranford 2, Andy Cawdery 1, Paul
Phillpott 1.
Remaining squad:
Jon Gray, Tony Gray, Rob Osborne, Adrian
Irbe, Alexander Cranford, Alastair Roberts.
Regards,
Alastair
|
Match Review21/9/2009 Sussex County Senior League.
Wednesday 16th
September 2009
Worthing 13,
Brighton 7. (Quarter Scores: 2-0, 4-3, 3-1,
4-3)
This was a
satisfactory win against a much improved
Brighton senior team who are well organized
defensively and they always made it
difficult for us to play our normal
attacking game.
We did,
however, manage to play a good standard
of water polo at times and we were worthy
winners at the end.
All of the squad
enjoyed a good amount of water time and
first choice goal-keeper enjoyed his 4th
quarter foray as an outfield player. He
managed to score a goal and get himself
excluded during his short cameo appearance!
Scorers: Richard
Hooper 4, Paul Phillpott 3, Nathan Hart 2,
Alastair Hardinge 2, Tim Brazier 1, Ben
Alcorn 1.
Exclusions: Ben
Alcorn 1, Sam Abbott 1, Dominic Cranford 1.
Squad in full:
Ben Alcorn, Jon Gray, Richard Hooper, Rob
Osborne, Sam Abbott, Dominic Cranford,
Tim Brazier, Nathan Hart, Paul Phillpott
& Alastair Hardinge.
Regards,
Alastair.
|
Match Review20/9/2009 This is a report of the latest London league event.
Sunday 13th
September.
London League
Under 15 Competition (Boys and girls born
1995 + younger)
Whitgift School,
South Croydon.
Our young team
traveled to the final tournament at the deep
water pool at Whitgift school knowing that
they faced two tough matches.
The reports are
as follows:
Match 1.
Worthing 10,
Sevenoaks 1.
This was a good
win against an inexperienced opposition who
struggled to deal with our attacking play.
We dominated
throughout and scored a number of good
goals with 5 of our squad finding the
back of the net.
Scorers: Olly
Rainford 3, Ben Goddard 3, Joe Hazeldine 2,
Laura Joseph 1, Karen Chan 1.
Exclusions:
None.
Match 2.
Worthing 3,
Hythe 4.
This was an
exciting match to finish our program in this
summers championship and with a little more
luck we could have won.
The lead changed
hands on several occasions and we played our
part in an exciting match that we were
a little unfortunate not to take something
from.
Scorers: Joe
Hazeldine 1, Laura Joseph 1, Olly Rainford
1.
Exclusion: Karen
Chan 1.
Squad in full:
Sam Wildman, Henry Jackson, Callum Craven, Olly Rainford,
Laura Joseph, Tara Osborne, Karen Chan,
Joe Hazeldine & Ben Goddard,
This was a
satisfactory end to our participation in
this championship and all the squad
continue to improve as a result of playing
more competitive matches.
We hope that the
team will continue to make progress when the
Winter league program commences later
in the year.
Regards,
Alastair.
|
Match Review15/9/2009 This is the report of the third match played at our historic first weekend in the national league.
National League
Division 4.
Ponds Forge,
Sheffield. 13th September 2009. 17.15 Start.
Worthing 11,
Carlisle 14. (Quarter scores, 2-3, 2-5, 2-4,
5-2)
A slightly
disappointing end to the weekend saw a tired performance
from the Worthing team which resulted in
another close defeat.
Carlisle are a
strong team who combine a number of talented
junior players along with some senior
players who have gained experience with
Lancaster who are currently the National
League 1st division champions.
We knew that
this would be a difficult match but we still
felt that if we played to our full potential
we would have a reasonable chance of a
victory.
Unfortunately we
never quite found the level of performance
that we needed and we again missed too many
chances that we would normally hope to
score from. That said, the Carlisle
goalkeeper produced a number of outstanding
saves, often at key moments in the
match.
Defensively we
gave away a number of goals that we would
not normally expect to concede but we
improved when we changed from a zone to a man
for man "press."
Scorers: Richard
Hooper 7, Paul Phillpott 2, Nathan Hart 1,
Joel Abbott 1.
Exclusions: Sam
Abbott 1, Nathan Hart 1, Joel Abbott 1, Paul
Phillpott 1.
Squad in full:
Gregg Candy-Wallace, Richard Hooper, Sam
Abbott, Dominic Cranford, Nathan Hart, Joel
Abbott, Paul Phillpott, Alastair Hardinge,
Alastair Roberts.
Coach: Ben
Alcorn.
Overall this was
an exciting first weekend when we could
possibly have won, lost or drawn all 3
matches. We have proved that we are
competitive at this level but we will need
to improve in various areas of play if we
are to win more matches.
We were very
pleased with how well the squad behaved both
in and out of the water and we were pleased
that so many friends and family made the
long journey north to support the team.
We are
already looking forward to the next
tournament which is at Walsall on the
weekend of 10/11th October. We again face a
busy three match program with fixtures
against The RAF, City of Cambridge and
London based Otter 1869.
Regards,
Alastair.
|
Match Review14/9/2009 Hi to you all from Pond's Forge, Sheffield.
This is the
first ever report of our participation in
the UK men's national water polo league.
Having made the
decision to enter at the start of the year,
we were pleased to see that the first venue
we would play our division 4 fixtures at
was the outstanding venue within the UK.
Ponds Forge is a
fantastic complex with the 50 metre deep
water pool the outstanding attraction.
At the first
weekend the draw gave us fixtures against
the other two new teams in the league
(Carlisle and Exeter) as well as the
Manchester second team that includes mainly
talented junior players.
The results (so
far) are as follows:
Saturday 12th
September, 16.15 Start.
Worthing 14,
Exeter 17 (Quarter Scores 1-2, 2-5, 5-5,
6-5)
A highly
entertaining and exciting debut match that
saw our inexperienced team play some good
water polo before eventually losing out to a
quality opposition.
Exeter include a
number of players who have played at this
level for several years and our defensive
tactics frustrated them for long periods of
the match.
If anything, it
was our inability to take several of the
clear opportunities that we created that
probably cost us the chance of a victory.
We were always
competitive and the team could be proud to
have put on such a good display against one
of the obvious favorites for the divisional
title.
For the record,
Richard Hooper became the first player
to score for Worthing in the national
league with a well taken goal after 6
minutes 48 seconds of the first period.
Unfortunately, by then we had already missed
several chances that probably
highlighted the reason we eventually
lost this match.
Ultimately, a
match that highlighted the reasons that we
took the decision to play in this
competition. Outstanding facilities, first
class refereeing and "proper"
table officiating.
Scorers: Paul
Phillpott 6, Richard Hooper 4, Sam Abbott 2,
Nathan Hart 1, Joel Abbott 1 (penalty).
Exclusions:
Nathan Hart 3, Paul Phillpott 2, Gregg
Candy-Wallace 1, Richard Hooper 1, Alastair Hardinge
1.
Sunday 13th
September, 11.00 Start.
Worthing 13,
Manchester Hawks 11. (Quarter Scores 6-3,
0-3, 3-3, 4-2)
Our first win
was secured with a less than satisfactory
performance against a young but talented
opposition.
Once again we
were unable to take many of the chances that
we created and a poor defensive display in
the second quarter was particularly
disappointing.
We started
the final period with a comfortable 2 goal
advantage but two poor pieces of defending
saw the opposition draw level with 2 minutes
30 left in the game.
Fortunately we
scored twice quickly to secure the win but
all the team realized that we would need to
play better in the final match of the
weekend against Carlisle.
Scorers: Richard
Hooper 3, Paul Phillpott 3, Sam Abbott 2,
Dominic Cranford 2, Nathan Hart 2, Alastair
Hardinge 1.
Exclusions: Joel
Abbott 3, Richard Hooper 1, Sam Abbott 1,
Dominic Cranford 1, Alastair Hardinge 1.
Squad in full:
Gregg Candy-Wallace, Richard Hooper, Sam
Abbott, Dominic Cranford, Nathan Hart, Joel
Abbott, Paul Phillpott, Alastair Hardinge,
Alastair Roberts.
Coach: Ben
Alcorn.
I will forward
the report of the final match of the weekend tomorrow.
Regards,
Alastair.
|
*** Water Polo - sponsored 'Channel' Swim Report ***posted on 6 September 2009
Junior Boys Inter-Regional
Championships 2009.
Walsall Gala Baths, 5/6
September.
After a break of a few years the
ASA decided to re-introduce an inter-regional championship
for the junior age group (boys born 1991 and younger).
The Worthing junior team has
dominated competitions within London and the south-east at
this age group for the past few years and 7 of our players
were selected in a squad of 12 that represented the
region.
Congratulations should go to Sam
Abbott, Joel Abbott, Dominic Cranford, Alastair Hardinge,
Scott Martin, Robert Osborne and Ziggy Tate who all played a
significant part in an exciting tournament.
The south-east eventually
finished as runners-up to a very strong north-west team but
they played some excellent water polo through-out.
On the Saturday the team started
with a satisfactory win against the east-midlands before
losing by the narrowest of margins to Scotland.
Sunday saw the team play well
against the north-west but missing too many chances cost
them the chance of victory. In the final match the boys
managed to turn the tables on Scots to win by a single goal
margin which secured the runners-up position.
Joel Abbott was joint top goal
scorer in the competition which is a remarkable achievement
for a player who has only just started concentrating on
playing outfield rather than his original position in
goal.
To finish as runners-up in this
competition is a good result for the region and the
selection of 7 Worthing players is a remarkable
achievement for the club.
The team was coached by
Paul Phillpott, also of Worthing SC, who worked
hard with the squad at various sessions in the build up
to the competition.
If you should require any
further information please feel free to contact me.
Regards,
Alastair Roberts.
07770 916721 (M)
|
*** Water Polo - sponsored 'Channel' Swim Report ***posted on 18 July 2009
Wednesday 15th
July.
Aquarena,
Worthing.
Worthing Water Polo held a sponsored 'channel' swim to raise funds for their National League inaugural year and for Cancer Research UK. Please click here for details. Click here for Photos. |
Match Review11/7/2009
The busy year
for the water polo teams has
continued this week with two senior
fixtures.
Tuesday 7th
July.
Senior Friendly
Match.
HMS Temerera,
Portsmouth.
Royal Navy 5,
Worthing 16. (Quarter scores: 1-4, 1-6,
1-2, 2-4)
Having played on
the Sunday in the Army tournament at
Aldershot, we continued our busy period with
a match against the Royal Navy in
Portsmouth.
Both services
are working towards the inter-services
Championship which is being played this
weekend and we are always happy to help
with both teams build up to this
competition.
The match with
the Navy was an excellent encounter and
we played some good quality water polo
in securing the victory.
Strong defending
was the basis of the win and we always
looked dangerous in attack. Paul Phillpott
had a fine game playing at centre
forward scoring 7 goals but the team
played well to create the chances.
Overall we were
pleased with the performance which again
indicated the high standard of water
polo that this squad is capable of
producing.
Scorers: Paul
Phillpott 7, Scott Martin 3, Stuart Stirling
2, Sam Abbott 2, Jon Gray 1, Ziggy Tate 1.
Exclusions:
Stuart Stirling 2, Scott Martin 1, Ben
Alcorn 1.
Squad in Full:
Ben Alcorn (G/K), Jon Gray, Alastair
Hardinge, Andy Cawdery, Tim Brazier, Sam
Abbott, Adrian Irbe, Scott Martin, Ziggy
Tate, Stuart Stirling, Paul Phillpott,
Nathan Hart.
Thursday 9th July.
Sussex Senior
League.
Summerfield's
Pool, Hastings.
Hastings 2,
Worthing 15. (Quarter scores: 1-3, 0-2,
1-7, 0-3)
Two days after
the trip to Portsmouth we made the long
journey east for the annual encounter
with Hastings.
As always, the
match was played in the shallow, narrow and
dimly lit Summerfield's pool which is not
exactly ideal for water polo.
We coped well in
the circumstances and occasionally managed
to put together some moves of real quality.
Paul Phillpott and Richard Hooper shared the
centre forward role and caused the
opposition all sorts of problems.
The goals were
shared between 7 of our squad of 9 and it
was nice to see Adrian Irbe score twice and
regular goal-keeper Ben Alcorn also on the
score sheet.
Scorers: Richard
Hooper 5, Paul Phillpott 3, Adrian Irbe 2,
Sam Abbott 2, Ben Alcorn 1, Tim Brazier 1,
Nathan Hart 1.
Exclusions:
Alastair Hardinge 1.
Squad in Full:
Ben Alcorn, Paul Phillpott, Andy Cawdery,
Richard Hooper, Tim Brazier, Alastair
Hardinge, Adrian Irbe, Sam Abbott, Nathan
Hart.
Regards,
Alastair.
|
Match Review5/7/2009
A very busy week
for the various water polo teams.
Reports as
follows:
1.Senior
Friendly Match.
Wednesday 1st
July.
Sevenoaks 5,
Worthing 12.
This was a
satisfactory win for our senior team at Kent
league side Sevenoaks.
We played well
and controlled the game throughout and the
final score was a fair reflection of the
teams dominance.
Scorers: Richard
Hooper 6, Sam Abbott 4, Ben Alcorn 1,
Dominic Cranford 1.
Exclusions:
None.
Squad in Full:
As Above + Jon Gray, Andy Cawdrey, Rob
Osborne, Tony Gray, Paul Phillpott.
2. British Army
Senior Tournament.
Aldershot,
Sunday 5th July.
We travelled to
the excellent 50 metre pool at Aldershot for
the annual tournament to defend the title
that we had won 12 months ago.
We were pleased
to take a full squad of 13 to this event to
play 2 full 4 quarter matches in a full size
deep water pool.
Match 1,
Worthing 17, British Army 6
Quarter Scores:
4-1, 5-2, 4-0, 4-3.
This match was a
competitive affair against an Army team
who are currently missing a number of
players who are deployed in Afghanistan.
We played some
good water polo but our man-up opportunities
were poorly executed and we missed a number
of chances that we probably should have
scored from.
All of the squad enjoyed
a good amount of water time and Alastair
Hardinge was unlucky to be excluded in
the third quarter.
Scorers: Scott
Martin 6, Ziggy Tate 4, Joel Abbott 2,
Richard Hooper 2, Sam Abbott 1, Stuart
Stirling 1, Matt White 1.
Exclusions:
Alastair Hardinge 3, Tony Gray 1, Rob
Osborne 1, Scott Martin 1.
Match 2,
Worthing 14, Swindon 11.
Quarter Scores:
3-2, 2-2, 3-3, 6-4.
An exciting
match against a well organized and strong
opposition who will play in Division 3 of
the National League later this year.
We always led
but Swindon did draw level at the start of
the 4th Quarter. A couple of quick goals,
including a rare backhand shot by Stuart
Stirling from the centre forward position,
settled the nerves.
At times we
again played some good water polo but
as in the previous match our extra man plays
were poor.
That said, we
did enough to win what was a very hard
fought victory which secured the overall
title.
Scorers: Matt
White 6, Scott Martin 3, Ziggy Tate 2,
Richard Hooper 2, Stuart Stirling 1.
Exclusions: Andy
Cawdery 2, Adrian Irbe 2, Tony Gray 1, Joel
Abbott 1, Alastair Hardinge 1.
Squad in Full at
the Army: Ben Alcorn (G/K), Ziggy Tate,
Scott Martin, Stuart Stirling, Joel Abbott, Sam
Abbott, Richard Hooper, Tony Gray, Adrian
Irbe, Matt White, Andy Cawdery,
Rob Osborne, Alastair Hardinge.
3. London Junior
League (1991 + Younger)
Play-off Final,
Whitgift School, South Croydon.
Sunday 5th July.
Worthing 23,
Croydon Amphibians 8.
Quarter Scores:
4-1, 4-1, 8-4, 7-2.
The final of
this years Junior London league looked like
being a tough affair against our long
time rivals in their home pool. Add to this
that 6 of our squad of 10 had already played
earlier in the day at Aldershot in the Army
tournament and we were expecting a tough
battle to win the title.
An outstanding
first quarter saw the team take control and
after this period we were always in command.
Croydon didn't
help themselves with one of their best
players being excluded before the end of the
first quarter and as a result we were able
to dictate the play for long periods.
Our attacking
play always caused the opposition problems
and we scored a number of fine goals.
The win secured
the London Junior league for the
second year running and this event is
really the unofficial Championship for teams
from all parts of London and the South-east.
The club should be very proud of this group
of boys who have worked hard and developed
together over the past few years and have
become a formidable team.
Scorers: Scott
Martin 9, Joel Abbott 5, Sam Abbott 4,
Stuart Stirling 2, Tim Brazier 1, Kevin Chan
1, Dominic Cranford 1.
Exclusions:
Alastair Hardinge 2, Rob Osborne 1.
Squad in Full:
Alexander Cranford (G/K), Scott Martin, Joel
Abbott, Sam Abbott, Alastair Hardinge,
Dominic Cranford, Stuart Stirling, Rob
Osborne, Kevin Chan, Tim Brazier.
The season
continues this coming week with a fixture
away at the Royal Navy in Portsmouth and a
county league game at Hastings.
Regards,
Alastair.
|
Match Review29/6/2009
We have played 2
Sussex Senior League fixtures in the past
week as follows:
Wednesday 24th
June.
Worthing 18,
Crawley 4. (Quarter Scores: 7-0, 5-2, 3-1,
3-1)
This was a
comprehensive win against an improving
Crawley team who were unfortunately missing
a couple of their influential players.
The Worthing
team made a particularly strong start in the
first period and this has not always been
the case in recent matches. Leading 7-0
at the first break really ended the game as
a contest but Crawley kept going and
never made it easy for us.
Our all-round
play was of good quality and we defended
particularly well employing a zone defence
to frustrate the opposition for long
periods. The few chances that they created
were dealt with by goal-keeper Ben Alcorn
and on several occasions his passing led to
quick counter-attacks.
Overall this was
a satisfactory win and our mixture of youth
and experience with 8 junior players in the
squad of 13 proved far too strong for
Crawley.
Scorers: Richard
Hooper 4, Scott Martin 3, Ziggy Tate 3, Paul
Phillpott 3, Sam Abbott 2, Alexander
Cranford 1, Nathan Hart 1, Ben Alcorn 1.
Exclusions: Andy
Cawdrey 1, Dominic Cranford 1, Ziggy Tate 1.
Remaining Squad
Members: Jon Gray, Rob Osborne, Stuart
Stirling.
Friday 26th
June.
Brighton 5,
Worthing 14. (Quarter Scores: 3-2, 5-0, 3-1,
3-2)
The second win
of the week was secured against a much
improved Brighton team at the Prince
Regent pool.
This is not an
easy venue to play at being much smaller and
most significantly more shallow than our
home pool. This makes for a more physical
match but we coped well and played some good
water polo on the way to securing
the victory.
Having taken a
quick 2 goal lead, we contrived to give away
2 goals but this was the last time the match
was level. The second quarter saw a
particularly dominant display and with a 8-2
lead at half-time we could afford to relax
and play out the remainder of the game.
Scorers: Richard
Hooper 5, Paul Phillpott 5, Scott Martin 2,
Ziggy Tate 2.
Exclusions:
Anthony Gray 3, Scott Martin 1, Andy
Cawdrey, Stuart Stirling 1, Paul Phillpott
1.
Remaining Squad
Members: Rob Osborne, Sam Abbott, Dominic
Cranford, Alexander Cranford, Nathan Hart,
Ben Alcorn.
This was a
satisfactory week for our senior team who
will be busy again this coming week with
fixtures away at Sevenoaks and the annual tournament
at the Army in Aldershot on Sunday.
Regards,
Alastair.
|
*** Water Polo - sponsored 'Channel' swim ***posted on 25 June 2009Worthing Water Polo are holding a sponsored 'channel' swim to raise funds for their National League inaugural year and for Cancer Research UK. Please click here for flyer. |
Match Review21/6/2009
London League
Under 15 (Mixed) Championship.
Tournament 3.
Whitgift School,
South Croydon.
Sunday 21st June
2009.
We travelled to
the third event of this summers championship
having played really well at the last event
when our young team had begun to show a
great deal of improvement.
We were due to
play 3 matches at this tournament but the
late withdrawal of West London Penguin meant
that we had to play 2 longer games against
Sevenoaks and Watford.
These are the
individual reports:
Match 1.
Worthing 14,
Sevenoaks 0. (H/T 8-0)
This was a fine
performance against a young but spirited
opposition who always made things difficult
for us.
The Worthing
youngsters once again showed that they are
beginning to progress both individually and
collectively and it was pleasing to see that
the passing and game awareness are now of a
much higher standard.
The team
defended well and the opposition only created
a small number of chances.
It was the speed
of our counter attacking that was the real
difference between the teams and we scored a
number of goals as a result of
quickly turning defence into attack.
Scorers: Karen
Chan 4, Laura Joseph 4, Ben Goddard 2, Joe
Hazeldine 2, Charlie Jones 1, Olly Rainford
1.
Exclusion:
Charlie Jones.
Match 2.
Worthing 1,
Watford 6. (H/T 1-0)
A really strange
match that saw us dominate the start of the
game taking the lead through an excellent
finish from Laura. We missed several other
chances as we continued to dominate
proceedings in the first half and perhaps
this was the turning point of the game.
In the second
half we started to make too many basic
errors and we were particularly guilty in
giving away possession too easily on many
occasions.
The poor second
period might have been explained by an
element of tiredness creeping in but the
final score really does not give a real
indication of the closeness of the match.
Although we were
disappointed with the final result the team
had played well in the first half and can
take a great deal of satisfaction for how
they competed against an older and more
physical opposition.
Scorer: Laura
Joseph
Exclusion: Joe
Hazeldine.
Squad in Full:
Sam Wildman, Laura Joseph, Karen Chan, Tara
Osborne, Joe Hazeldine, Olly Rainford, Henry
Jackson, Ben Goddard, Callum Craven, Charlie
Jones.
Overall, this
was an encouraging event for our development
squad who are beginning to make good
progress.
The team
continues to improve and we are looking
forward to the final event which is due
to be played on September 13th.
Regards,
Alastair.
|
Match Review13/6/2009
Ladies London
League. Division 2.
Tournament 3,
Whitgift School, Croydon.
Sunday 7th June
2009.
The final
tournament of the 2009 Ladies London League
took us back to the excellent deep
water pool at Whitgift school in Croydon.
The event had
the making of an exciting affair with our
new combined Worthing/Basingstoke team level
on points at the top of table with Beckenham
ladies.
As a result the
key fixture looked to be the first match of
the days program with the winner looking
likely to take the overall title.
Unfortunately
our squad was missing Chrissy Pilcher who
was unavailable because of illness and Becky
Anderson who was away at Loughborough
University studying for exams.
These are the
individual match reports.
Match 1.
Worthing/Basingstoke 7, Beckenham 1. (H/T
2-1)
A match that
will be remembered unfortunately for the
idiosyncratic officiating which spoilt what
should have been an exciting encounter.
Our girls were
worthy winners and were always in
control but the final score did not reflect
the closeness of the match. Certain key decisions
went our way and we scored a number of goals
as a result.
Our defending
was always of a high quality and because of
this we always looked the more likely
team to win the match.
Scorers: Jenny
Willett 3, Mel Hart 3, Kelli Bird 1.
Exclusions:
Emily Griffiths 1, Stacy Darbyshire 1.
Match 2.
Worthing/Basingstoke 10, Oxford 1. (H/T 3-0)
A satisfactory
win for the team when swimming speed
and fitness were the key.
A number of our
goals were scored as a result of simple
turnovers and the opposition had no
answer to our counter-attacking.
Defensively we played
well again and goalkeeper Kayley Alcorn
dealt well with a small number of
speculative shots.
Scorers: Hannah
Chilton 4, Mel Hart 3, Jenny Willett 2,
Kelli Bird 1.
Exclusions:
Emily Griffiths 2, Hannah Chilton 1.
Match 3.
Worthing/Basingstoke 7, Penguin III 5.
(H/T 3-2)
The final score
indicates a close result but we were always
in control of this match against a physical
opposition.
Once again it
was the speed of our counter-attacking
that did the damage and Penguin constantly struggled
to deal with this aspect of our play.
Both teams
looked tired playing their 3rd game of the
day and this probably explains the high
number of exclusions committed.
Scorers: Jenny
Willett 4, Mel Hart 2, Hannah Chilton 1.
Exclusions:
Emily Griffiths 3, Claire Liggins 1, Amy
Stringer 1, Mel Hart 1, Kelli Bird 1.
Squad in Full:
Kayley Alcorn (G/K), Jenny Willett, Emily
Griffiths, Claire Liggins, Stacy Darbyshire,
Hannah Chilton, Amy Stringer, Mel Hart,
Kelli Bird.
The 3 wins
secured the Division 2 title and Jenny
Willett was presented with the trophy after
the final match.
This was an
excellent result for this new combined team
at it was particularly good to see how well
the girls form both clubs worked together.
The girls were
delighted with the win and I hope that we
will defend this title in next years
competition.
Regards,
Alastair.
|
Match Review6/6/2009
Sussex Senior
Knock-out.
Wednesday 3rd
June 2009
Worthing 13,
Brighton 5 (+ 6 Handicap) 11 . (Quarter
Scores: 2-3, 2-0, 4-2, 5-0)
This was an
exciting match against a much improved and
spirited Brighton team who played their part
in an entertaining fixture.
With a handicap
of 6 goals to overcome this always looked to
be a difficult fixture and this certainly
proved to be the case.
We made a slow start
failing to employ the desired tactics and as
a result at the end of the first period we
trailed 2-3 which was an overall
deficit of 2-9.
From this point
our play began to improve but we were still
guilty of missing far too many simple
opportunities which kept score closer than
it might have been.
Going into the
final period we still trailed 5-8 but a
strong finish saw us take a 2 goal lead with
just over 2 minutes left to play. As a
result we ran the clock down successfully to
record a narrow victory.
Ben Alcorn had a
fine game in goal including a spectacular
penalty save and it was pleasing to see that
our squad of 12 included 6 junior players.
The team
realized that they had under-performed but
credit must go to Brighton who played well
for long periods of the match.
Scorers: Richard
Hooper 4, Paul Phillpott 4, Scott Martin 3,
Nathan Hart 1.
Exclusions: Paul
Phillpott 2, Richard Hooper 1, Sam Abbott 1,
Dominic Cranford 1, Stuart Stirling 1.
Squad in Full:
Ben Alcorn (G/K), Jon Gray, Anthony Gray,
Richard Hooper, Rob Osborne, Sam Abbott,
Dominic Cranford, Scott Martin, Stuart
Stirling, Alexander Cranford, Paul Phillpott
& Nathan Hart.
Kind regards,
Alastair.
|
Water Polo Archive |
Alastair Roberts
Water Polo Secretary
