Link to British Swimming article on junior water polo which included Scott Martin
 www.britishswimming.org                                                                                         

Article went as follows

A British water polo youth team has gained valuable experience at its first international tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria.                                                                                                      

A 13-strong team of players aged 16 years and under competed together for the very first time at the Diana Cup, a four match round robin event against hosts Bulgaria and Serbia, Austria and Macedonia.

Britain faced a strong Serbian side in their opening match and were pleased with the result, despite a 14-3 loss. Stuart Fennell (Weston Super Mare) scored twice and Lancaster City’s Ciaran James got one in the net.

In a closer match against hosts Bulgaria, Britain were two points down and lost 12-10. Showing an improvement in their set play, the team failed to capitalise on a good start and a series of man-up opportunities.

An encouraging comeback towards the end of the match with Britain winning the final quarter 4-0 wasn’t enough to reverse the final scoreline. City of Manchester’s Dean Smith scored five, Daniel Barker (Carlisle) and James scored a pair apiece and captain Tom Richmond (also City of Manchester) scored one.

In their only win of the tournament, 11-3 against Austria, glory was shared amongst the team with nine of the players contributing to the GB goal tally. Barker and Richmond scored twice while Chris Armstrong (Doncaster Junior), Fennell, Matthew Little (Carlisle), Smith, Scott Martin (Worthing), Andrew Woodall (Dunfermline) and Lewis Don (Menzieshill & Whitehall) scored one each.

Britain faced Macedonia in their final match, losing 7-3. Despite a strong effort from the team, Britain failed to net two of their three penalties, with scores coming from Barker, James and Fennell.

  Final Scores:
  Serbia 14-3
  Bulgaria 12-10
  Austria 3-11
  Macedonia 7-3

  British Team:
  Marc Robinson (Lancaster City)
  Elliot Kelly (City of Sheffield)
  Scott Martin (Worthing)
  Andrew Woodall (Dunfermline)
  Shaun Greatorex (Castleford WPC)
  Dean Smith (City of Manchester)
  Christopher Armstrong (Doncaster Junior)
  Stuart Fennell (Weston Super Mare)
  Ciaran James (Lancaster City)
  Daniel Barker (Carlisle WPC)
  Thomas Richmond, Captain (City of Manchester)
  Matthew Little (Carlisle WPC)
  Lewis Don (Menzieshill & Whitehall)

Regards
Chris Luesley

This is the latest report of a very busy year.

 

Women's London League: Division 2.

Play-Off Final at Basingstoke Aquadrome.

 

Bournemouth 29, Worthing 5.

The final match of our first season in the London League finished in defeat against a talented, more experienced and physical opposition from Bournemouth.

Our girls made a slow start and never really found the form of the previous matches in this competition. We should not be too disappointed because when we took the decision to enter this competition we had no idea how our team would do. To lose in the final of the division play-offs is an excellent result and indicates that we have talented players at the club.

The combination of some of our more experienced girls with some of our new younger players worked well and all of the girls will have learnt a great deal from all of the matches that we played.

Bournemouth have a number of foreign players who are very talented and their experience proved too much for our girls. We weren't helped by some very inconsistent refereeing which allowed a fair amount of our oppositions physical play to go un-punished.

Our prospects were not helped by having neither of our regular goal-keepers (Kayley Alcorn and Emily Tilzey) available for this match but the girls who played in this demanding and specialist position all tried their best.

Quarter Scores: 2-7, 0-9, 2-7, 1-6.

Scorers: Louise McCallum 3, Mel Hart 2.

Exclusions: Louise McCallum 2

Squad in Full: Mel Hart, Louise McCallum, Chrissy Pilcher, Vicki Sayers, Emma Piper, Zoe Yeandle, Rachel Piper, Rianna Poppeliers, Jade Boiling and Sian Fogerty.

Coach: Ben Alcorn.

Although we were disappointed to finish runners up, we still finished comfortably ahead of the teams from Croydon, Basingstoke and Southampton in this competition and all of the girls should take great credit for the way that they played throughout.

Regards,

Alastair  

This is the latest report:

 

Sussex County Under 16 Tournament.

St Bedes School, Upper Dicker, East Sussex.

 

This was the first tournament (of 4) in this years County under 16 program. The age group this year is for boys and girls born in 1992 and later and as a result we are now without several of our 1991 squad members who have been so successful over the past few years.

Although we miss these players we have still have a strong group and this was proved with our dominance at this first tournament.

Unfortunately, Haywards Heath had to withdraw from this tournament and as a result it was decided that their fixtures would be played by a composite team made up from players from the other clubs competing. The results were as follows:

 

Worthing 6, Hailsham 1.

This was a relatively straight-forward win against an improving Hailsham team. We dominated through-out and it looked as though we might keep a clean sheet but the opposition managed a late goal.

Scorers: Scott Martin 4, Kevin Chan 1, Alastair Hardinge 1.

Exclusions: Alastair Hardinge 1, Daniel McDonald.

 

Worthing 9, Sussex Squad Team 0.

A second satisfactory win against a young and enthusiastic opposition. All the squad played well and the defending was particularly strong which restricted the opposition to only a small number of chances.

Scorers: Scott Martin 5, Sam Maloney 2, Alastair Hardinge 1, Kevin Chan 1.

Exclusions: None.

 

Worthing 6, Eastbourne 0.

The final match saw our youngsters win another match with a satisfactory performance. It was pleasing to again keep a clean sheet and it was only some very wasteful finishing that kept the score down. Eastbourne are a young team and they kept going without ever causing the Worthing team too many problems.

Scorers: Scott Martin 3, Alastair Hardinge 1, Rachel Piper 1, Kevin Chan 1.

Exclusions: None.

 

Squad in Full: Scott Martin, Sam Maloney, Kevin Chan, Alastair Hardinge, Rachel Piper, Daniel McDonald, Jeremy Chirat, Peter Flynn. 

 

This was another satisfactory tournament for the Worthing squad and all the team members played well. Special mention should be made of Peter Flynn and Jeremy Chirat who made their debuts for Worthing at this tournament and also of Scott Martin who dominated proceedings and made it easy for all the squad to play. His experience of being part of the GB Youth squad (1991/1992 Age Group) bought the best out of all the squad who should be satisfied with the way that they played.

 

Regards,

Alastair.          

This is the report of the latest match:

 

Sussex Senior League.

Worthing 21, Crawley 7.

This was a relatively straight-forward win for our senior team against a spirited opposition from Crawley.

Our team on this occasion did not include any of our current junior squad because they have enjoyed a really busy start to the year and we felt that we would give a chance to all of our senior team members to enjoy a good amount of water time.

We were always in control of the match but Crawley did manage to equalize shortly after Matt White scored the opening goal. The Worthing team soon started to dominate and led 7-1 at the end of the first quarter.

To their credit, Crawley kept defending against almost constant pressure but the final score was a fair reflection of our dominance. Highlights included a 10 goal haul for Paul Phillpott and the opposition had no answer to his all-round forward play.

Quarter Scores: 7-1, 6-2, 3-2, 5-2.

Worthing Scorers: Paul Phillpott 10, Richard Hooper 3, Scott Orchard 3, Dave Hoad 3, Andy Cawdary 1, Matt White 1.

Exclusions: Scott Orchard 2, Jon Gray 1, Adrian Irbe 1, Richard Hooper 1.

Squad in Full: Ben Alcorn, Jon Gray, Adrian Irbe, Richard Hooper, Andy Parkin, Matt White, Scott Orchard, Dave Hoad, Andy Cawdary, Tony Gray, Paul Phillpott.

The next fixture for our various water polo squads is the first Sussex county under 16 tournament which will be played this coming Sunday at the St Bedes school pool.

 

Regards,

Alastair.

This is the latest report from a very busy start to the year.

 

Women's London League (Div 2)

Tournament 2, Whitgift School, Croydon.

 

At this second tournament our girls were due to play just the one match but this was against a Southampton team who were, like ourselves, unbeaten so far in the competition. We knew that this would be a tough test against a strong team and the report is as follows:

 

Worthing 13, Southampton 1.

This was an excellent performance from our girls who played some good quality water polo against a good standard of opposition. We had discussed at the pre-match meeting the importance of making a good start and especially defending well in the early stages. This was exactly what happened as the Worthing girls employed an excellent "full press" defence which the opposition struggled to break down. This gave us an the opportunity to utilize the swimming ability in the team and Southampton struggled to deal with the pace of our attacks.

The first quarter was close with our girls missing several chances to extend our lead but after this period we took control and never looked like losing. The defending was the key to the success and all the team played their part in keeping the opposition to a minimum of chances. The small number of chances that they did create were dealt with by Kayley Alcorn in goal and for a while it looked as though we might keep a clean sheet.

It was only some poor finishing that resulted in a less comprehensive victory.

Quarter Scores: 1-0, 3-0, 4-1, 5-0.

Scorers: Chrissy Pilcher 5, Mel Hart 4, Zoe Yeandle 1, Emma Piper 1, Jade Boiling 1, Rianna Poppeliers 1.

Exclusion: Vicki Sayers 1.

Squad in Full: Kayley Alcorn (GK), Mel Hart, Chrissy Pilcher, Vicki Sayers, Zoe Yeandle, Emma Piper, Rachel Piper, Rianna Poppeliers, Jade Boiling.

 

We were really pleased with how the squad played in this match which indicated that all of the younger girls are making good progress. We were missing a number of our more experienced players but the attitude of all of the team was excellent and the win against a talented team was greatly deserved.

The final tournament, which will decide the overall winner of the competition, is due to be played at Basingstoke on Saturday June 9th.

 

Regards,

Alastair.

Two reports for the price of one: that's value!!

 

A busy weekend for the clubs water polo teams and players continued with the following events on Sunday.

 

1. London Women's League (Division 2).

Tournament 1, Whitgift School, Croydon.

 

We entered this years London League after the organizers decided to introduce a new second division to encourage more teams to enter. Division 1 is dominated by the current National League teams in the South-east (Penguin, Otter, Invicta and Haywards Heath) and so a second division with less experienced teams was an ideal opportunity for our girls to play.

The division features teams from Bournemouth, Southampton, Basingstoke and a combined Croydon/Beckenham team along with ourselves.

At the first tournament we played two full 4 quarter matches and we were delighted to have available a team combining some of our more experienced players as well as most of our juniors who played in the under 18 competition in the winter. The match results were as follows:

 

Worthing 13, Croydon/Beckenham 6.

A good performance against an enthusiastic opposition. Our girls played well from the start and soon had a comfortable lead and it was only some slack defending late on that led to some of the opposition goals. All of our squad got good water-time and it was pleasing that we had 6 different scorers.

Scorers: Mel Hart 3, Chrissie Pilcher 3, Louise McCallum 2, Rachael Pearson 2, Rachel Piper 2, Emma Piper 1.

Exclusions: Sian Fogerty 1, Emily Tilzey 1.

 

Worthing 10, Basingstoke 2.

Another good win against a team who we play against fairly regularly. The opposition were handicapped by only having 7 players with no available substitutes and this led to them tiring in the latter stages. Our girls played well and again all the squad had a good amount of water-time. Our defending for long periods was especially effective and the opposition struggled to create many chance against our "full press."

Scorers: Louise McCallum 4, Rachael Pearson 2, Mel Hart 2, Emily Tilzey 1, Rachel Piper 1.

Exclusions: Emma Piper 1.

Squad in full: Kayley Alcorn (GK), Mel Hart, Louise McCallum, Rachael Pearson, Emily Tilzey, Vicki Sayers, Chrissie Pilcher, Rachel Piper, Emma Piper, Jade Boiling, Sian Fogerty, Rianna Poppeliers.

 

This was a very satisfactory tournament and it was really good to see how the younger players combined so well with some of our more experienced players. The team played some very good water polo at times and it indicates that we have a lot to look forward to.

Sadly, this was the last occasion that Rachael Pearson will represent the club,at least for the foreseeable future. Having finished her degree course at Chichester University she is due to return the U.S. on the 13th May which is the same day as the girls next tournament. When either playing polo or swimming for the club she has never given anything less than 100% and we all wish her well for the future.

 

 

2. South-East & London Region Junior (Under 18) Inter County Tournament.

Goldsmith's Leisure Centre, Crowborough.

 

The Sussex team finished as runners-up in this years inter-county event losing in the final to a strong Surrey team.

In the group stages Sussex defeated Hertfordshire 12-1 and in a very exciting encounter, Kent 4-3. This resulted in a tough semi-final against Middlesex which was won 7-5 which secured a place in the final.

Unfortunately a poor start saw the Sussex team trail by 6 goals before staging a comeback which was never quite enough to overcome a strong and more experienced Surrey team who eventually won 12-9.

This was creditable performance for Sussex who were without the 2 National squad players Jack Waller and Alan Chambers who were away in Prague with the GB team. The Sussex squad only featured 1 player born in 1989 (Philip Benton of Hailsham), 2 born in 1990 (Dan Gibb of Worthing and Tom Rooke of Brighton). All the rest of the squad were members of the Worthing youth Squad (born 1991 or 1992) who had played the previous day in the ASA championship match against Manchester along with Alan Benton of Hailsham.

It is an indication of these players ability that they all coped so well in playing against teams mainly made up of boys who were two years older. The club should also be delighted that we supplied 9 of this squad of 12.

Squad in full: Alan Benton, Philip Benton (Hailsham SC), Tom Rooke (Brighton SC), Joel Abbott, Ziggy Tate, Rob Osborne, Scott Martin, Elliott Ellison, Dominic Cranford, Dan Gibb, Sam Abbott, Alastair Hardinge (all Worthing SC).

Tim Brazier was unavailable due a prior commitment and Stuart Stirling was unable to play due to injury.

 

Regards,

Alastair.

This is the report of today's match.

 

ASA National Youth Cup Quarter Final.

Worthing 9, City of Manchester 12

 

After last Sunday's epic victory against Cheltenham, we returned to Walsall to play the quarter final match against one of the favorites for this years competition. With a start time of 11.00am, the team again left for the journey north at 6.30am.

We knew that this was going to be a really tough match but the team had again prepared well and was looking forward to the challenge.

Manchester are a strong physical team who play to their strengths but we knew that if we played at our best we would be in with a chance of causing an upset.

Unfortunately we made a slow start and after Tim Brazier was excluded we conceded an early goal. We continued to struggle and soon found ourselves 2 goals down before Scott Martin scored our first goal which helped settle the nerves. Tim was very unlucky to be excluded again and by the end of the period we were trailing 1-4.

The second quarter saw the Worthing team start to put Manchester under pressure and two quick goals from Tim and Scott put us back in the match and although Manchester regained a 2 goal advantage, Dominic Cranford scored just before the break to make the score 4-5.

We knew that we were very much back in the match and the third period was another close affair with goals from Ziggy Tate and Elliott Ellison. Manchester scored 3 times and so we went into the final period with a 2 goal deficit at 6-8.

The fourth quarter was always going to a nervy affair with Manchester quickly scoring again to stretch their lead to 6-10 with Tim being excluded after unluckily conceding a penalty. At this point the Worthing boys staged a remarkable comeback with Ziggy scoring to make it 7-10, followed by a good finish from Stuart Stirling when Manchester had a player excluded to make it 8-10. Dominic got another goal back to make it 9-10 and it started to look as though we would equalize. With 2 minutes left we had a good chance to tie the scores but the opportunity was missed and seconds later Manchester scored to make the score 9-11. As we pushed forward looking for another goal we were punished with only 1 second left conceding a goal that resulted in the final score of 9-12.

This was an excellent match and our team deserve great credit for the effort that they put in. After the first quarter it would have been easy for the heads to go down but the boys never gave up and Manchester were under severe pressure up to shortly before the end.

Quarter Scores: 1-4, 3-1, 2-3, 3-4,

Penalty: 1 (Manchester - scored)

Exclusions: Worthing 6, Manchester 8.

Worthing Exclusions: Tim Brazier 3, Scott Martin 2, Stuart Stirling 1.

Worthing Scorers: Ziggy Tate 2, Scott Martin 2, Dominic Cranford 2, Elliott Ellison 1, Tim Brazier 1, Stuart Stirling 1.

Full Squad: Joel Abbott (GK), Tim Brazier, Scott Martin, Ziggy Tate, Rob Osborne, Dominic Cranford, Elliott Ellison, Stuart Stirling, Alastair Hardinge, Sam Abbott, Alexander Cranford. 

The final score doesn't indicate the closeness of the match and in the middle of the last quarter it looked as though we would equalize. All the squad should take great credit for the way they played and I am sure that they will benefit greatly from the experience.

When we first considered the idea of entering the premier club competition in the UK we were worried that we might find the step up in class from the leagues in the South-East too great. We proved in both the win against Cheltenham and this display against Manchester that we have an excellent squad who deserve to be recognized as one of the best teams in this age group in the UK.

The boys were disappointed to loose but they are determined to learn from this experience and improve as a result. To run a club, who have the only full-time professional coach in the UK, from a city the size of Manchester so close, was a fine achievement and all the boys deserve great credit for the way that they represented the club.

 

Regards,

Alastair.

This is the report from today's match.

 

ASA National Youth Cup

Worthing 19, Cheltenham 7.

 

This was a historic occasion for the club as we played our first fixture in a National junior competition.

Our under 16 Youth team (Born 1991 + younger) has shown over the past couple of years that they are a excellent team who are improving all the time. We have played regularly in the South-east area particularly in the London leagues and we always knew that the team were highly competitive.

It was with this in mind that the decision was made at the end of last year to enter the 2007 national cup competition. We were expecting to play in a qualifying round-robin tournament that was the format used for the past few years.

The ASA however had other ideas and decided that this years competition would be a standard "knock-out" program with matches played at centralized venues. When the draw was made we knew that a match with Cheltenham at Walsall at 11.00 on a Sunday morning would be a tough affair. Cheltenham are one of the leading water polo clubs in the UK finishing as runners-up in the 2006 National league and with their juniors also losing in the final of this competition last year. They have a long tradition of supplying many players to the GB national squads and teams and so we knew that we would be in for a hard match.

After an early start at around 6.30, we left for the 3 hour drive to Walsall gala baths. We were pleased to be able to take a full squad of 13 and we felt that we had prepared well over the past few weeks for this match with warm-up fixtures and training sessions specifically tailored for this challenge.

The match started as a cagey affair with both teams looking to size up the opposition but we began to take control and took the lead with a goal from Ziggy Tate which settled the nerves. We were soon 3-0 ahead but slack marking allowed the opposition to score before we scored again shortly before the end of the quarter.

The second period saw us continue on top and the Cheltenham goal-keeper made a number of good saves. Joel Abbott in our goal was also in good form and produced an excellent penalty save just before the end of the period. At half-time we had stretched our lead to 9-3 and it was obvious that we were in control.

We continued to dominate the match in the third and forth quarters and eventually we were comfortable winners.

Match stats:

Quarter scores: 4-1, 5-2, 5-2, 5-2.

Exclusions: Worthing 6, Cheltenham 12.

Penalties: Worthing 1 (scored), Cheltenham 2 (1 scored)

Worthing Scorers: Scott Martin 6, Dominic Cranford 4, Ziggy Tate 3, Stuart Stirling 3, Elliott Ellison 1, Tim Brazier 1, Alastair Hardinge 1.

Worthing Exclusions: Scott Martin 2, Rob Osborne 2, Elliott Ellison 1, Sam Maloney 1

Worthing Squad: Joel Abbott (GK), Ziggy Tate, Elliott Ellison, Rob Osborne, Tim Brazier, Sam Abbott, Dominic Cranford, Scott Martin, Alastair Hardinge, Stuart Stirling, Sam Maloney, Kevin Chan, Alexander Cranford.

 

We were all delighted to have won this match and we now face a journey back to Walsall this coming Saturday for the quarter final against the City of Manchester team who beat our south-east rivals, Croydon Amphibians. This will be an even harder match for our youngsters but we will have gained a great deal of confidence from the win against Cheltenham.

Congratulations should go to all the team who represented the club so well in this terrific win.

Regards,

Alastair.          

This a report of this week's friendly match.

 

Senior Friendly

Cranleigh 5, Worthing 13.

This was a satisfactory win away at Cranleigh from the Surrey league.

The match was always under control after an excellent first quarter when we played some good water polo and raced to a 5-0 lead. The home team improved after this start but we were always in control and the final result was a fair reflection of our dominance.

All the squad played well and we again included some of our current under 16's to give them some more match practice. Joel Abbott, Stuart Stirling and Rob Osborne all contributed well and Joel played both in his accustomed position in goal as well a playing 1 quarter on the pitch even managing to score a goal.

Quarter Scores:- 5-0, 3-2, 2-3, 3-0.

Scorers: Richard Hooper 4, Matt White 2, Scott Orchard 2, Ben Brazier 2, Jon Gray 1, Ben Alcorn 1, Joel Abbott 1.

Exclusions: Jon Gray 1, Richard Hooper 1, Nathan Hart 1, Scott Orchard 1, Ben Brazier 1, Joel Abbott 1.

Squad in Full: Joel Abbott (GK), Richard Hooper, Ben Brazier, Ben Alcorn, Scott Orchard, Jon Gray, Nathan Hart, Matt White, Tony Gray, Rob Osborne, Stuart Stirling.

The Sussex county league season is just about to commence and our program begins with a junior match at home against Haywards Heath this coming Wednesday at the Aquarena.

Regards,

Alastair. 

This is a report of yesterday's match at Crawley.

 

Friendly Match: Crawley 8, Worthing 12.

 

This match was a friendly arranged to give our under 16 team some much needed match practice in the excellent 50 metre, deep water facility at the K2 pool in Crawley.

Playing against the Crawley senior men's team was always going to be a demanding fixture but the Worthing youngsters played some excellent water polo at times to record a good win. The boys have been involved with an intensive program since the beginning of the year playing several London league tournaments and other matches as part of the build up to the ASA national cup competition. 

This match was close up to half time but the superior fitness of the Worthing team became increasingly influential in the second half.

All the squad played well and gained some valuable water-time and will benefit from the experience. We were particularly grateful to the home club who allowed to train for an hour in the diving pool prior to the match which gave us an excellent chance to work on some tactical aspects of the teams play.

The program continues next week with a further warm up match at the Aquarena on Wednesday and a training session next Friday back at Crawley. The ASA cup match against Cheltenham takes place at Walsall on Sunday 22nd April.

Quarter Scores:- 3-4, 2-2, 4-1, 3-1.

Scorers: Scott Martin 7, Stuart Stirling 2, Rob Osborne 1, Sam Abbott 1, Dominic Cranford 1.

Exclusions: Ziggy Tate 2, Rob Osborne 2, Tim Brazier 2, Stuart Stirling 1.

Squad in full: Joel Abbott (GK), Ziggy Tate, Elliott Ellison, Rob Osborne, Kevin Chan, Sam Abbott, Dominic Cranford, Scott Martin, Tim Brazier, Stuart Stirling, Sam Maloney.

 

Kind regards,

Alastair.

This is a report of the latest tournament.

 

London League Junior Championship (Under 19's)

Whitgift School, Croydon.

 

This was a hugely demanding event for our young team who had to play 2 full 4 quarter matches of around an hours duration in the space of 3 hours. We are also using this under 19 championship to give more experience and match practice to our under 16's and playing against boys who are 2-3 years older is always difficult. The squad played with a massive amount of commitment against 2 very strong teams and will have learnt a great deal from the experience. The matches were as follows:

 

Worthing 1, Hailsham 16.

This was always going to be a difficult fixture against our Sussex rivals who include 2 current GB junior internationals. Our prospects were not improved by the oppositions recruitment of some other quality players from other clubs in the South but our boys defended well and caused a reasonable amount of problems with our attacking play.

All the squad played well and Joel Abbott produced a number of excellent saves in goal. Although the final score indicates that we were well beaten, the coaches were delighted with much of the play and particularly the effort shown.

Scorer: Dan Gibb.

Exclusions: Tim Brazier 2, Scott Martin 2, Rob Osborne 1, Dan Gibb 1.

 

Worthing 1, Sutton & Cheam 13.

After a 1 hour break, we were faced with another tough match against an opposition who feature 3 of the current GB junior squad including the exceptional goalkeeping of Matt Holland. Our boys played some excellent water polo, particularly during the first 2 quarters when our defending frustrated the opposition on many occasions. We ran out of steam towards the end but the team kept working really hard and were far from disgraced with Joel again making a number of fine saves.

Scorer: Dominic Cranford.

Exclusions: Elliott Ellison 2, Rob Osborne 1, Tim Brazier 1.

Squad in Full: Joel Abbott (GK), Tim Brazier, Elliott Ellison, Sam Abbott, Scott Martin, Dan Gibb, Alastair Hardinge, Dominic Cranford, Rob Osborne.

 

This was probably the most demanding event that all of the squad have been involved with and they all emerged with a great deal of credit. The scores do not reflect the massive effort that all the boys put in but the experience of playing against some of the most talented junior players currently in the UK will benefit all of them in the long run.

The coaches were full of praise for the way that the team played and the huge physical commitment that was made against mainly older opposition players.

We have played in many tournaments recently when we have won matches easily and as a result the squad has not benefited greatly. This tournament however will serve as an excellent reminder of what we are building towards over the coming years.

 

Regards,

Alastair.