Worthing starts 2010 water polo season

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.

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; -