Swim England West Midland Water Polo News
The U18’s Girls Inter Regional Tournament January 2020
The U18’s Girls, 2003 born and younger, faced a tough time in Division 2 this weekend. The girls had put in lots of extra training in the run up to the tournament under the talented Chris Motley,
Sheffield Coach and 2004 GB Girls coach. With a number of players coming late to the sport we knew we had to bring their skills up to speed pretty rapidly. The weekends result belies how well
the team actually did. With some tough opposition they held their own and 2 key matches were right to the wire. Nail biting stuff for the girls, parents and coaches alike.
First the girls took on Scotland, always a worry facing an international team, but we were neck and neck for the first 3 quarters. Sadly the experience of the Scottish goal keeper, who got
goalkeeper of the tournament, and pace of the Scottish outfield players got the better of the West Midlands girls in the last quarter, final score 9-5 to Scotland. Next match was North West Lightening. The team pressed hard and drove through to a brilliant and relatively easy win. Goals came from across the team, everyone had a go. Final score 9-6 to West Mids. The last match of
Saturday was a real nail biter. East Angels earlier in the day had beaten Scotland so statistically we should lose but the team pulled together and kept neck and neck with the East. Only 28
seconds left and it was 5 all. The team had battled hard against a very physical team but just like that a sloppy pass and the East broke through and scored the winning goal. Final score 6-5 to
East Angels. Finishing in 3rd position in group B we were in to the 5-7 play offs on Sunday. Sunday started with another match against North West Lightening. As before another good win,
final score 7-4 to West Midlands. This left us our final match against our nearest rivals East Midlands. Just like the East Angels match the day before the lead was won and lost multiple times
by both teams. In the final quarter East Mids were 2 goals up, their tactic was to hold the ball. A brilliant steal by Charlotte Martin caught them unawares as she drove towards their goal and
scored. This brought the score within 1. As the East took the centre again they held the ball, time wasting, the ref realised and turned the ball around, 10 seconds left the West had to make it
count. The ball was quickly thrown up the wing, a shot was made but unfortunately saved. Final score 8-9 to East Midlands.
Well done to the team –
Ellen Sunderland, Anou Pattar, Aaliyah Lloyd, Priya Kennedy, Heidi Bach, Charlotte Martin, Mia Evans, Abbie Llewelyn, Izzy Cornfield, Heather Collison, Hannah Braddock, Annabel Lawrence
and Lily Sharaf.
MVP was Charlotte Martin who was also awarded Top Goal Scorer for the tournament. West Midlands final placing was 6th. Many thanks to Jenny Braddock, Dave Cash and Catherine Martin
for their coaching and team managing.
