This year’s East Region inter-county Junior Championship was held on Saturday 13th October at Queen Elizabeth School, Barnet. Now in its second year, this event is open to teams of boys and girls aged 16 or under. Four of the Region’s counties entered teams in a round robin tournament to decide this year’s winner of the Andy Morton Trophy.
Spectators, including Past President Andy Morton and Mrs. Morton, were welcomed to the excellent facilities at QE School. The QE pool is specially designed for water polo and has a moveable floor so the game can be played in a depth of 2m without the restrictions of shallow water.
In the first game Cambridgeshire started strongly and took a 4-0 lead before Essex opened their scoring. Another goal apiece by half-time turned into 7-3 to Cambs after an even second half. Suffolk then took on Hertfordshire and trailed 2-4 at half-time, but the relatively young and less experienced Suffolk side looked tired after the break and Herts romped away with a 2-12 win.
Cambs then took on Herts, and despite a flurry of exclusion fouls by both sides the first half ended in a mere 2-0 scoreline. After changing ends Cambs stepped up a gear and finished the game 6-2. This was followed by a feast of goals as plucky Suffolk went down 7-11 to Essex in the next game.
Suffolk’s last match against Cambs reached 3-5 at half-time but once again the youngest team in the Championship ran out of steam and Cambs netted another half dozen goals to finish 3-11. All credit is due to the Suffolk youngsters though - some of them started playing competitive water polo only this summer. This result meant Cambs had won all their games and lifted the trophy. The last game then decided the silver and bronze medals as Essex went down to Herts 2-5.
Andy Morton presented his Championship trophy to Cambs and medals to the first 3 teams. He said “It’s extremely encouraging to see so many youngsters playing their best and representing their counties at this exciting event. You are the future of water polo and we’ve seen this in action today.”
The event was a tremendous success thanks to the support of all the parents, coaches, volunteers and of course the players themselves. Together with the new Regional Training Centre that has recently started at Bedford, it demonstrates the breadth of junior talent across the Region and the ASA’s commitment to water polo. The East Region junior players can look forward confidently to working hard at becoming future national and international stars.
Click here for full scores and leading scorers.
