The ASA re-introduced junior representative polo via a regional tournament. The East Region, now boasting 3 Regional Training Centres for Water Polo, entered teams in both the boys and girls competitions. The Boys tournament took place on the 23rd & 24th January.
Following the Region’s Junior Inter-County Championships at Watford in October 2009 (for players born 1993 or later), boys were invited to attend training sessions at Watford, Barnet and Haberdashers’ Aske’s School. Coach Nikola Jovanovic put the players through intensive land and water work sessions over the course of two months before selecting his team. The organization and administration side of things was dealt with efficiently by Nikki Baker, and Tim Whitwham offered to team manage at the event itself. Behind the scenes Chris Stephens worked tirelessly promoting the venture to the Regional Board and assisting with protocol. Thanks also must go to Watford WPC for giving the team much needed match practice on two occasions.
For the competition the regions were seeded based on the number of GB internationals in each team. The East, having none, were placed in Division 2 along with Wales, South West, London and East Midlands, who subsequently dropped out and were replaced by a West Midlands B team.
In the first game against Wales, the team started nervously and our attacks were easily beaten off by a solid Welsh defence. Towards the end of the quarter we created three clear cut chances all of which the goalie saved. Good defence allied to excellent goalkeeping by Matt Leydon, a feature in all the games, kept the score to 2-0. The Welsh scored two more before we finally opened our account at the end of the second quarter with a goal from Richard.
That seemed to settle the side in attack and we managed to draw the 3rd period 3 apiece. However, the Welsh defence continued to dominate and although we had many extra man situations our conversion rate was poor: only 3 from 10. As we chased the game we exposed ourselves to the counter-attack and Wales won the last quarter 4-2 and the game 11-6. Richard and Matt scored two each with John and David netting once.
All our inexperience manifested itself in that first game: lack of a structured attack to dominate a game from the start man-up, conversion, fitness and game awareness. Although the team improved over the tournament we were never quite consistent enough to stay with the better teams.
In the second match of the day we played the South West who had lost by a goal in their first game against London. In a much closer game we got on the score sheet early but still managed to be 4-1 down by quarter time. We showed great resolve to get to within one goal early in the third but the superior fitness and team work of the South West allowed them to pull away again. In the last three minutes of the game we scored twice to pull back to worthy 11-9 losers. Ben Kohler scored 5, John 2 and Emrys and Ben Jarman one each.
The next day we played the West Midland B and it was a winnable game. In the end the East showed they had learnt much from the previous two matches and the game was a totally one-sided encounter. We ran out easy winners 17-0. Again Ben K bagged 5; John 4; Jared, Matt and David 2 each with Richard and Ben J one apiece.
The last game was against the eventual tournament winner, London. We worked hard and played some of our best polo even though London managed to shut us out in the first and third quarters. We had the consolation of winning the last quarter 2-1 though by then they had ground into a 6 goal lead. Matt scored twice with John and Ben K converting once. The final score was 9-4 to London.
The spirit and enthusiasm of the team was undaunted and the desire of Nik for the team to perform was undiminished throughout the tournament. Congratulations must go to John Vella and Jared Baker who were invited to National 93/94 trials after their performances. It was a great start to putting the region on the water polo map and hopefully we will have longer to prepare and have gained more experience by the next tournament.
Team: Matt Leydon (GK), Andy Wilkinson, Richard Robertson, Emrys Ellis, Jared Baker, Matt McDonald-Liggins, Ben Kohler, John Vella (Captain), Ali Clements, Ben Jarman, Callum Condon, Jason Attwood, David Seber.
Tim Whitwham (Feb 2010)
