Solid Season in the Pool

The 2012 British Water Polo Season has now come to a close, and now is a time for reflection on what was a roller coaster season for the Carlisle Aquatics senior team. Playing in national division 3 was sure to provide a stern test with newly promoted Carlisle competing at this level for the first time in the clubs history.

The Carlisle squad received a welcome financial boost prior to the start of the season, thanks largely to a sponsorship drive from the players and coaches. Huge thanks must go to everybody involved and all those generous enough to offer sponsorship, in particular local construction firm Cubby Construction Ltd, who were kind enough to commit to a main sponsor deal for the season. All sponsorship received was put towards league entry fees, all of which seem to be rising each year.

With the sponsorship boost received, Carlisle’s young squad entered the new season brimming with confidence and hopeful of not only retaining their status in division 3, but perhaps even pushing for a second successive promotion.

The initial goal for Carlisle was to finish in the top 5 and secure their position in division 3 for another season, and they did their chances no harm in Week 1 (15th/16th September) with two victories, beating Worthing and Cambridge 10‐9 and 15‐8 respectively. The second weekend in Sheffield (29th/30th September) proved to be slightly less straightforward. It began with a shock 17‐16 defeat to early strugglers South Derbyshire, with Carlisle putting in what was to be the worst performance of the season. The youthful Carlisle side showed impressive resolve the following day however, outplaying division favourites Northumbria in an exciting 8‐8 draw before dominating old rivals Manchester 14‐4. The results on the Sunday ensured that the team had already secured a top 5 finish and a place in Championship 2. This meant the Carlisle side, albeit slightly under strength, had nothing to play for at Walsall in Week 3 (13th/14th October) and it showed, losing both games, 11‐10 to Leeds and then 16‐10 to Birmingham.

With the benefit of hindsight, Carlisle should perhaps have made more of an effort in that final weekend as their league position of 5th meant that they were dealt the toughest possible fixtures in the first weekend of Championship 2.

Phase 2’s opening week (10th/11th November) saw Carlisle pitted against arch rivals Northumbria for a second time, as well as division 2 sides Rotherham (former BWPL Champions) and Croydon. Playing what was some of their best water polo of the season so far, Carlisle went down to narrow defeats in all three games, with their opposition showing that little bit more maturity and composure, which you have to say will develop over time with the Carlisle squad (the average age of the squad was only 20)! Knowing that promotion was probably out of their grasp, Carlisle were now playing for pride and in Week 2 (24th/25th November) produced two plucky performances against more physical opposition, drawing 16‐16 with division 2 side Exeter before beating Birmingham, who had outplayed Carlisle earlier in the season, 17‐15. The final Weekend of the season (15th/16th December) saw Carlisle avenge another earlier defeat, beating South Derbyshire 16‐15, before cruising to a comfortable victory, 15‐8, over an out of control Leeds.

Carlisle can look back on the 2012 BWPL season with a great deal of pride. Even with injury setbacks and absentees at most of the fixtures, they were competitive at a level which is the highest at which a team from Carlisle has ever played. With another year of hard work, growth and maturity, Carlisle should be confident of their promotion chances in 2013.

Inter-Regional Water Polo Championships – 98 and Under girls – held at Walsall Baths

Two of our girls from Carlisle Aquatics travelled to Walsall on the weekend of 9th and 10th February 2013 to represent the North West in the “98 and under” Inter-Regional Water Polo Championships.

The North West entered two teams in the competition and although they were called North West A and North West B both teams were of similar strengths so the fact that Sarah Lightowler was in North West A team with Natasha Hall in North West B does not differentiate their capabilities.

Nine teams were represented in the competition which were split into two leagues with North West B in Group A with London, North East, Wales and Ireland and North West A in group B playing with South East, South West and Scotland.

North West B’s first game saw them take on Wales and beat them 14-0 with Natasha scoring goal number 12 giving her a 1st ever regional goal.

North West A took on Scotland in their first match and with some help with good passing from Sarah finished in an 11 – 1 victory to the North West.

The third of our games saw North West A take on the South West and although South West scored first that is the only goal they did score, with Sarah’s 1st regional goal helping the North West team to a second 11 – 1 victory.

Both girls played their parts in the other games of the day which ended with North West A finishing 1st in Group B and North West B finishing 3rd in Group A after being beaten by London.

This set up a semi-final place for North West A and a play-off spot for 5th to 9th place for North West B.

After a night’s sleep and breakfast we all convened for a second day of competition.

North West B played Scotland in their first game which they won 11-4 and followed this up with a resounding 21-2 win over South West in which Natasha scored her third goal of the competition. These wins earned them a 5th Place finish in the competition.

Meanwhile Sarah scored her second goal of the tournament with 9 seconds to go in the semi-final between North West A and Ireland but it wasn’t quite enough and the final score was 7-6 to Ireland.

North West A’s final game was against South East for the 3rd/4th place and the match could not have been tighter. At the end of the 3rd Quarter the score was 9-8 to North West A and only 2 goals were scored in the last quarter with the final score at 10-9 to the North West A team giving the North West 3rd place and the bronze medal.

Both our girls equipped themselves very well and did the club proud and well done to Christine Hall at her first attempt as a team manager.