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.
