Name: Bernice Cowton
Age: 44 (Ouch! I don’t feel it)
Height: 165cm
Weight: 57kg
Home base: Sheffield
Club: City of Sheffield Water Polo Club
Also played for: City of Coventry and City of Manchester
I started playing in around 1990 for Rotherham Metro. I was part of the swimming club there and had an opportunity to join one of Norman’s sessions at a time when they were trying to develop a ladies’ team. I moved to Sheffield Water Polo in 1991 where I played for seven years and gained my first junior and senior GB caps. Post-graduation, I moved to London to work and switched to play for City of Coventry between 1998-2001 but migrated back north, returning to Sheffield for the 2001/2002 season.
In the following years we had the most successful period in the club’s history, winning successive league and cup titles, and competing in the European trophies. I retired from international polo in 2007 to prioritise my career but continued to play domestically.
In 2010 I intended on retiring completely, but a summer tour to Holland resulted in me joining Manchester to play with some old friends. This ended up lasting for three seasons but re-familiarised me with the fun that can be had from playing, albeit still wanting to win! Following this I came back to Sheffield in 2013 with the intention of playing a season to help the team that was being rebuilt at this time, back up into Div 1. I’m still here!
Representative honours: 155 International caps. 2 Commonwealths (1 bronze), 1 Europeans As, 3 European Bs (2 golds and 1 silver), 1 World Champs.
Best player played with: Jenny Davies (Braddock). You never needed to fear taking the opportunity for an early counter attack with Jenny in goal behind you. She was like a wall, with fantastic distribution. I had the pleasure of playing with Jenny both in my time at Coventry and at GB.
Best player played against: Irene, the Hungarian centre-forward. If Jenny was a brick wall, Irene was a boulder! Jeez, she was solid.
Most influential coach: Well, that would be hard to say without running the risk of offending someone. It goes without saying that whilst some coaches have been better than others, they all have some good points. However, I will always be grateful to Ted Motley for spotting some talent in me as a young player and providing the opportunity to gain national squad selection.
Most memorable match/incident: It has to be the club cup finals – ASA National Champs it was then (now British Champs). We ended up at the finals weekend with eight players due to injuries, sickness and lame excuses! To manage to finish a game without being man-down was going to be a challenge in itself, never mind actually winning any. However, the results just demonstrated the strength and bond of our team at that time, as we beat Manchester 8-7 in the Saturday semi-final and then Liverpool in the Sunday final, 5-4. I still have the Swimming Times article to this day!
Any other thoughts? I have been lucky in so many ways - a long polo career, some good coaches to learn from and witnessed the true grit and desire of a team of full amateurs that played for the love of the game.
I benefited from the early investment in the build up to London 2012, with the change in mentality that came with this. Visited more countries than I can recall. Had great success with my club sides, and some also as England and GB. Plus of course made some great friends for life.
I have been guilty of looking back and wondering what higher level or better player I may have been if, in my early career, I had the support, funding, facilities and opportunities that players had towards the end of the last decade. However, had that been the case, I may not have been still enjoying the sport now.
It does feel like there is a gap in the ladies’ game of a whole generation of players. I do believe it aids the strength of a sport to keep these role models in the game for younger players to follow and to ensure players have to work for their position and earn representative honours.
This also leads me to the huge praise for the set-up of the English Roses a number of years ago. Whilst at the other end of the spectrum, this is a fabulous forum for older players to still enjoy the game and competitiveness. All credit to those that have invested so much time getting that club up and running and continue to do so. Having that full spectrum of ages, fitness, ability, talent across the league is a really pleasing situation for the sport.
Age: 44 (Ouch! I don’t feel it)
Height: 165cm
Weight: 57kg
Home base: Sheffield
Club: City of Sheffield Water Polo Club
Also played for: City of Coventry and City of Manchester
I started playing in around 1990 for Rotherham Metro. I was part of the swimming club there and had an opportunity to join one of Norman’s sessions at a time when they were trying to develop a ladies’ team. I moved to Sheffield Water Polo in 1991 where I played for seven years and gained my first junior and senior GB caps. Post-graduation, I moved to London to work and switched to play for City of Coventry between 1998-2001 but migrated back north, returning to Sheffield for the 2001/2002 season.
In the following years we had the most successful period in the club’s history, winning successive league and cup titles, and competing in the European trophies. I retired from international polo in 2007 to prioritise my career but continued to play domestically.
In 2010 I intended on retiring completely, but a summer tour to Holland resulted in me joining Manchester to play with some old friends. This ended up lasting for three seasons but re-familiarised me with the fun that can be had from playing, albeit still wanting to win! Following this I came back to Sheffield in 2013 with the intention of playing a season to help the team that was being rebuilt at this time, back up into Div 1. I’m still here!
Representative honours: 155 International caps. 2 Commonwealths (1 bronze), 1 Europeans As, 3 European Bs (2 golds and 1 silver), 1 World Champs.
Best player played with: Jenny Davies (Braddock). You never needed to fear taking the opportunity for an early counter attack with Jenny in goal behind you. She was like a wall, with fantastic distribution. I had the pleasure of playing with Jenny both in my time at Coventry and at GB.
Best player played against: Irene, the Hungarian centre-forward. If Jenny was a brick wall, Irene was a boulder! Jeez, she was solid.
Most influential coach: Well, that would be hard to say without running the risk of offending someone. It goes without saying that whilst some coaches have been better than others, they all have some good points. However, I will always be grateful to Ted Motley for spotting some talent in me as a young player and providing the opportunity to gain national squad selection.
Most memorable match/incident: It has to be the club cup finals – ASA National Champs it was then (now British Champs). We ended up at the finals weekend with eight players due to injuries, sickness and lame excuses! To manage to finish a game without being man-down was going to be a challenge in itself, never mind actually winning any. However, the results just demonstrated the strength and bond of our team at that time, as we beat Manchester 8-7 in the Saturday semi-final and then Liverpool in the Sunday final, 5-4. I still have the Swimming Times article to this day!
Any other thoughts? I have been lucky in so many ways - a long polo career, some good coaches to learn from and witnessed the true grit and desire of a team of full amateurs that played for the love of the game.
I benefited from the early investment in the build up to London 2012, with the change in mentality that came with this. Visited more countries than I can recall. Had great success with my club sides, and some also as England and GB. Plus of course made some great friends for life.
I have been guilty of looking back and wondering what higher level or better player I may have been if, in my early career, I had the support, funding, facilities and opportunities that players had towards the end of the last decade. However, had that been the case, I may not have been still enjoying the sport now.
It does feel like there is a gap in the ladies’ game of a whole generation of players. I do believe it aids the strength of a sport to keep these role models in the game for younger players to follow and to ensure players have to work for their position and earn representative honours.
This also leads me to the huge praise for the set-up of the English Roses a number of years ago. Whilst at the other end of the spectrum, this is a fabulous forum for older players to still enjoy the game and competitiveness. All credit to those that have invested so much time getting that club up and running and continue to do so. Having that full spectrum of ages, fitness, ability, talent across the league is a really pleasing situation for the sport.
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