Provisional dates and venues for the second half of the new season have now been released – see Information page.

The Alan Higgs Centre, Coventry’s new Olympic-standard pool, will stage the finale of the men’s and women’s Super 5s on 26/27 March. Other Super 5s venues and dates are: Aldershot (22/23 January), Ponds Forge, Sheffield (12/13 February) and Haberdashers School (5/6 March).

The new Champions Cup is due on 14/15 May at a venue yet to be confirmed.
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For potential new teams, the men’s and women’s qualification tournaments take place at Haberdashers and Northampton respectively on 2/3 April. Deadline date for applications is 31 December 2021.

Southampton are the early leaders of men’s Division 4 after winning their three matches at the K2 Crawley pool.

They beat Newport 16-10 on day one and followed up with a 15-4 defeat of Sheffield Dolphins, featuring an eight-goal haul by Charles Roberts (Photo: Trevor Hyde). Their third match proved far more challenging as Bridgefield, fielding several youngsters, battled to 5-5 after two periods – and would have been ahead but for a penalty save by Southampton’s Mike Sheath.
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Two goals by Roberts edged Southampton ahead at 7-5, but Bridgefield were back to 8-8 when left-hander Jacob Graham collected his fifth of an exciting match. It was only in the last two minutes that goals by Dan Shunn and Sam Dalton took Southampton clear at 10-8.

Coventry left it late to snatch a 10-8 victory over Chester in men’s Division 4 at Walsall.

The game was tied at 8-8 until Matt Elliott edged Coventry ahead with 2.41 to go. Sam Greenhill added a final Coventry goal just 26 seconds from the end.
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Invicta Marlins and Watford Saxons were the only teams to win twice at Walsall. Newcomers Sedgefield lost 12-7 to Chester on day one but bounced back with a 15-4 victory against Cambridge. 

Olympic referee Frank Ohme will be a guest of honour when BWPL stages a 24-match, two-pitch programme involving all three women’s divisions at Ponds Force, Sheffield, on 25/26 September.

The occasion marks the launch of the 2021 referees’ academy and Frank, now back in his native Germany, will be leading a seminar for the newcomers as well as refereeing during the weekend. Ex-GB player Rhys Tamlyn, now a BWPL delegate, heads up the academy, assisted by international referee Damien Taylor.
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City of Manchester begin the defence of their title by playing Hucknall and Coventry while St Andrews University make their Division 3 debut after successfully negotiating the qualifying tournament.  

St Andrews University, Manchester Comets and Liverpool Water Beatles will compete in women’s Division 3 this season after taking the first three places in the seven-club qualifying tournament in Liverpool.

The students were the only team to finish the weekend with a 100 per cent record from six short matches. They were too strong for Comets on day two, winning 9-4, including two goals each for Bekah Kaufman, Carla Correga, Caitlin Donnelly and Lauren Charter.

Manchester made sure of their place by defeating Durham Palatinates 14-4. Charlotte Pritchard scored five.

Liverpool also outplayed Durham, 14-year-old Hannah Pyper registering a hat-trick in a 7-1 victory. 

 Welsh Wanderers clinched the one remaining place in men’s Division 1 in the new season by defeating Watford 10-8 at Watford Woodside pool today.

But it was a victory that only came in a frantic finish and proved more of a struggle than the previous day’s success against Sutton & Cheam. Wanderers squandered numerous chances in the first two periods and were up against an outstanding goalkeeper in Watford’s Peter Pickford, who saved a penalty from Dan Laxton.

Wanderers recovered from 5-2 down in the second period to 5-5 in the third, only to find themselves 8-6 adrift in the last to a battling Watford team. 

A draw would have been sufficient to put Wanderers in the top division. And they finally pulled level at 8-8 with less than three minutes left when quick-thinking Adam Jerrett scored direct from a corner.

A Laxton goal with just 15 seconds remaining put the Welsh team ahead for the first time at 9-8. But that wasn’t the end of the excitement. Pickford left his goal to join in one more desperate attack for Watford, which ended with Wanderers keeper Jack Sanders (Photo: Trevor Hyde) making a comfortable save and (much to the delight of his team mates) hurling the ball the length of the pitch into an unguarded net for a celebratory goal!

Wanderers coach Nigel Davies said: “A lot of our boys are very young and this was the first time they had experienced games of this intensity, so I think nerves kicked in during the early stages.
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“But I’m delighted with our success and we will look forward to the challenge of playing in Division 1. The lads have worked hard for this and were match fit thanks to a full training regime, including three recent training matches against Cheltenham, plus care with nutrition. No one was allowed a beer last night!”

St Andrews University look set for a comfortable passage into women’s Division 3 in the new season after winning their four matches on day one of the qualification tournament at Liverpool.

The students hammered another Scottish team, Kirkintilloch & Kilsyth, 11-1, and then proved too good for near rivals Liverpool Water Beatles, winning 4-0 with goals by Lauren Charter (2), Kate Mackie and Amelia Downs.
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Manchester Comets finished the day with seven points from a possible eight, beating Solihull 7-3 thanks to goals from Fran Collings (3), Charlotte Pritchard (2) and Lilly Pryce (2). 

Watford and Welsh Wanderers will meet tomorrow at Watford Woodside pool (10.30) in a winner-takes-all decider for the one remaining place in men’s Division 1 at the start of the new season.

Wanderers set up the finale with a superb 11-9 victory over Sutton & Cheam, also at Watford, today.

Sutton went into the match knowing that a win or draw for them would guarantee promotion alongside Championship 1 winners Polytechnic and runners-up Cheltenham. But the Welsh side were having none of it, storming into a 5-1ead in the opening quarter with goals by Joe Jenkins-Delf, Charlie Hinder, Lewis Gilmour, Dan Laxton (Photo: Trevor Hyde) and Lloyd Pittick.

It was 8-4 to Wanderers after three periods. Sutton briefly narrowed the gap to 10-8 in the last before Matt Griffiths scored to ensure a Welsh triumph. 

Wanderers will progress to the top division – for the first time since 2010 – if they beat Watford, or tomorrow’s match is drawn. A Watford victory would put them in the top division for the first time as they would be equal on points with Wanderers – but take preference by winning the match between those sides.

Seven teams were battling for three places in women’s Division 3 next season when the qualification tournament opened in Liverpool today.

Close matches were inevitable. At the start, two teams that dropped out after phase one in 2019/20 – Liverpool Water Beatles and Manchester Comets – drew 3-3.

Later, the Comets left it late to defeat one of the new applicants, Kirkintilloch & Kilsyth, 6-5, claiming late goals by 14-year-old Charlotte Pritchard and Fran Collings.
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There were wins for two more new teams. Solihull beat Sunderland 8-2, with Emma Marshall notching a hat-trick, and St Andrew’s University cruised to a 10-3 victory over Durham Palatinates, including three goals from Carla Carrega.

Later St Andrew's easily defeated Solihull 7-1 while Durham needed a late goal from Sophie Orger to edge out ​Kirkintilloch & Kilsyth 7-6.

Olympic referee Frank Ohme has always acknowledged the invaluable experience he gained during his seasons as a BWPL referee (he still proudly wears the League shirt – as you will see in this photo from Tokyo).
 
Reffing at venues ranging from Walsall to Ponds Forge was, he says, “excellent preparation” for the big stage – which in Tokyo meant tackling huge intensity matches, including the women’s bronze medal clash between Hungary and Russia and the Hungary/Croatia men’s quarter-final.
 
Frank, who was based in Wales before he returned to his home country, Germany, has penned a fascinating report for BWPL in which he focuses on some of the key issues that arose at the Olympics – including FINA’s drive to make the sport more attractive and less physical.
 
Our thanks to Frank. And congratulations to him from all at BWPL for his Olympics success. It’s great to know that we can now claim a top world official as one of our own!
 
To read Frank’s full report, go to the Features page.
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