Penguin won the men's Champions Cup for the first time at Coventry today, outplaying City of Manchester, the 2024 winners, from the start and eventually triumphing 11-8.

Manchester missed chances early on and were also thwarted by fine saves from Penguin's goalkeeper Elliot McHugh. It was a different story at the other end where Penguin finished so effectively that goals by Charles Kingsmill (2), James Salt, Adrian Carreri and Tom Hutchens put the London side 5-0 ahead by the end of the first period.

The lead went to 7-2 in the second period, Manchester's frustrations increasing as McHugh saved a penalty. Almost immediately, Hutchens scored again - a superb back-hander while heavily marked in the centre-forward position.

Manchester rallied towards the end, but Penguin were able to coast to a victory that deprived Manchester of another Super 5s/Champions Cup double. 

Photos: Above: Penguin's players celebrate their win. Below: Penguin goalkeeper Elliot McHugh thwarts another Manchester attack.

City of Manchester retained their women's Champions Cup title at Coventry today, racing into a 5-0 lead in the first period against Liverpool Lizards and eventually winning 10-5.

Izzy Howe (3) and Lucy Blenkinship (2) were the early Manchester scorers. But there were no more goals until the start of the third period when Mhairi Nurthen made it 6-0 to Manchester with a neat lob.

Liverpool offered a spirited response - goals by Milly Wordley (2) and Holly Rooney - before Manchester went clear in the final stages.
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The trophy and medals were presented to Manchester by BWPL president Trevor Pledger.

​Above: Liverpool's Sophie Gilbert tackled by Jade Smith in the women's final today.

Below: Otter goalkeeper Sophie Schonbach faces a shot from Sheffield's Laura-Jean Skelton in the women's third-place match at Coventry. Sheffield won 11-8. In the men's third-place match, Welsh Wanderers beat Polytechnic 9-8.

Penguin and City of Manchester will contest the men's Champions Cup gold medal match tomorrow after a dramatic finish to day one at Coventry today.

Manchester had little difficulty booking their place - they defeated Welsh Wanderers 20-5.

Penguin then faced great rivals Polytechnic. The sides' two meetings in the Super 5s had both required penalty shoot-out deciders - one win apiece - and this thriller could easily have gone the same way. 

Early in the third period, it was 4-4, which progressed to 8-8 at the start of the last. 

Penguin then struck two crucial blows, smart finishes by Charles Kingsmill snatching a 10-8 lead. This  improved to 12-9 3.07 from the end as Albie Duffy scored. Back came Poly, scoring through Matt Klingenberg (2.34) and then Caleb Simpson, 52 seconds from the end, to cut the deficit to a single goal.
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At the restart, Poly somehow regained possession and called a time-out - 26 seconds remaining! They couldn't fashion a goal, so Penguin celebrated a thrilling 12-11 win.  

Liverpool Lizards will face City of Manchester in tomorrow's women's Champions Cup gold medal match after overcoming a battling challenge from City of Sheffield at Coventry today.

At the halfway stage, Sheffield were level at 6-6 - which was a cue for Liverpool's experienced international Katie Brown to make her mark in the third period with two breakaway goals. Sophie Gilbert made it 9-6 to Liverpool, but Sheffield were not finished.

​From 9-6 down, they pulled up to 9-8 in the last before Liverpool - who by now had seen Katie Brown majored out - eased their nerves with a goal 47 seconds from the end by Emily Pyper. 

Mariah Walker scored again for Sheffield almost on the final whistle, but Liverpool held out for a 10-9 win.

Earlier, Manchester proved too strong for Championship 1 champions Otter, winning 16-5. Otter fought back to trail 4-2 following a shaky start but after that struggled to beat the excellent Manchester goalie Sophie Jackson. Three players scored four times for Manchester - Mhari Nurthen, Rosie Huck and Lucy Blenkinship.

Watford Saxons and Otter will be back in BWPL men’s Division 3 next season after taking the two qualification places at Haberdashers today. But it could have turned out very differently.

Watford (team picture below) went into the final period of their match against the British Army trailing 10-7. Had they lost, the Army would have gone through along with Otter. But Saxons had other ideas, goals by Niko Obradovic, Gethin Dorrington and Ilija Crompton levelling it at 10-10 with 3.20 to go.

Just 1.16 remained when Sam Carling put Watford ahead for the first time. Another Obradovic strike followed a couple of seconds before the final whistle, securing  a 12-10 win.

Andrei Paternkin scored four as Otter completed their programme with an 11-7 defeat of Rotherham Metro.
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Liverpool Liver Birds and Caledonia claimed the two qualification places in the women’s competition. Both rounded off day two with wins against Welsh Wanderers – Caledonia triumphed 17-7, including four goals by Lucy MacNair; Charlotte Hopwood bagged six in Liver Birds’ 12-4 victory.

Qualification tournaments at Haberdashers today produced a series of close matches – including penalty shoot-out finishes in women’s and men’s competitions.

The top two in each progress to places in the League at the start of next season. Liverpool Liver Birds’ prospects did not look good as they trailed 6-9 to Caledonia after three periods, then 8-10 half way through the last.

Beth Bolton (Photo: Trevor Hyde) then emerged as Liverpool’s match-winner, bringing her side level at 10-10 with goals 1.09 from the end and then with just 16 seconds remaining. It all led to a penalty shoot-out, from which Liverpool emerged victorious at 15-14.

It was shoot-out time, too, for the men.  Otter and Watford Saxons finished at 11-11 in regular time. Watford then held their nerve to win 14-11.

Consolation for Otter came later in the day when they beat the British Army 19-13, including goals by Nicholas Corjon (4), Conor Flynn (3) and Andrei Patemkin (3). The Army had defeated Rotherham Metro 15-13 in their first match.
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Watford rounded off the day with their second win – another desperately close affair against Rotherham Metro. Rotherham, 8-3 down in the second period, recovered superbly to lead 12-10 at one stage in the third period.  It went to 15-15 in the last before Luka Atkinson and Bertie Dix scored vital goals for Watford in the last minute and a half, securing a 17-16 victory.

The line-up is confirmed today for BWPL’s big end-of-season celebration event, the Champions Cup, which takes place at the Alan Higgs Centre, Coventry, on 12 and 13 April.

A terrific weekend of competition is guaranteed in women’s and men’s competitions, which have the added impetus of being the official qualifiers for teams targeting entry into Europe next year.

Only notable absentee will be Cheltenham, who chose not to take part in either the women’s or men’s tournaments despite top four finishes in the Super 5s. Cheltenham women, in particular, enjoyed a superb debut season at that level, finishing as runners-up behind perennial champions City of Manchester.

Their place goes to Otter, runaway winners of Championship 1 and Champions Cup gold medallists as recently as 2023. The London club willingly stepped up once Hucknall, fifth-place team in the Super 5s, said they preferred not to enter.

In the men’s competition, Welsh Wanderers, fifth in the Super 5s and only edged out by Cheltenham on goal difference, complete a formidable line-up.

BWPL Chairman David Andrews said: “What a great weekend is in prospect! At this point, I would like to express the League’s thanks to those clubs who we know have pulled out all the stops to ensure their presence at Coventry, ensuring the Champions Cup remains a premier event on the water polo calendar.”

Women’s teams: City of Manchester, Liverpool Lizards, Sheffield Sharks, Otter.
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Men’s: City of Manchester, Penguin, Polytechnic, Welsh Wanderers.

City of Manchester rounded off their women’s Super 5s season with a perfect record from eight games – including a hard-fought 14-10 defeat today of Liverpool Lizards.

This was the fourth consecutive season that the Super 5s title has been won by Manchester, who have been such a dominant force that their winning run in BWPL Division 1 and Super 5s matches now extends to 51!

Manchester’s last BWPL defeat? A single-goal reverse in January 2022 - to Liverpool Lizards.

Manchester didn’t have things all their own way today – Liverpool were level at 9-9 at the start of the final period when Amelie Cornell equalised.

It needed a late five-goal blast – through Lucy Blenkinship (2), Katy Cutler, Izzy Howe and Brooke Tafazolli – to make sure of the points for the champions before Liverpool’s Katie Brown responded at the end with her fifth goal of the match.

Liverpool’s defeat meant that Cheltenham rounded off a terrific first season in the Super 5s by finishing runners-up. They beat Sheffield Sharks 8-6 today, immediately taking charge by racing into a 4-1 lead in the first period – two goals each for Bella Balzaretti and Sofia Chaves – and improving this to 7-1 before three-goal Caitlin Silk led a Sheffield response. 

Penguin defeated Welsh Wanderers 16-12 at East Manchester today to clinch runners-up spot in the men’s Super 5s. They were always in charge after building a 6-2 advantage in the first period. Leading scorers were Charles Kingsmill (5), Sam Cocokios (3), Albie Duffy (2) and Adrian Carrieri (2).

Champions Manchester were given a run for their money by Polytechnic before rounding off the campaign with a 15-13 victory. Manchester were ahead for much of the game, although goals by David Rom and Kimon Haralambous enabled Poly to recover from 13-10 down to 13-12 during the final period.
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Rory Inman scored three for Manchester, with Joel Leighton, James Blenkinship, Harry Dunkerley (Photo: Trevor Hyde) and Dan Padden all contributing two.

City of Manchester today completed the BWPL Super 5s double for the fifth time, celebrating in front of a home crowd at East Manchester.

Even before the finale weekend began, Manchester had already sewn up the women’s title. And their supremacy was soon underlined when they defeated Sheffield Sharks 9-4, with Brooke Tafazolli scoring five and Izzy Howe four.

Target for the men was a win over Welsh Wanderers, which was comfortably achieved – 19-8. Scorers included James Blenkinship (4), Joe O’Regan (4), Ben Breech (3), and two each from Den Paddon, Guive Shafie and Mikey Patterson (Photo: Trevor Hyde).

Earlier, Penguin’s outside hopes of catching Manchester ended when they were restricted to two points by a 13-12 penalty shoot-out win over Cheltenham after the sides finished on 10-10 in regular time.

This has been an extraordinary men’s Super 5s campaign with no fewer than seven of the first 17 matches requiring a shoot-out decider.

For Cheltenham, this was the FOURTH time it had happened and their third defeat, including a 19-18 reverse in the first clash with Penguin earlier in the season.
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Cheltenham were actually 4-1 up after the first period of the latest meeting, but Penguin recovered to lead 6-5 after two periods, then 8-6 after three – before Alistair Bruce’s man-up strike 1.32 from the end earned Cheltenham a 10-10 draw. Consolation for Cheltenham was that a single point from a loss in shoot-out was sufficient to move them up to fourth place ahead of Wanderers.

Below: Champions again! Manchester celebrate after another successful season.