Caledonia completed the perfect start to the men’s Championship 1 weekend at Lancaster, defeating Welsh Wanderers 11-7 to complete a hat-trick of wins.

The game was closer than the score suggests because Wanderers moved 5-4 ahead when Dan Laxton scored at the end of the second period.  It was 6-5 after three to Caledonia, who then took charge of the final quarter, scoring through Chris Campbell (2), Finlay Nesbitt (2) and Harry Gray.

Sutton & Cheam staged a dramatic fightback at Haberdashers to steal a 9-8 victory over Watford. Sutton were 7-4 in arrears early in the third and still 8-5 behind at the start of the last. Then Ryan Symington and Ali Wakeling netted from man-up opportunities; Carlo Diegone converted a penalty; and, just one second from the final whistle, Wakeling finished off another man-up chance for the winner.
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Four goals without reply in the third period – by Will Middleton, Oliver Stanley, Richard Waller and Will Rayson – set up Cheltenham’s 14-10 win against Portobello, who led 8-7 at the halfway stage. Polytechnic dropped a point for the first time – held 9-9 by Exeter, who had been 7-4 ahead at one point. Cian Mulcahy eventually put Poly 9-8 ahead three minutes from the end, only for Cody Plumridge to equalise.

Photo (Trevor Hyde): Ali Wakeling, of Sutton & Cheam, pictured in action at Haberdashers.

Sheffield Dolphins lead men’s Championship 4 after the second weekend of games, but they had to battle to the end for victory over Chester at Lancaster.

At the start of the final period, Dolphins were clinging on to a narrow 11-10 lead. Then the Chester challenge capitulated as goals by Arshia Keyghobadi (3), Connor Charles (2) and Nick Daly ensured a 17-11 victory.

Caledonia left it to the very last second – literally – to snatch a 13-12 win against Leeds. With 53 seconds remaining, a Connor Keeble goal edged Leeds into a 12-11. On 32 seconds, Callum Macgregor equalised – followed by the late, late winner from Alex Harris.
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Newport trailed the Army 8-6 in the final period but earned a draw at 8-8 thanks to a Chris Taylor goal and then a James Farror penalty.

Photo (Trevor Hyde): Battle of the number 2s . . . Georgi Peev (blue cap), of Coventry, battles with Cambridge's Nick Ludford, who scored six in Cambridge's 11-7 win at Haberdashers today.
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At just 15, it’s probably quite daunting making your debut in the British League. Not as far as Josh Luff (pictured) is concerned! The Sutton & Cheam youngster took his bow in spectacular style at Haberdashers today, scoring FIVE as Exeter were beaten 13-12 in men’s Championship 1.

This was quite a match to mark the opening of the Championship 1 programme. Exeter led 8-4 after two periods; then, quite remarkably, Sutton levelled at 8-8 in the space of just 68 seconds at the start of the third. In the final quarter, Sutton edged into a 12-11 lead through Stephen Bayles only for Oriol Matas to claim an equaliser with 1.12 to go. There were 44 seconds remaining when Dicken Maclean hit Sutton’s winner.

Matches in men’s Championship 4 and Championship 1 are split between Haberdashers and Lancaster this weekend.

At Lancaster, Caledonia served up a double helping of last minute drama.  First up were Caledonia Storm, who drew 10-10 with Chester when Callum McGregor scored an equaliser for the Scots with 47 seconds left.
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It was even closer when Caledonia’s senior side faced a Cheltenham team experiencing life in Championship 1 for the first time. Cheltenham led 8-7 in the last quarter only for Dominque Zahra to level just over three minutes from the end and then hit a winner – 10 seconds from the final whistle.

Photo, below (Trevor Hyde): Polytechnic defend during their 14-8 victory over Watford at Haberdashers today. Later, Poly collected a second win - 11-7 in the London derby against Sutton & Cheam. Cian Mulcahy scored three for Poly.

​Coventry built a promising 5-1 first quarter lead against Otter in the women’s Super 5s at Aldershot but in the end had to settle for a point in an 11-11 draw.

Otter gradually recovered from their slow start, eventually edging into the lead for the first time at 8-7. The game went to 10-10, when Brooke Tafazolli put Otter ahead again. Sarah Kreiser’s sixth goal for Coventry 31 seconds from end left an exciting match all square.

Sheffield rounded off a successful first weekend in the men’s Super 5s by defeating Lancaster 15-8. Four goals in the third period without reply – by Chris Armstrong (2), Joel Abbott and Alex Gaywood – proved decisive.

Photo (Trevor Hyde): Joel Abbott scores today for Sheffield against Lancaster.

Hucknall made a fine start to the women’s Championship 1 programme at Matlock, completing a hat-trick of wins. They beat Welsh Wanderers 12-5 in their latest match, never looking back after taking a 5-0 lead in the opening period through India Wilkinson (2), Rachael Lewin (2) and Cara Dunsbee.
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Caledonia completed two victories, Niamh Maloney scoring four in the 10-6 defeat of City of Bristol. Sheffield Stringrays also achieved a double, edging past Birmingham 7-6. For Birmingham it had been a nerve-wracking weekend of tight finishes – they drew both their games on day one against Mid Sussex Marlins (14-14) and Bristol (5-5).
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​City of Manchester stormed to another big win in the men's Super 5s at Aldershot today, hammering Invicta 17-6.

​They hardly wasted a chance in the early stages, racing into a 7-0 lead. When Invicta tried to counter, they were repeatedly thwarted by goalkeeper Dylan Smith and a well organised defence. Manchester scorers: Dan Paddon (4), Joe O'Regan (4), Andrea de Caro (3), Mikey Patterson, Charles Booth, Joel Leighton, Jordan Elliot, Aaron Winstanley and Kai Dowling.

It was a case of the Annie Clapperton show as Manchester's girls rounded off a perfect weekend for their club by defeating Liverpool Lizards 13-8. Annie scored eight, five in the third period as Liverpool went from the comfort of an 8-5 lead to trail 10-8.

Photos (Trevor Hyde): Swamped . . . Invicta's Jack Waller under heavy pressure from Dylan Smith and the Manchester defence. And (below) . . . Annie Clapperton converts a penalty.
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City of Manchester, the men's and women's Super 5s reigning champions, fired a clear warning at Aldershot today that a repeat double is very much their target this season.

The men had too much power for Lancaster, winning 22-10. Typical of their play was a sweeping, length-of-the-pool move involving half a dozen quick passes and a smart finish from Jordan Elliot. Dan Paddon led the Manchester scoring, with five, Elliot helping himself to four. John Pratt battled superbly for Lancaster, contributing five goals.

Manchester's girls took a while to take control against Otter, but seven goals in the second period - Annie Clapperton (3), Izzy Howe (2), Rosie Huck and Steph Whittaker - set them on the way to a 16-8 win.

Sheffield men marked their debut in the Super 5s in impressive style, outplaying Solihull 16-6. Conor Carpenter was top scorer with six.

There was more success for Sheffield in the women's competition as the Sharks edged through 6-5 against Coventry. From 3-3 at the start of the last period, Sheffield went ahead through Nicole Reynolds and Amelia Peters. Claire Walmsley cut the lead to 5-4 before Peters scored again. Amy Berry's fifth goal for Coventry came too late to salvage a point. Later, Sheffield were involved in another cliffhanger - they led Liverpool Lizards 7-6 in the final quarter only for Liverpool to snatch the points with goals in the last 70 seconds by Molly Boniface-Ashton and Katie Hesketh.

At Matlock, Sarah Rogers' fifth goal 17 seconds from the end earned Birmingham a 14-14 draw with Mid Sussex Marlins in women's Championship 1.

Photos (Trevor Hyde): Action from day one at Aldershot. Top: Invicta defend as Jake Vincent shoots for Solihull. Below: Manchester's Millie Boucher (white cap) and goalkeeper Jade Smith shield the ball from Katy Cutler, of Otter.

There will not be many current British League players with the time, let alone the required drive and ambition, to take on such a challenging role as new Chair of Swim England’s Water Polo Leadership Group.

Step forward Dr Toby King, who, after helping Southampton win their latest match in men’s Championship 3, is settling into the new job, convinced of the need to build a stronger, more structured future for the sport in this country.

At 50, Toby is definitely one of the League’s more senior players, although not, he stresses, by Southampton standards! Superfit pair Mark Williams, aged 59, and 64-year-old Dave Dunne are still registered to play in Championship 2 after years of yeoman British League service. All three turn out together for Southampton in the Hampshire League, where the crunch game of the season sees the title-winning Southampton Gents – the club’s seasoned old gang – take on Southampton Lads, a team drawn from the younger players.

Toby is a former international triathlete, who represented Great Britain at the World Championships in Mexico (1995) and Australia (1997). His passion for water polo developed during six years at Cambridge University, where he was coached by ex-GB goalkeeper Andy Knight, who of course still plays for Cambridge in the British League.

After his triathlon successes, Toby turned out for Bedford. Then, after a few years working in California, he moved to Southampton, demonstrating his organisational skills by co-founding Southampton WP Club (it split off from the City of Southampton SC) and helping set up the Hampshire network, which encourages junior water polo development in a number of clubs in the area.
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Toby’s professional career involved building and working in small, hi-tech engineering companies, predominantly in the medical devices and renewable energy sectors and he now advises a variety of early stage businesses. He stepped down a while ago from full-time work but is Chair of Trustees at Winchester Science Centre, inspiring curiosity in primary school children;  Deputy Chair of EngineeringUK, the national charity promoting engineering to young people; as well as lecturing on innovation and entrepreneurship at the University of Southampton Business School. 
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Toby lives in Southampton with wife Jacqui and sons Ben (15), Jamie (12) and 10-year-old Sam. He says: “I very much look forward to working with Swim England and I’d like to thank all the people who have sent me their best wishes for the new challenge.”

You may know of the BWPL data system – it’s the powerhouse that drives our registrations, fixtures and results, officials’ scheduling, referee gradings and much more, running on an Amazon Web Services platform. Invented and developed by James Reddick, of Polytechnic, it’s the essential service that underpins operation of the League.

Given its importance, we are delighted to announce a new era for the system. We have agreed a contract with Exception, the digital solutions company founded by Alan Anderson of Scottish Water Polo and Portobello fame, who are taking on the operational support and management of the infrastructure using AWS Fargate serverless compute for containers to support the system.

This is a mutually beneficial arrangement which ensures “the lights stay on” without constant attention from James Reddick and League volunteers.

Will our clubs and users see any difference? No. The website and data system will work exactly as before. Effectively, we have just lifted the bonnet and swapped our old hand-built engine for a more powerful one with a 24/7 service contract.

We actually did the changeover in the first week of January and nobody noticed!
For more information on Exception and the services they offer, see https://exceptionuk.com/
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Penguin completed a perfect opening weekend of men’s Championship 2 fixtures at Watford by registering their third win – 18-9 against Castleford. James Salt (5) and Giampaolo de Rosa (4) were again the main scorers.

After desperately hanging on for a single-goal victory against Worthing on day one at Gloucester, Manchester Hawks survived a similar experience against City of Bristol. The Hawks were 8-3 ahead, then 13-9, but then faced a Bristol revival which led to Stuart Fennell equalising at 16-16 with more than three minutes still to play.

The game progressed to 17-17 before, just 1.12 from the end, Bristol conceded a penalty, converted for the winner at 18-17 by Marcus Crompton. Tom Simpson and Christian Thompson both scored four for Manchester, while Bristol’s chief marksman was Tom Whiting, with five.

In Championship 3, Hucknall’s splendid winning sequence (seven games in Division 4, plus two on day one at Watford) came to an end when they were well beaten 15-9 by York. The match was dominated by York once they built a 4-1 first quarter lead, later improved to 9-3 in the third. Their leading scorers were Will Tomlinson and Nick Boaz, both with four.
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Cheltenham Spartans won both their games at Gloucester, amassing 53 goals. Bridgefield were the latest sufferers, going down 25-12.

Photo (Trevor Hyde): ​Giampaolo de Rosa in action for Penguin at Watford.
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