Leeds Sharks women’s team have withdrawn from the British League, leading to significant changes in the divisional set-up next season.

The Sharks were due to move up to Division 1 after finishing third in Championship 1 behind champions Hucknall and Sheffield Sharks. Their departure means unexpected promotion for the fourth-placed Championship 1 team, City of Birmingham, who will earn their first experience of top level competition. Other changes:
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Sheffield Stingrays, fourth in Championship 2, move up to Division 2. And Cheltenham, fourth in the end-of-season qualifying tournament, will now be invited to fill the vacancy in Division 3.

Where will your team be playing when the new BWPL season gets under way in September?

Venues for the first phase are now confirmed and available for clubs to view on the info page. Also detailed are the allocation of teams where matches in a division are split between north and south venues.

Four new teams will take part in BWPL at the start of next season after battling through closely contested qualifying tournaments.

In the women's competition at Northampton, Exeter and Watford both went through. The men's newcomers after success at Walsall are City of Chester and City of Newport.

There were mixed fortunes for teams required to re-qualify after finishing in the bottom places in women's Division 3 and men's Division 5 in the first half of the 2018/19 season. Manchester Comets girls made sure of staying in, completing their five matches at Northampton undefeated, but both Cheltenham and Sunderland missed out along with new applicants, Nova Centurion. Chelmsford safely negotiated the men's qualifiers, but Bedford drop out. Northampton's young team also missed qualification.

Both tournaments produced exciting finales, Exeter and Cheltenham clashed at Northampton in a match to decide which team would go through. Victory went to Exeter by 6-2, including a hat-trick from Jennifer Herring. It was a similar story at Walsall where Northampton would have qualified with victory over Chester in their final game - but they went down 11-5.

Best match of the weekend was possibly Chester's meeting with Newport. The Welsh side took a 5-4 lead at the start of the final period only to be beaten 6-5 when Dan Johnson levelled with little over a minute remaining - and Callum Gray claimed a winner 22 seconds from the end.

After the drama of the Super 5s finale at Lancaster, it was back today for some teams to the pressurised business of qualifying for playing membership of the British League at the start of next season.

Six women’s teams lined up at Northampton, where three places were up for grabs in Division 3 at the beginning of the new campaign. Of those obliged to go through the qualification process after finishing in the bottom three earlier in the 2018/19 competition, Manchester Comets made the most emphatic impact, winning all their three matches.

In the men’s competition at Walsall (five teams battling for three places), Bedford’s long playing membership of the British League – and, before that, in the former men’s National League – is in danger of ending after losing on day one to new applicants Chester, 9-5, and City of Newport, 10-4.
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Newport, whose line-up includes such accomplished players as Chris Taylor, Carl Wyatt (Photo: Trevor Hyde) and James Farror – all with BWPL experience in top divisions – also defeated Northampton 15-9. Chelmsford were the other team to win twice – 6-3 against Chester and 9-6 against Northampton.
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Teaching the finer points of water polo to a newcomer to the sport can be quite challenging. Which is why Andy Stein, of the Warwick club, himself very much a late beginner (he’s now 56) has published a book – Water Polo Explained.

“I wrote it initially,” he says, “so I could understand the many rules – and later to help me pass a referee’s examination. It's for new players (and their families), new referees and anyone else who takes an interest in this great sport."

It has all be done in experienced company – Andy's collaborator was Gary Tonks (pictured), the ex-GB international who these days coaches the City of Birmingham girls’ team in the BWPL, including his 18-year-old twin daughters, Pia and Sancha.
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The book features a detailed history of water polo as well as every aspect of the game itself, from playing to refereeing. It’s available from Amazon – paper version £6.99, ebook £3.99.