Tyldesley recorded their first-ever win in BWPL's top women's division today, 18-13 against Caledonia - an historic moment for a community club who take great pride in the fact that all their players can walk from where they live to attend training at their home pool!

In recent years Tyldesley have worked their way up through all divisions to a point where Division 1 status was achieved at the end of the 2019/20 season. Holly Toone led scoring against the Scots with five. There were hat-tricks for Eva Howarth, Izzy Robb and Kelsy Evans.

Champions City of Manchester picked up their second win, beating Coventry 13-7. Manchester never looked back after taking a 4-0 lead in the opening four minutes. Coventry battled hard and were only 9-7 in arrears at the start of the last quarter, but Manchester dominated the final stages. 

After the disappointment of losing points on day one, Otter edged out Liverpool Lizards 10-8. Liverpool recovered from 8-4 down at one stage to level at 8-8 only for Otter to clinch victory in the last three minutes with goals by Peggy Etiebet and Rebecca Mulcahy. 

Exeter and Liverpool Liver Birds shared the points after an exciting Division 2 match ended in a 10-10 draw. The Devon side trailed 7-2 at one point but stormed back with three goals in the last 43 seconds of the third period. 

Laura Hesketh put Liverpool ahead 10-9 with 1.15 to go only for Jasmin Coleman to equalise from a penalty awarded 25 seconds from the end.

Photo (Trevor Hyde): Steph Whittaker scores one of her goals for Manchester against Coventry today.

Otter suffered a blow to their top five hopes in women's Division 1 when it was confirmed that the club played an unregistered player in their match against Tyldesley at Ponds Forge today.

The London side were far too good for Tyldesley, winning 20-6. But the registration error means they are deducted two points. The match will be recorded as a 0-0 score. 

Coventry scored six goals without reply in a purple match against Sheffield Sharks - enough to set up a 12-9 victory in an otherwise evenly-fought women's Division 1 clash at Ponds Forge today.

Sharks were 4-3 up at the halfway stage. That was the signal for Coventry to come to life, goals by Rhianne Oscroft (2), Amy Berry (2), Sancha Tonks and Maisy Clapperton quickly building a 9-4 lead.

Sheffield threatened near the end, cutting Coventry's advantage to a slender 10-9. But the Midlanders had the final say as Pia Tonks netted twice within 22 seconds.

City of Manchester began the defence of their title in style, thumping Hucknall 23-5. Izzy Howe scored five and Rosie Huck four.

In women's Division 2, late goals by Charlotte Hopwood - her fourth of the game - and Holly Rooney clinched Liverpool Liver Birds' 13-11 win against City of Bristol. 

Watford beat Cheltenham 8-7 in Division 3 while Penguin Emperors' 12-2 defeat of Liverpool Water Beatles featured a five-goal haul for Cate du Toit.

Photo (Trevor Hyde): Liverpool Water Beatles goalie Rachel Thompson saves a shot from Penguin's Rachel Bull.
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Olympic referee Frank Ohme, of Germany, put BWPL's new intake of academy refs through their paces at Ponds Forge, Sheffield, this weekend. 

Frank chatted to the young officials about his Tokyo experiences - as well as highlighting some of the new applications of rules - on Friday evening, prior to watching some of them in action during matches in the 24-game women's programme at the pool. 

Frank (third left) is pictured with three members of the academy - L-R, Jack Tod (Wales), Jacob Tunks (Norwich) and Cameron Baker (Watford). Photo: Trevor Hyde.

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!”