The death has occurred of Brian Campbell (pictured), a major figure in Scottish water polo for many years and the father of three Caledonia players, Alasdair and twins Chris and Darren. Brian’s brother Doug won many honours during his seasons playing for the Lancaster club.
 
The funeral takes place on Thursday, 19 December at the Carnegie Conference Centre, Halbeath Road, Dunfermline, KY118DY, 10.30am for a 10.45am start. The family requests family flowers only but there will be a collection in memory of Brian on the day.

Brian had suffered with cancer for the past couple of years but, as statement on Dunfermline Water Polo Club website (https://www.dunfermline-wpc.co.uk/) says, “he had been trying to live life as normal as possible, continuing to work and maintain his passion for developing and delivering water polo opportunities for junior players.

"As a player, then coach, team manager and administrator, Brian has touched every part of water polo since first taking up the sport as a young swimmer. An enormous number of players will have been influenced by Brian who has been a significant part of Dunfermline WPC, Scotland boys and latterly Caledonia Boys. His drive, passion and commitment will be sorely missed.”
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All teams take a well-earned break after an action-packed first half of the season. Then it will be all systems go for phase two!

Fixtures are published today and feature men's and women's Super 5s sharing the same four venues - Aldershot, Ponds Forge, East Manchester and, lastly, Coventry, for the finale on 21/22 March. Click on fixtures pages to know where your club will be playing.

City of Bristol girls completed a hat-trick of victories in women's Division 2 at Newport, catapulting the team from sixth to second place at the start of the weekend and securing Championship 1 action in the second half of the season.

Yet, in the end, Bristol could still have missed out altogether. It wasn't until the final quarter of the final match - Bristol's clash with Otter Lutra - that the top five places were decided.

Situation when the last game began was that a win for either Bristol or Otter would put the successful team in Championship 1 but leave the losers in the bottom three and heading for Championship 2. But a draw would bring significant change, leaving four teams (Marlins, Sheffield Stingrays, Otter and Bristol) level on points. That would mean constructing a mini table based on matches involving the four – meaning that Mid Sussex Marlins, despite an 8-6 win against Welsh Wanderers in their final game, would miss out.

In the event, Bristol, coached by Craig Figes, beat Otter 7-4, breaking clear in the final quarter with goals by Anna Robbins, Heather Tomlinson and Lilymay Girvin (Picture: Trevor Hyde) after the sides were locked at 4-4.

Earlier, it was Marlins who produced the last quarter flourish against Wanderers, scoring through Amy Styles (2), Liv Henderson and Annah Bowles after the match moved to 4-4 at the start of the final period.
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Tyldesley beat Sheffield Stingrays 14-10 to complete a 100% record in the division. Scorers included Honor Grimes (4), Holly Toone (3), Eva Howarth (2), Kelsy Evans (2) and Jordan Parsons (2).

Tyldesley, Bristol, Welsh Wanderers, Mid Sussex Marlins and Sheffield Stingrays progress to Championship 1, with Otter Lutra, Liverpool Liver Birds and English Roses going to Championship 2.

In an extraordinary finale to the men’s Division 1 programme at Newport today, former champions Cheltenham went down 9-8 to Sutton & Cheam – and crash-landed into Championship 1 in the second phase of the season.

At the start of play, only champions City of Manchester and Solihull were sure of places in the Super 5s. It was a matter of working out the “what ifs” affecting other results – and there were plenty of those!

Invicta solved one problem straightaway when they opened with a 14-11 victory over Polytechnic.  They were then secure, no matter what happened in remaining matches.

Next up was the crunch fixture at Lancaster between Lancaster and Sheffield. A Lancaster win would carry them to the Super 5s. But a Sheffield victory would put Invicta, Lancaster and Sheffield level on points and (based on a mini table of results between those three) leave Lancaster to plummet into the bottom three – IF Cheltenham defeated Sutton & Cheam.

We’ve learned not to anticipate any result in Division 1 this season! Despite the best efforts on behalf of Lancaster of eight-goal Tom Curwen, Sheffield won 13-12, recovering from 5-2 down at one stage and eventually ensuring success with goals in the final quarter by Chris Armstrong and Ben Stephenson.

So it was all down to the very last fixture. Surely, Cheltenham would account for Sutton and head once again for the Super 5s? It looked that way as Cheltenham began the final period with a 6-4 lead. But Sutton, led by five-goal Stephen Bayles (Photo: Trevor Hyde), were having none of it, Carlo Diegone claiming the winner 1.38 from the end of a breathless campaign.

Manchester, 20-6 victors over Solihull, finished with a perfect record from seven matches. They are joined by Solihull, Sheffield, Invicta and Lancaster in the Super 5s, with Sutton & Cheam, Cheltenham and Polytechnic experiencing life in a very competitive Championship 1.