Champions Otter grabbed a women's Super 5s point against City of Manchester at Ponds Forge today when Katie Cutler scored from close range with just 33 seconds remaining.

Both teams were slow to settle in the early stages, Manchester goalkeeper Jade Smith making a couple of excellent saves to thwart the Otter attack. Manchester led 2-1 in the second quarter thanks to long-range goals from Isobel Howe and Hannah Rudman but Otter hit back to take a 3-2 advantage - and improved this to 5-3 near the end of the third period.

Manchester countered once again and they were ahead at 6-5 with less than four minutes left following goals from Howe, Stephanie Whittaker and Emmie-Rose Eastwood. That's how it stayed until a Manchester exclusion offered another chance to Otter, Cutler scoring after a shot rebounded from the goal frame.

Later, Otter strengthened their position at the top of the table with a 12-6 victory over Liverpool Lizards, including four goals from Lily Turner. Coventry outplayed Caledonia 18-4, with Vick Hawkins contributing seven of their goals.

In women's Championship 1, Sheffield Sharks hammered Tyldesley 17-7, including four goals from Bernice Cowton. Leeds Sharks' 14-9 defeat of Liverpool Liver Birds featured five goals by Tegan Stanbach.

Photo (Trevor Hyde): Otter's Lily Turner battling with Emma Bartett, of Manchester, at Ponds Forge today.

BWPL is enhancing its green credentials by providing officials with reusable hot drinks mugs and water bottles - every item branded with the famous League logo. 

Gone are the wasteful days when it was necessary to provide drinks in plastic bottles - a hefty outlay over a full season. Within a couple of years, it's expected that the savings will more than pay for themselves. We're also offering teams an opportunity to buy the mugs and bottles - at £5 and £3 respectively. These will be on sale next weekend at the men's Championship 3 event at Lancaster and men's Championship 2 at Gloucester.

Otter Lutra dropped their first point in women's Championship 2 at Walsall - a 4-4 draw with Penguin Emperors - but they are still guaranteed progress to Division 2 at the start of next season.

Also through are Welsh Wanderers, 13-3 winners against Sheffield Stingrays, and English Roses, who beat Rotherham Metro 10-5.

Otter and Wanderers are level at the top on nine points. The two sides meet in a potential title decider when the Championship 2 programme ends at Northampton on 2/3 March.

Photo (Trevor Hyde): Former GB goalkeeper Jenny Braddock (white cap) is better known as a goal-scorer these days! She contributed five in English Roses' 10-4 defeat of Penguin Emperors.

The qualification tournaments for British League membership in the 2019/20 season will be the most fiercely contested so far when they take place on 6/7 April at Northampton (women) and Walsall (men). Altogether, six potential new teams are taking part. Line-up:

Women: Cheltenham, Manchester Comets, Sunderland (these teams finished in the bottom three places in Division 3 in the first half of the current campaign), plus new applicants Exeter, Nova Centurion and Watford. The top three will start next season in Division 3.

Men: Bedford and Chelmsford (bottom in this season’s seven-team Division 5), plus applicants City of Chester, City of Newport and Northampton. The top three progress to Division 5.

See fixtures page for qualification tournament schedules.

Among the “new” faces, it’s particularly encouraging to note that water polo is on the rise again in clubs with long-established national league pedigrees. City of Newport, for example, are direct descendants of Maindee Olympic, men’s National League champions in 1982, 1983 and 1984. Both Nova Centurion and Chester competed for many years in the men’s competition, with Nova playing in the top division for 14 seasons between 1985 and 1998.

A goal 36 seconds from the end by Connor Carpenter earned Sheffield a 10-9 victory over Sutton & Cheam in men's Championship 1 at Matlock, preserving his team's 100 per cent record from three matches.

The game was evenly fought throughout, the lead changing hands several times. Sheffield were 3-1 up after the first quarter but Sutton were ahead 5-4 and 7-6 before a tense final quarter began at 8-8. Sutton edged ahead once again thanks to a Carlo Diegone goal. But Finlay Parnell converted from a man-up to equalise with three minutes left before Carpenter claimed the belated winner.

In the meeting of two teams that began the season in Division 1, Durham Palatinates hammered Polytechnic 18-7, racing into a 6-0 lead before the London side registered a goal.

Exeter were 9-6 down to Welsh Wanderers but then swept to a 14-11 victory with goals in the final period from Darren Heagarty, Kameron Powell, Sam Alberici, Gabriel Alberici and Tom Hutchens.

Caledonia took the honours in their clash with Scottish rivals Portobello, winning 10-6, including three goals each for Logan Shepherd and Maksim Makarov.

Unbeaten Hucknall will hold a one-point advantage at the top of men's Championship 4 when the final matches take place at Marlborough College on 23/24 February.

However, with results in this closely-fought division unpredictable, the title remains very much up for grabs. Even Hucknall had to settle for two draws in their three latest matches at Liverpool - and were so close to losing out to Invicta Marlins, who led 10-8 in the final quarter. Hucknall responded with a man-up goal from Josh Harridine and then squared the match at 10-10 when Ian Greig netted with just 1.05 remaining. James Spencer-Boyce scored four for the Marlins.

Caledonia Storm beat British Army 11-8 to finish the weekend with maximum points from three games. Hat-tricks from John Faben and Ben Parsons (Photo: Trevor Hyde) ended the Army's undefeated record.

Watford Saxons, 10-6 winners against Leeds, and Coventry, who beat Sheffield Dolphins 13-11, finished the weekend just behind Hucknall on seven points.

The first day of the men's Championship 1 programme at Matlock produced some outstanding individual performances - not least American Zach White's eight goals in Durham Palatinates 16-12 defeat of Welsh Wanderers.

Stephen Bayles led the way for Sutton & Cheam, scoring six in his side's 14-12 victory over Exeter while Chris Brown was on target five times for Polytechnic, 11-5 winners against Portobello.

Sheffield powered their way to a 14-6 win against Caledonia, with Chris Armstrong and Joel Abbott (Photo: Trevor Hyde) both notching four. 

Zach White scored four more but Durham had to settle for an exciting 12-12 draw in their second match against Caledonia. Durham fought back from 7-2 down to begin the final quarter at 10-10. Chris Campbell's two goals - giving him a match haul of six - edged the Scots back into a 12-11 lead. A mere 11 seconds remained when Akos Sahin-Toth equalised for Durham with his fourth goal of the game.

Close finishes were the order of the day as men's Championship 4 began its second weekend of matches at Liverpool.

Hucknall, 4-1 up against Sheffield Dolphins at one stage, found themselves trailing 8-6 in the final quarter. A goal by Iain Greig (Photo: Trevor Hyde) reduced the margin with 2.46 to go; within a minute, Sam Joyce claimed his fourth goal for Hucknall to square it at 8-8.

Caledonia Storm and Leeds reached the final period level at 6-6. It was the Scots who dominated the rest of the game, winning 10-7 thanks to goals by Guy Broadhurst, Jack Robertson, Callum MacGregor and Andrew Woodall.

The Army retained their unbeaten record after four matches by winning a close battle with Invicta Marlins 12-10. Coventry suffered their first reverse - well beaten 14-8 by Watford Saxons. Zac Corcoran was the lead scorer for Saxons, with five.

​Later, Iain Greig led the scoring with five in Hucknall's 11-7 win against Leeds.

Liverpool Lizards staged an extraordinary recovery to beat old rivals City of Manchester 11-10 in the women's Super 5s at Aldershot today.

Manchester were cruising as three goals from Stephanie Whittaker helped them build a 7-1 lead by the latter stages of the second quarter. Even at the start of the last, Liverpool were still 9-6 adrift. Then they took charge, turning the game on its head with goals from Lauren Tasker (3), Emily Pyper and Molly Boniface-Ashton.

Earlier, Otter had little difficult completing their second win of the weekend - 16-4 against Caledonia.

It was also straightforward for Invicta in the men's competition as they outplayed struggling Lancaster 13-1 to complete their second victory. Manchester also grabbed maximum points, beating Cheltenham with surprising ease at 16-7.

In women's Championship 1 at Newport, Hucknall finished with three wins but were made to fight hard by a young Liverpool Liver Birds team before edging through 8-6. Liverpool couldn't get a shot past Hucknall goalkeeper Naya Patel (Picture, above - Trevor Hyde) in the first two quarters, but scored four times in the third through Evie Jones (2) and Charlotte Hopwood (2) to draw level at 4-4. Hucknall recovered near the end to ensure the points with goals by Katelyn Fairchild, India Wilkinson and Eda Colliver.

In one of the best matches of the weekend, Sheffield Sharks withstood a determined effort from City of Bristol to win 9-6. Goals in the final quarter by Bernice Cowton, Larissa Partridge and Danielle Elliot made the difference.

Champions Solihull went down 10-8 to Invicta as the men's Super 5s got under way at Aldershot today.

Invicta enjoyed great success in phase one and maintained the momentum by building an 8-4 advantage towards the end of the third period. That sparked a revival from Solihull, who battled back to 8-8 with goals by Jake Vincent (2), Jordan Elliot and Ryan Padbury. But it wasn't enough - Scott Martin's third goal edged Invicta ahead once again with three minutes to go; Callum Bailey added a penalty 21 seconds from the end.

Manchester had to battle for a one-goal victory over Lancaster in phase one. But it was a different story this time as they swept to a 14-1 victory, including four goals from Joe O'Regan.

In the women's Super 5s, also at Aldershot, Cicely Turner's five goals in the first two quarters led Otter to a 10-6 win over Coventry - and revenge for a narrow defeat when the teams met in phase one. Manchester began their campaign in devastating fashion, demolishing Caledonia 31-4. 

Later, Coventry gained their first points, beating Liverpool Lizards 9-4. Kimberly Watson gave the Midlands side a great start, scoring four in the opening period.