News

A Water Polo Table Officials course is being held at the Gurnell Leisure Centre in September 2010. Details and application form here (pdf).

Penguin Over 40s masters water polo team took on a masters team from Cranleigh at St Paul’s School on the 11th November. Although we had a good start, we were still only one goal ahead going into the final quarter, where we had to defend the more challenging deep end. Despite scoring three good goals ourselves, Cranleigh scored four and left the game tied at 9 all.

On the fourth weekend of their British Water Polo League schedule, the Penguin women's third team headed to Gloucester ready for another battle.

Pengion proved that they are a force to be reckoned with in the first game after a 9-5 win over the League's current leaders, Sunderland. Leaving a bit of steam in the pool for the second match, the Rockhoppers were again victorious with a score of 9-7 over Poly.

With this double win the Rockhoppers move up to second position in the division, just behind Sunderland.

On 21-23 January our ladies 1st team were in Szentes, Hungary, to compete in the second round of the Len Trophy. This round saw the top 16 clubs in Europe battling for a semi final spot.

We were the only amateur team taking part; the rest were professional squads, who thanks to the high status of water polo in their countries, benefit from full sponsorship. By comparison, our only support is from Yordo who kindly provide our kit.

However, this didn’t stop us arriving in Hungary ready to take on the best. Our first game was against the local hosts, Hungerit Metalcom Szentesi. We took the game to them at the start of the first quarter 1^st quarter but their professional training soon took over and we lost 15-3 [4-0] [5-1][2-0][4-2].

In our second game we played last year’s runners up, Ugra Khanty-Mansyisk. We knew we had a tough game ahead of us, as they had three national players on their side. We couldn't match their speed and reaction times and we lost 25-2 [5-1][7-1][6-0][7-0].

Two games down and one more to go, we were up against ZVL Leiden, who were also fielding some international players, including Olympic gold medallists from the Beijing games. Needless to say, we tried hard but couldn’t compete against their power and skill, losing 19-3 [0-4][1-4][1-5][1-6].

Inspite of our heavy defeats, the team never gave up trying and we have used the opportunity to build relations with other international clubs across the tournament.

See some great photos of the matches in action here (you'll need to scroll down the page).

Our thanks to Yordo for sponsoring our kit for the women playing in this competition.

We're seeking a suitably qualified assistant coach to support the continued successes of our women's water polo teams. You'll work closely with the Head Coach of our women's water polo section to plan, develop, implement and monitor the long term development of the squad.  

Our training sessions are London-based with competitions played locally, nationally and at a European level.

This position is paid, part time (+/- 6 hours a week). A CRB check will be required. See the full job description (pdf).

If you are interested please send your CV with a covering letter to Tasja Botha(tasjab@gmail.com).

Sunday 3 July saw over 5,000 swimmers taking part in the Great London Swim in Royal Victoria Dock. Continuing her summer of open water competitions, Penguin Master Lisa Williams completed the 1.6k course in a fast time of 28.26.

Lisa placed 103rd woman and 75th in her agegroup.

Congratulations to Matt McQullan from our Masters team who came 6th out of 262 swimmers in the 7th Annual Henley Swim on Sunday 27 June 2010.

The 2.1k race follows the route of the official Henley Regatta and is a celebration of mid-summer. Swimmers arrive in the dark and walk to the start ready to swim at sunrise.