News

Penguin Emperors closed the first phase of the season at Watford Woodside (22/23 October) in a solid third place that secures our position in the new Super 5s.

Opening an intense weekend (three games in less than 20 hours!) was a match against Liverpool B. In a game that will be judged more for its shocking referring decisions than the action in the water, we ended up coachless and missing two players for three majors!
Nonetheless we won convincingly 15-2, with almost every member of the team getting on the score sheet.

The Penguin attack showed a different side when we faced the League leader, Liverpool A, without a coach. They opened with a thundering 4-0 lead, immediately making things tough for us. While our zone defence improved, our static attack left the way clear for too many counter-attacks by the fast Liverpool girls. The final score of 11-3 doesn't properly do justice to a game that would have been more balanced had we taken advantage of own counter-attacks and extra men.
 
Our weekend closed with a trickier-than-anticipated match against Sheffield, not least because energy levels for a good part of the team were still depleted from the previous day. During the first two quarters we failed to capitalise on a number of opportunities to score from attack, and a missed penalty. Then a defensive distraction gave a temporary advantage to Sheffield. But we woke up in the second half and a strong improvement in extra men that progressively got smoother and smoother took us to an 8-2 victory.

A fair conclusion to a good first part of the season for the Emperors.

On Saturday our women's 3rds - Penguin Rockhoppers - travelled to Basingstoke to play the final games in Phase 1 of the BWPL (15/16 October).

The first match was against Liverpool Water Beatles who were top of the League. They were a speedy team of spritely young players but we fought back and played well as a team. Fee Greer battled monumentally hard to force some kick outs, and we were able to use the man-ups to score and take us to victory, 7-5.

The second match against South Derbyshire was tough! At half time the teams were level at 6-6, then South Derbyshire went up a gear and scored 5 goals in the last quarter giving a final score 8-12. Particular mention to Emma Stapleton for her fantastic goal scoring and her first hat trick for the Rockhoppers!

These results put us fifth in the table and secured our place in the new Championship 2 for the rest of the League season. Great result!

Great news from the BWPL this weekend:

Men's Div 1: Penguin just lost out in a tight game against Manchester (11-12) but a win vs Lancaster (12-10) was enough to book our place in the inaugural Super 5s.

Women's Div 3: Penguin Rockhoppers beat Liverpool (7-5) and despite losing to South Derbyshire (8-12), we held our place in the top 5 to qualify for the new Championship 2.

Well done to both teams!

Congratulations to Penguin Francesca Snell who has been nominated for Water Polo Performance of the Year in the Speedo Splash Awards.

Winners will be announced tonight at a ceremony in London. Francesca won't actually be able to attend as she's playing in the GB team against Canada, but everyone at Penguin is keeping their fingers crossed.

In the Super 5s at Loughborough University this weekend (10/11 December) Penguin men almost pulled off a shock result against Manchester. Midway through the second period, Manchester appeared to be cruising with a 6-1 lead. But we battled back to trail only 9-7 at the end of the third, and equalised at 9-9 with four minutes remaining. Frustratingly Manchester scored the winning goal only 1.47 from the end. Final score 9-10.

This places us third in the League, with just two games to play in Manchester on 21 and 22 January. 

The opening weekend of the women’s Super 5s was played alongside the men at Loughborough. Penguin Emperors recovered from 6-5 down in the second quarter to defeat Coventry 9-8. But we went down, 13-6, to the Liverpool Lizards.

We have launched our Penguin '£90 for 90' appeal.

In our 90th anniversary year we are asking members and friends to pledge to raise £90 for the Club, £1 for each year of our existence.

Please support your Club by making a pledge!

Fancy a challenge? Then sign-up for our sponsored 'Channel' Relay Race on Sunday 18 September 2011.

Not interested in swimming? Then please consider sponsoring us instead. The monies we raise will be split 50:50 between Club funds and Sport Relief.

Find out more on the 'Channel' Relay Race page.

The Rockhoppers travelled to Liverpool on Saturday 1st October for the second round of the Div 3 British League. 11 players made the journey north for two days of games.

The first match saw us take on Welsh Wanderers in a very close match. The game looked promising for the Rockhoppers with a 4-2 lead at the close of the 3rd quarter. But our strong opposition came back in the final quarter to win by one goal, final score 5-6.
 
The second game on Saturday afternoon was against Sunderland, with a wonderful performance by all players. Vicky, Laura and Michaela all scored 3 goals each, with a final score of 12-6. An amazing finish to Day 1 for the team.

Our final game of the weekend took place on Sunday afternoon against Hucknall. It was a tough first half, with lots of shots on goal but little success for the Penguins, and Hucknall took the lead with a half time score of 1-3. Strong defence and better luck in front of goals saw a better performance in the second half. Final quarter goals from Laura, Nori and Michaela, and some great saves by Bron in the goal, made for an exciting game, with a final score of 7-7.

Well done girls, a great weekend! Off to Basingstoke in two weeks time for matches to decide our position on the ladder before the league splits for the rest of the season.