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 1st 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.