Last weekend (21/22 January) Penguin men’s and women’s first teams both played at Manchester in matches televised by Sky Sports.
For the men it was the finale of the League and we were always going to find it tough after three months without regular training sessions at Shell. We went down 6-14 to Portabello and faced an even more crushing defeat 7-22 to Lancaster, not helped by the dismissal of Attila Banhidy early on for misconduct. But our successes earlier in the season gave us third place in the League and we can look ahead to the British Championships on the weekend of 4/5 February.
It was the penultimate weekend of the women’s competition and, like the men, the reduced water time for training hadn’t been the best preparation for Penguin Emperors. In our first game we were just edged out by Otter, 8-7, in an exciting London derby. Otter raced into a 4-0 lead in the first quarter but we fought back and gradually recovered to level at 5-5 in the third before losing out in the final stages.
Our second game was also close-run with Manchester taking the win 2-4.
Going into the final weekend at Cardiff on 10/11 February we are currently in fourth overall and well positioned for a place in the British Championships in March.
Sky Sports will be screening highlights from the Manchester games in a one hour “Match of the Day”-style programme on five occasions. Provisional dates:
• 5 March Sky Sports 2 18.00
• 5 March Sky Sports 2 21.00
• 6 March Sky Sports 4 00.30
• 6 March Sky Sports 3 09.00
• 6 March Sky Sports 4 15.00