Post by Jem Senczyszyn
Joining forces with London Polytechnic and sporting the name ‘Polly the Penguin’, 10 of our ladies water polo squad headed to Amsterdam on 2 September to take part in Het Y’s infamous international water polo tournament at ‘De Miranadabad.’
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Day 1: Group matches
Despite a late night on Friday, thanks to a wonderful boat trip, we were up early and ready for our first game at 9.30am. With the sun beaming down on the green pitch, ‘Polly the Penguin’ started strong against the tough Utrecht team, Watervlo, and came away with a narrow 5-4 win and only a couple of nasty scratches…
After an afternoon warm-up led by Poly player, Amy, we were back in the pool against Liverpool’s Liverbirds. Another solid performance took us to our second victory (5-4) and secured our spot at the top of Div 2 Pool B. Special mentions go to Sus, scoring 3 of the 5 goals from the pit, and Annabelle, scoring her first ever Penguin goal (whoop!).
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Day 2: Finals
Coming out of Day 1 we were guaranteed a top 4 position in Div 2. The teams standing in our way were home team, Het Y 3/4, and the winners of Div 2 Pool A. With an eye on the Div 2 title, we went out with great energy; quickly organising man-ups and holding a tight defence throughout. Goals came from everywhere and the game ended with a healthy score-line of 11-3.
To our surprise, our first opponents from yesterday managed to beat the winners of Pool A in their semi-final so we lined up against familiar faces in the final. Focussing all our remaining energy after an exhausting weekend of polo, sampling excellent beer, dressing up as pirates and filling-in for both Amsterdam’s ‘De Snippen Dames’ and Dublin’s ‘Trinity College’ when needed, we stormed to final victory (12-2) with almost every player contributing at least one goal. Lovely stuff.
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