Blog

It’s been a fun-filled six months at the Hillingdon junior branch of Penguins.

In the spring we made the most of opportunities to compete in the London Water Polo League, with U12, U14, U16 mixed, U16 girls and U18 boys teams competing in the Winter Championships. Our U13 and U15 teams played the Summer Championships.

With the Crystal Palace pool closed for refurbishment the London Youth Games Water Polo competition didn’t happen. This is a shame as it’s such an excellent event for our sport, boosting water polo development in London and the only grass roots level water polo tournament for children aged 14 and over in the summer term. If the works continue for some time, we hope the LYG will find an alternative venue.

We’ve also had players training and competing at Regional and National level.

Thank you to the amazing Hillingdon Penguin coaches, Adam Maidment, Mickey Tritto and Shaun Hill for making all this possible.

Fun Tournament and Summer Party
There were 55 players competing in the End of Term Fun Tournament at Hillingdon SLC on Saturday 16 July, making up six mixed-ability teams.

After the tournament the players were joined by their families for a party adjacent to the Hillingdon athletics track. It was the perfect venue for a scorching hot day!

Awards
While our annual awards are made at our Christmas Party, at Hillingdon Penguin we never pass up an opportunity to celebrate players who are new and improved, and this party was no exception as we presented a few awards spanning the first six months of this year.

Ron Turner Memorial Trophy Highly Commended 2021
This prestigious award was made to Hadi by Shaun Hill. The certificate had been due to be presented by Penguin President Fiona Greer, who unfortunately was unable to attend.

Hadi was nominated for his superb dedication in terms of the time he’s puts into water polo and swimming where he always trains to a high standard. In water polo he has competed at inter-regional and inter-county levels. He also plays for and makes a valuable contribution to the Enfield men’s team. In swimming he is winning over multiple distances and styles and he has also participated in other aquatic disciplines, for example, he learnt his excellent egg beater leg kick from artistic swimming. Coach Shaun says, “He is one of the hardest working players I know”.

Development Group / U13s
Coach Adam was keen to praise two young players who have impressed him recently:

Intermediate Group / U15s
Coach Mickey presented Oscar with an Award for Dedication to the Team.

Advanced Group – under 17 mixed team, under 17 girls team and under 19 boys team
Coach Shaun cited Georgia for the Award for Longstanding Effort (no photo as she was away), Kamran as Best Newcomer and special mentions to Thalia, Sophie, Sam and Robyn for their help with tournament hosting in Uxbridge.

Farewells
It’s that sad time of year when we say goodbye to players who are heading away to university. We hope they will follow in the footsteps  of Hillingdon Penguins who left last year but continue to enjoy playing water polo for their university teams. Luis Aranda, Murali Radhakrisham, Patrick Colson and Charlie Richardson, we wish you farewell.

So many people to thank
We have amazing parents in this branch of the Club. A big thank you for all your time and energy that make it possible for your children to train and compete.

Of particular note are Gisela and Adrian who helped with the party and Zayd who took the photos, Laure for helping with the recent kit order, Andy who is supporting Safeguarding, and Lynsey and Mike for your amazing job with the U13 team management. Kerry has also helped by writing articles and with scoring; not to forget Dawn, Akhmar and Khairul.

Happy holidays
The summer break is a good opportunity to rest, reflect, recharge and refresh. Term restarts on Saturday 3 September – see you then!

Find out more about playing junior water polo with us.

What an amazing opportunity and experience for Hillingdon Penguins, Riaz, Sam and Avi, and coach Shaun, who represented London at the U16s Inter-Regional Championships at Millfield School on 2 and 3 July 2022.

It was an exhilarating tournament with a high standard of water polo being played over the two days. The camaraderie and teamwork eventually led to the London Sharks becoming bronze medalists. The effort and planning from coaches, coupled with the willingness to learn from all the players, shone through and it was lovely to see a team comprising of different clubs across the region.

Each of the London Sharks’ matches in the group stage was nail biting. They narrowly lost against East Midlands 3-1 which spurred the boys on to a win against South East, then a draw against South West and a final win from a 3-0 deficit against North East Steelers. The latter saw Riaz saving a penalty holding the final score at 7-6 to London. This demonstrated the strong work ethic showed by all twelve boys.

Day two saw London Sharks the semi-finals against Ireland who were top of their group. Ireland took an early three goal lead, however, Sam scored London’s first goal which boosted the team’s momentum. In each quarter, both teams were solid in attack and defence, but Ireland’s overall physicality saw them take the win 13-7. This meant London Sharks would face East Midlands for the bronze medal.

After the players and the London coaches had discussed their tactics, they were ready for the play-off. It was close-fought game and there were only ever a couple of goals between the teams.

London Sharks took the lead going into the second quarter and in the final few minutes, wonderful play from Avi saw him score last goal in the match for 12-9 win.

This was a real team effort from all London region players and worthy bronze medalists.

Quotes from the Penguin boys:

“An entertaining weekend of water polo which turned out to be an awesome bonding experience for the team. It was my absolute pleasure to be their captain” Riaz

“The tournament was a great experience. It was good to go up against the top players in the country (and Scotland and Ireland). It was also enjoyable because we bonded as a team on and off the pitch and fought for each other in the matches. It was amazing to get a bronze after all the hard work.” Sam

“It was a great opportunity to play water polo against some really talented players and I am really glad I was able to take part.” Avi

We could not be prouder of the way Sam, Avi and Riaz performed, however this could not have been be achieved without the amazing skills of the nine other London regional boys, as well as London Coaches Shaun and Tim, and Team Managers Adrian and Dave. Well done London Sharks!

We would also like to give a special mention to Hillingdon Penguin Zahra who competed the weekend before in Liverpool at the Under-16 Girls Inter Regional competition.

Find out more about playing junior water polo with us.