Category: Award

We are fortunate to have some amazing children and supportive families in the Hillingdon junior water polo part of  Club. We would like to tell you more about two in particular, who have shone over the past year and gained Jack Petchey Awards.

Riaz Garnie winner of the Jack Petchey Award for March 2022
Riaz is one of our goalkeepers. His coach Shaun Hill says, ‘Riaz’s dedication to training and competition, and passion in games, is extraordinary. I am impressed at all the effort Riaz is putting in at Regional level, in the National Age Groups and at National Academy training.’

‘I feel Riaz always performs and doesn’t always get the accolade that goes with it. Plus who wants to get balls smashed at them?’

Riaz won the goalie of the tournament award at the Under 16s Boys’ Inter-Regional Water Polo Championships on 3 July 2022 at Millfield in Somerset. He was playing on the London Sharks Team, with his fellow Hillingdon teammates Sam Wood and Avi Juneja,. The team was coached by Shaun Hill. The London Sharks team came third overall, taking home bronze medals. A great achievement.

Thalia Ross winner of the Jack Petchey Award for June 2022
In Shaun’s words, ‘Thalia is a great role model. She is always cheerful and enthusiastic, tries her best and is adored by all the girls.’

‘She was the one girl out of the four who went to regional training in Autumn 2021 who did not get selected to play for the London team. Yet she was fine in the face of this disappointment and kept going to regional training.’

‘Thalia helps out with the scoring when Hillingdon host London Water Polo Leagues tournaments, showing great responsibility.’

‘Thalia gives back and should be recognised. She is a fantastic candidate for this award.’

Find out more about playing junior water polo with us.

We are grateful to the Jack Petchey Foundation for their continuing support and in allowing us to make these awards which are an excellent way of encouraging the players to progress and improve.

In the Hillingdon Penguin junior water polo section of the Club we are fortunate to have some amazing children and supportive families.

Here we tell you about three players in particular who have shone over the past year and gained awards. And this is the time of year where we say good bye to a group of older players as they leave to go to university.

Bailey Sapsed winner of the Jack Petchey Award for November 2020

In the words of coach Shaun Hill, ‘Bailey has been training with Hillingdon Penguins for three years and in this time I have seen him go from a good swimmer and transform into a great player. Bailey plays and trains with pure passion, he has a real love for the sport. I have yet to hear Bailey complain at training in all the years he’s been at the Club. Bailey has amazing attributes which make him a key team member, his determination will ensure he performs to his fullest until the last whistle of a match and while determined, he is humble, always ready to absorb information from coaches and peers. I feel honoured to have a player of Bailey’s character in the Club.’

Dan Usher winner of the Jack Petchey Award for March 2021

Dan has been a Penguin for five years. During this time his water polo and overall fitness level has improved hugely. He is a regular and popular participant. During lockdown his fitness regime was impressive, he even persuaded his family to join in the strength and conditioning too over Zoom. Recently he has blossomed as a player. Loyal and charismatic, he’s now a versatile athlete able to play in any position.

Ukendar Vadivel winner of the Jack Petchey Award for June 2021

Ukendar loves playing water polo and his favourite position is in goal. He is universally adored. Always friendly and relaxed but puts the max into this sport. When asked after a session, how it was he will reply ‘Excellent!’ with a big grin. Leaving us to go to university he is irreplacable, both in attitude and skill, and he will be missed for all the right reasons. Good luck Ukendar – Imperial College’s gain is our loss. We hope you will continue to play at uni, but you will always be part of the Hillingdon Penguin family.

Moving On
Good luck to all the Hillingdon players leaving us to go to university: Ukendar, Molly, Sarah, Anderson and Leah. We will miss you hugely. You’ve all been a tremendous support and inspiration to the younger players. Have an amazing time, come back and play in our end of term fun tournament and tell us about all your new experiences. We know you will be hoping to join water polo clubs at university and we will be following social media to see how you get on.

We are grateful to the Jack Petchey Foundation for their continuing support and in allowing us to make these awards which are an excellent way of encouraging the players to progress and improve.

While pools were closed due to COVID 19, from May to August the Hillingdon Penguin water polo coaches ran many strength and conditioning sessions over Zoom. So when we came to make the Petchey Achievement Award it seemed only fitting that it should go to our most enthusiastic Zoom participant: Lize.

Lize attended a record number of the training sessions, and always tried her hardest. Ever cheerful and enthusiastic, she was altogether a bright spark on the screen. Thank you Lize, we think you’re amazing.

Lize’s mum was sworn to secrecy so that coach Shaun Hill could make a surprise presentation of the Award during one of the sessions, with her under-15 team-mates watching online.

We are grateful to the Jack Petchey Foundation for their support.

We’re posting this to coincide with the 16th birthday of our latest Jack Petchey Award winner, Will Hames.

Happy Birthday, Will, we think you’re amazing!

Fortunately, we were able to present the Award to Will on our last water polo training session in Uxbridge before the country went into ‘lockdown’.

The presentation was made, fittingly, by three of Will’s peers – Charlie Richardson, Dan Murphy and Anderson Jolly – who are all previous recipients of the Award.

Reason for Award: Will is arguably the most talented water polo player to have trained with us in the past five years. This Award recognises not only this, but also his outstanding coaching.

Since October, Will has been coaching our Beginners. He is an excellent coach: selfless, kind and patient and given his playing experience, also authoritative. The other members of the coaching team at Hillingdon – Shaun Hill, Adam Hill and Michelangelo Tritto – are glad to have Will onboard to enable them to deliver their development plan. Our new joiners are very lucky to be coached by him and with this award we are glad to have the opportunity to say thank you for his valuable contribution.

Given the present circumstances it seems wise to delay our decision about how the Jack Petchey grant money should be spent, but we look forward to discussing this with Will when training resumes.

Will, from everyone at Hillingdon Penguin and the wider Penguin Club, we wish you an fantastic birthday! You certainly deserve it.

We are grateful to the Jack Petchey Foundation for their support.