26 November 2021
On Tuesday, Abingdon welcomed a travelling Harrow School for a friendly water polo game. This was to be Abingdon’s first ever home water polo match, a monumental occasion for all to enjoy. Several students and colleagues came to watch, partly out of interest but mainly to be there for such a ground breaking occasion. We are hugely grateful to Harrow for coming down to play as our fledgling squad entered the ESSA national championships. With very little match experience, the Abingdon squad need every bit of help to develop tactical knowledge and pool awareness ahead of the ESSA competition.
Harrow are a more experienced side with more regular pool time as a team. In our previous outing against Charterhouse, we were shredded 21-1, but we have now had several Friday afternoon coaching sessions with Aaron Formby and learned a lot from Charterhouse. Ability wise, Harrow compete on a similar level to Charterhouse or not far off, so it was a fine opportunity to see how much we had grown as a team.
The game was fast and furious throughout, Harrow showing they could score from pretty much anywhere in the pool.
1st period: 3-0 to Harrow
2nd period: 5-1 to Harrow (Henry Dearden scored for Abingdon, although Can Tugcetin is claiming the goal with a ‘tap in’)
3rd period: 2-0 to Harrow
4th period: 2-1 to Harrow (Charlie Symonds scored, and Abingdon had a goal disallowed).
If you look at simply the final scoreline of 12-2 to Harrow, it looks like a thrashing, and while Harrow are certainly the better team (for now), if you break down the scoring you can see Abingdon’s progress. After the game, the Harrow players chatted to the Abingdon coaches about what we could work on and gave some great insight into the mystical workings of the ESSA water polo setup.
Thanks again to Harrow for coming down to play, as a team we learned a lot and are making great strides forward. Next up is the ESSA water polo championship group stage at Northampton School for Boys.
