19 October 2022

Last Thursday, the water polo squad set off to play both Stowe and Bedford in a triangular tournament. In order to prepare the junior squad for their ESSA national tournament first round, the majority of the squad came with us for some valuable match experience and to develop their skills within a game setting. We also brought a couple of members of the senior squad with us to help organise and lead the team when in the pool.

Our first game was against Bedford, who were a strong tester for our junior team to start their preseason with. We put up a very strong fight in the first half with the scoreline being 3-2 to Bedford going into half time. As the game progressed into the second half, the Bedford team were able to find ways around our strong defence and gradually pulled away from us. This resulted in the scoreline being 8-3 to Bedford at full time. It was a very challenging first game for our new squad but helped us to learn what we needed to improve for our next game. We started off the second game extremely strong, with Johnny James and Tom Jackson scoring three quick goals between them setting us up for a dominant victory over Stowe. However, Stowe managed to find their way around our defence to make the score 3-2 to Abingdon going into the second half. With our desire to get a decisive victory, we put on our more experienced players which resulted in more goals for Abingdon throughout the second half with Johnny James, Will d’Arcy, Chris Skelton and Tom Jackson scoring more goals between them. Our junior players were playing outstandingly which resulted in Nathan Shestopal and Oliver Calcott burying their own goals in the corner of Stowe’s goal. This amazing performance by the Abingdon team resulted in a 9-4 victory over Stowe, and well demonstrated the strength of our junior team going forward. Congratulations also for the junior squad in getting their first victory of the season as well as showing great skills and sportsmanship in both defeat and victory against tough opponents.

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