On Saturday 22nd June Warrington took a 13 & under team to the Manchester Festival of Water Polo, this is the biggest competition in Great Britain for under 13 and under 15 mixed teams, with the best teams in the country in attendance. Warrington was drawn in a tough group which included Rotherham, Welsh Wanderers, Bolton School, and Sheffield. The first game was against Rotherham playing across the 50m pool with five pitches playing simultaneously. Although Rotherham beat us in this game they later declared they had accidently played a player over age and Warrington was awarded a 1-0 win. We then took on Welsh Wanderers and played well against one of the best teams in Wales. Warrington were beaten 5-3 but were always in the game. We then played Sheffield and found it tough going against some 13 year olds who looked old enough to be shaving. Warrington battled throughout but was beaten 6-0. The final game was against our old foe’s Bolton School. Bolton School soon went into a 3-0 lead but in the second half Warrington came back into the game, however at the final whistle Bolton were 4-2 winners.
We finished 5th in our group of death and in the afternoon session played Manchester Icebergs who finished 5th in the other group. We just beat Icebergs 3-2 and therefore finished 9th overall.
Some significant factors affected our performance which were our team was mainly made up of our 12 & under team who had played tough match against Tyldesley the night before. A lack of 13 year olds particularly who can play at this level, we had only five of our team 13 this year. On a positive note it was a great experience for our team and with a good group of 12 year olds coming through we should perform better next year. The other teams were physically bigger and they were fast up and down the pool. Some of our 12 year olds are working really hard with as many as six sessions of swimming and water polo per week.
Warrington’s Team included:- Luke Atkinson, Connor Lynch, Emily Bowater, Ben Dailey, Luke Boardman, Max Harrison, Molly Ashton, Dom Richards, Katie Bowater, Jack Yates, Matt Williams,