News

In her latest blog Francesca describes the GB team's highs and lows at the 26th World Universiade Games in Shenzhen, China.

Our men’s first team faced tough opposition in the penultimate weekend of the British League in Guildford.

The match against Manchester on Saturday was a real thriller. We were trailing from the start but, thanks to a six-goal haul from Attila Banhidy, we recovered from 11-9 down in the final quarter to level at 11-11. It seemed that we would share the points until Manchester claimed the winner from a man-up with just one second remaining.

Our second match on Sunday against Lancaster was an 11-14 defeat.

We're sad to learn that former Penguin swimmer and water polo player Glyn Berry died on Friday 5th November following a short illness. He was 64.

At a towering 6ft 8in and known as 'Big Glyn' to many, Glyn was a Welsh international who joined Penguin early in his water polo career, first as a goalkeeper then as a forward. Although he moved to Poly in 1968 he always remembered his time with Penguin fondly. He remained friends with many Penguins through the London and Middlesex Leagues.

We extend our condolences to Glyn's family.

Glyn's funeral will take place on Monday 22nd November at 1.30 pm.
 
Venue:  Herongate Wood,
            Billericay Road,
            Brentwood,
            Essex  CM13 3SE
            Tel: 01277633085
 
Family flowers only, any donations to:  MYELOMA UK, received on the day or posted to Mrs S. Berry, 68 Railway Approach, Laindon, Essex SS15 6JX.

The Penguin women's third team travelled to Basingstoke on Saturday for another British League weekend.

We brought home success by winning 7-3 against Manchester D in our first match.

Our second match against Southampton was tough at the beginning, and we found ourselves 6-2 down in the second quarter. But we didn't surrender and managed to startle the opposition by taking the game to a tight 11-11 draw.

It was a great weekend for the thirds and the coach was pleased with all our players' performance.

The Masters’ annual Christmas dinner will be on Tuesday 14th December at The Crabtree, which is about 10 minutes walk from the Fulham pool.

Two course and three course menus available; £10 deposit required. Partners and guests are welcome.

Bookings now open - contact Jonathan via the Contact Us page.

Our women's First Team head to Imperia in Italy on 10, 11 and 12th December to play in the LEN Trophy qualification round.

Supporters are welcome - contact Tasja via the Contact Us page for travel and accommodation details.

This weekend was an improvement on the last and we started to gel well as a team.

Our first game on Saturday was against the hosts, Liverpool B, and despite having two of our players down with 'flu we managed a good 11-3 victory. Joss and Lorelle came away with three goals apiece, which added nicely to their overall goal tally. Our last goal came from goalie Melinda who scored in the last minute of the fourth quarter from just inside her half.

The next game that day was against the British champions and GB water polo centralised training team, Manchester A. Goalie Melinda was once again on fire, saving several shots from counter attacks. This kept us in the game and we went into the fourth quarter 6-5 down. Sadly it was not to be when a two man-up didn’t go our way and we finished 8-5 in the end.

The following day promised another tough game against last year's League Champions, Liverpool A. We were looking to take forward the momentum from the last night’s game against Manchester but the match was cancelled due to 'a little incident' in the adjacent pool by a child unable to get to the toilet in time! So our momentum will need to wait until our next British League weekend.

Penguin men's team were in action in Divsion One on Sunday at Loughborough University.

Our first match against Lancaster was a 12-8 defeat, but we forced the previous leaders Manchester to a 7-7 draw by scoring the only goal in the last quarter.