Lancaster won the British National Water Polo Championships for a third successive season, defeating Rotherham Metro 7-4 in the final at Manchester Aquatics Centre. Former GB captain Neil Bowers netted five.

Victory was sweet for Ryzard Detko's team, who have also won the National League title for the last three seasons. "We were missing three key players this weekend, so it made the achievement of winning that more special," said Detko, who was without England internationals Tom Curwen, Colin Burgess and Andy Squires.

Curwen, the club's top-scorer, and Squires are playing for the Melbourne Tigers in the Australian National League while Burgess was away on a skiing holiday. "It gets harder and harder every year to win this competition. All credit to Rotherham, they are a good side. But we've blooded some youngsters and they will have learned from this experience and get better," added Detko.

Lancaster fought back from 4-3 behind to beat Bristol Central 9-8 in a tense men's semi-final, while Rotherham beat Portobello 13-7.

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Lancaster 14 Penguin 4

On the first weekend in February Lancaster’s water polo team comfortably qualified for the finals of the British Championship, which they have won for the previous two years. Lancaster, despite being short of the services of Tom Curwen and Andy Squires who are currently playing in the Australian National League, still produced mercurial form in their three games, played in front of a large and vocal home crowd at Salt Ayre Leisure Centre.

In the first game of the weekend Lancaster faced Hammersmith Penguin, a side who Lancaster had comprehensively beaten during the regular season, however City started the game sluggishly and failed to produce the fast counter attacking style that has been their hallmark in recent previous seasons. Defensively though Lancaster looked strong and eventually Ryan Pinington opened the scoring for the local side with a neat finish after creating himself space for the shot. Further goals came from Colin Burgess and Dougie Campbell, however, Lancaster were spurning some good opportunities and were punished towards the end of the first half of the game as the Londoners scored after Jamie McIlquham was excluded for a foul on the Penguin centre forward.

Lancaster took a grip on the game in the second half, simplifying their play and putting pressure on their opponents. A strong press defence allowed the local side to sweep down the pitch and score simple goals, unlike the first half of the game. Scott Carpenter, Rysz Detko, Neil Bowers and Chris Hartley all added goals for City, extending the lead to five goals. With Lancaster having taken control of the game a new crop of young talent were given their chance to make their first appearances for the senior side. Although neither scored both Sam Broadbent and Joe Wannop held possession well and showed great determination in defence and, will undoubtedly be strong members of the team in years to come.

Lancaster continued to cruise away from the Londoners and in an impressive second half scored eleven goals to their opponents two to win the match 14-4.

Lancaster 15 Manchester 5

In the second game of the weekend Lancaster faced Manchester, a young, rapidly improving side, who potentially had the swimming fitness to produce a counter attacking game of their own. In this game however, the local side moved into an early lead, with a goal from 6 metres from Chris Hartley, which was quickly followed by a penalty from Campbell after some good work from the ever dangerous Burgess. Manchester were not cowed and fought back in the middle of the first period to equalise, before a two goal cushion was restored by Burgess and Campbell.

The Lancaster players then produced some excellent defensive play in the next two quarters preventing Manchester scoring, while good passing and teamwork lead to Lancaster opening up an insurmountable lead. By the end of the third period the home side had established a nine goal insurmountable lead at 11-2.

Lancaster took the opportunity to provide England Youth squad goalkeeper Zak Sly with his first taste of British Championship water polo replacing the ever reliable Dave Bush in the Lancaster goal for the final quarter. Joe Lawlor also made his first appearance of the weekend and despite being under the weather used his swimming pace well in the Lancaster attack. Manchester continued to fight and scored the first three goals of the final quarter, however, in the final two minutes of the quarter Lancaster stepped on the gas, scoring four goals in two minutes to run out winners by 15-5.

Lancaster 2 Rotherham 3

In the past two years the Lancaster team have often struggled to dispatch Rotherham and it proved to be the case on this occasion as although Lancaster dominated, they failed to convert their chances missing nine out of ten man-up opportunities. The game was extremely tight with Rotherham adopting a drop defence to counter the threat from Burgess in the centre forward position but Lancaster still looked in control. But with the home side wasting chances, Rotherham held the lead at half time by two goals to one.

The defensive play of Lancaster was again good, Rotherham being restricted to only three shooting chances on goal in the second half ,which apart from on one occasion were competently dealt with by Bush. The biggest problem during this game (as was the case during a recent England rugby match) was the finishing. Lancaster missed too many simple chances and the impressive team play of the previous day had vanished. As it was both teams scored only once during the second half, making the final score 2-3 to Rotherham.

What do we make of the performances of Lancaster during the weekend? There were a lot of positives to be taken from the first two games, with good defensive and offensive play. The defensive work during the third game was also good. If opponents can be restricted to three goals then City should win more than they lose. However, chances must be taken, both individually and as a team.

Despite the disappointment of the loss to Rotherham, Lancaster have qualified for the finals and face Bristol this Saturday in the semi-fina. Should Lancaster win, then they will have the opportunity to avenge their defeat, should Rotherham overcome their opponents in the other semi-final, Scottish Champions Portobello. The final is being held on Sunday.

Team:Dave Bush (Gk), Joe Lawlor, Colin Burgess, Jamie McIlquham, Chris Hartley, Ryan Pinington, Joe Wannop, Scott Carpenter, Sam Broadbent, Neil Bowers, Zak Sly (Gk), Dougie Campbell, Rysz Detko

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Lancaster’s water polo team made club history by winning the British National Water Polo Championships for a third consecutive season at the Manchester Aquatic Centre last weekend. Lancaster went into the weekend as underdogs for the championships, being without three key international players, and all of whom featured in the team that won the National League title just before Christmas. Tom Curwen and Andy Squires are currently playing for the Melbourne Tigers in Australia whilst Colin Burgess was unavailable due to being on holiday.

The team faced two tough fixtures in their semi-final and final matches over the weekend, Bristol on Saturday in the semi-final and, following hard earnt success in that game, against Rotherham in the final on Sunday.

Many water polo pundits were predicting success for Rotherham, coached by National team coach Norman Leighton, after the Yorkshire sides’ narrow victory against Lancaster in the preliminary rounds. A comfortable victory for the Yorkshire team over Scottish Champions Portobello by 13-7 in the first semi-final and a narrow 9-8 win for Lancaster over Bristol only served to increase the speculation that Rotherham were about to take their first senior national title.

The pundits had however, underestimated the determination and abilities of the remaining Lancaster players. Neil Bowers produced some of his best ever displays for the club firing in 5 of Lancaster’s 7 goals in the final. Man mountain, Dave Bush also produced a one on way save early in the fourth quarter and followed this up with a penalty save a couple of minutes later to ensure Lancaster kept control of the game in the final few minutes.

Chris Hartley was all over the pitch providing support to his colleagues and Chris notched an all too unusual and valuable hat-trick against Bristol. Dougie Campbell produced a typical solid performance scoring one of the goals in the final whilst Jamie McIlquham in the key centre forward role was a persistent thorn in the oppositions’ defences. Jamie scored in both games, notching the opening goal of the final.

Ryan Pinington and Scott Carpenter were the two other players who started in the first seven and both players, at such a young age playing at such a high level, contributed significantly to the team’s efforts and performance. The other major contribution came from veteran Ryszard Detko, back in training for the past 12 months who even managed to get himself on the score sheet against Bristol.

Lancaster pressured the opposition players from the outset and their tight defensive play and continuous counter attacking play, thanks to some strenuous swimming sessions from senior swimming coach Neil Lawlor, gave them the better of the opposition sides.

The Lancaster bench was then made up of 17 year olds, Zak Sly and Joe Wannop, 16year old Sam Broadbent and Joe Lawlor. In view of the tightness in the games although these players weren’t given the opportunity to compete in the water their presence on the bench was an indication of how well the younger players are progressing under coach Ron Winn and, provided a sense of security for their colleagues in the water.

Lancaster 9 Bristol 8

In the semi-final match Lancaster faced a tough game against long-term rivals Bristol who finished second in the national league last season. With Burgess unavailable for the weekend Lancaster’s style of play had to adapt, with Jamie McIlquham taking over the role as centre forward and a more mobile attack adopted.

These tactics paid off early in the game, as good driving play by Ryan Pinington drew a major foul. Jamie McIlquham scored the first goal of the game, having been supplied by fellow Scot Dougie Campbell. Bristol managed to pull a goal back within a minute as a speculative shot beat Lancaster keeper Dave Bush.

The game continued evenly, with Bristol piling pressure onto the City defence. McIlquham was excluded for a foul on the opposing centre forward, however excellent defensive work from the team led to Neil Bowers stealing the ball, tearing up the pool and scoring past the opposition goalkeeper. An uncharacteristic mistake by Lancaster’s goalkeeper Bush allowed Bristol to equalise and they scored another goal with a minute left in the first quarter to put themselves one goal clear going into the second quarter.

Although they were behind the Lancaster team did not panic, but kept to the simple game plan of using their speed and conditioning to wear down the more physical Bristol team. Captain Chris Hartley led by example early in the second quarter, scoring a superb shot from long range but Bristol managed to regain their lead late in the second quarter from a man-up situation after Scott Carpenter was excluded for a major foul. Although there were few major incidents in the second quarter it did highlight the superior fitness and speed of City, Bristol did not manage to out-swim the local side’s defence and were starting to struggle to combat the Lancaster attack, which was created several good scoring opportunities.

The Lancaster pressure began to tell in the third quarter of the match, as the local players began to convert their scoring opportunities from their counter attacks. Hartley scored his second of the match and shortly after completed his hat-trick, in doing so putting Lancaster into the lead for the first time since the first quarter of the match.

By this point the Bristol defence was creaking and Lancaster could have extended their lead significantly as they peppered the Bristol goal with shots. Scott Carpenter scored his first goal of the weekend with two minutes left in the third quarter, putting Lancaster into a two goal lead. During the second and third quarters Lancaster’s defence had been very strong, but defensive lapses in the last minute of the quarter lead to Bristol fighting back, scoring two goals, most disappointingly the last, which drew them level with just one second left in the quarter.

Even this setback did not affect the determination of the Lancaster players, when Bristol gained a man-up early in the fourth quarter they were worried about the pace of Bowers and Campbell when setting up their attack. Their concerns were justified as after the Lancaster defence foiled the attack Bowers sprinted up the pool and was unlucky to see his lobbed shot hit the bar.

It was not long though before he made amends for this miss shortly, converting a long range shot as the Bristol defence dropped off the Lancaster shooters on the arc. A minute later McIlquham scored his second of the match, being supplied with a pinpoint pass by Bowers and firing high into the Bristol net. The local side’s defence then played well to defend a Bristol attack. After a good save from Bush Lancaster countered, and Rysz Detko scored with a shot which went in off the post to put the defending champions three goals ahead.

Bristol were not finished however and launched a final push back to get themselves back into the game with three minutes still remaining. They managed to pull two goals back against the defence of Lancaster to bring themselves within one goal but with the seconds ticking away Lancaster held that one goal lead and possession of the ball. The drama was not quite over however as inexperience from youngster Scott Carpenter led to an extremely tense end to the game. With only two seconds remaining he took a shot, which the Bristol keeper saved. Bristol immediately called a time out. Five of Bristol’s outfield players crowded into the Lancaster goal area in what could only be described as a mass wrestling contest. The remaining two seconds seemed to last for at least ten as a pass was launched into the crowd of players and Bristol managed to get a shot out, which went just over the Lancaster bar as the final whistle sounded.

Team (Scorers): Dave Bush (Gk), Joe Lawlor, Zak Sly (Gk), Jamie McIlquham (2), Chris Hartley (3), Ryan Pinington, Joe Wannop, Scott Carpenter (1), Sam Broadbent, Neil Bowers (2), Rysz Detko (1), Dougie Campbell

Lancaster 7 Rotherham 4

The opposition for the final match was a Rotherham team, who are the only team to beat Lancaster in the past year.

Lancaster signalled their intentions for the match by launching a strong attack on the Rotherham in their first attack. Scott Carpenter’s shot rebounded from the bar and McIlquham was first to react as he forced the ball over the line to open the scoring.

Rotherham equalised halfway through the first period of play as their captain gave Bush in the Lancaster goal no chance of saving a penalty shot. Lancaster were giving a confident display though and were solid in defence and were attacking in a calm organised manner. Great movement in attack from Pinington created a scoring chance for Campbell, who dispatched his shot past the Rotherham keeper to put City into the lead.

Lancaster’s defence during the second quarter was indomitable, marshalled by Lancaster captain Chris Hartley and with Dave Bush producing an incredible display of goalkeeping, to repel the Rotherham attack. With three minutes remaining in the quarter Neil Bowers broke clear of the Rotherham team and calmly beat the keeper to extend the lead of the City team.

Rotherham were seeking to force Lancaster to shoot from distance by playing a drop defence, eliminating the threat from Lancaster’s centre forward. The Lancaster players were not fazed by the tactic and adopted a more mobile attack, Bowers converted his second goal of the match after Hartley drew the defence, before switching the play to Bowers who fired his shot high into the top left corner of the Rotherham net.

In the third quarter Lancaster continued to dominate play, with Rotherham struggling to move the ball up the pool. The opposition did manage to draw a goal back midway through the quarter reducing the deficit to two goals. A classy period of play from Bowers then produced two more goals, the second an outstanding forward shot under pressure, to stretch his side’s lead to four goals, going into the final quarter of the game.

The early part of the final quarter of the match was very tight as Rotherham tried desperately to get back into the game. They managed to score once from a man-up situation but the four goal cushion was returned as a pre-worked set play led to Bowers banging in his fifth goal of the match.

Less than a minute later Lancaster then conceded a penalty but help was at hand as Dave Bush managed to got a hand to the resultant shot much to the dismay of the Rotherham team and supporters. In doing so Bush effectively sealed the victory for Lancaster as there was only two minutes left in the game.

Rotherham tried one last desparate ploy to get back into the game by changing their defensive tactics to an aggressive press and although they did manage to pull one goal back the Lancaster defence held firm thereafter. Indeed the additional space allowed to McIlquham, the centre forward gained a major foul to help his side as they wound down the clock to complete their historic victory.