Lancaster City Water Polo Team have claimed their 7th British Championship including their 5th Consecutive  title after an exciting weekend of action at the Manchester Aquatics Centre.

Saturdays semi-final saw old rivalries renewed against Scottish Champions Portobello in our annual battle of Britain.

The game started slowly with both teams struggling to gain an advantage. Early goals were exchanged with goals from Tom Curwen and Jamie McIquaham cancelling out earlier strikes from Portobello’s Nielson Rutherford and Bruce Elder.

As half-time approached Lancaster gained the lead for the first time with a sharp finish from Scott Carpenter. However this was cancelled out right on the stroke of half time after some sloppy defensive work allowed Gary Ward to equalised from 4 metres.

Half-time allowed the opportunity Lancaster to regroup and re focus on what had been a lacklustre early showing. The half time pep-talk from Colin Burgess had the desired effect as wave after wave of counter attacks from Lancaster starting to pay dividends with two strikes from Captain Chris Hartley, one an eight metre special after the defence dropped off expecting him to pass. This enabled Lancaster establish a 9:6 lead by the end of the third quarter. The Scottish Champions were now on the back foot and Lancaster pushed the advantage in the final quarter with further goals from Scott Carpenter, Colin Burgess, Glen Robinson and Rysz Detko and eventually ran out comfortable winners by 13 goals to 7.

Sundays final was against Rotherham Metro who had managed to dispose of League Runners-up Cheltenham in the other semi-final.

Preparations for the game were held up as a potential career threatening injury to Portobellos Keith Anderson resulted in nearly an hours delay to the scheduled start time. The delay was a difficult period for both teams but any worries about Lancaster losing their focus for the game were soon dispelled as the local side started at an impressive pace and established a three goal lead thanks to goals from Scott Carpenter, Andy Squires and Colin Burgess. Lancaster continued to benefit from their superior all round team play as Rotherham struggled to break down a strong defensive back line. Even when they managed to created a goal scoring opportunity they found keeper Dave Bush back to his best. After half-time, Lancaster began to run away with it in what for a period of play became the Tom Curwen show as he bagged a personal tally of 6 goals.

The final quarter saw goals from Scott Carpenter and youngster James Wannop as Lancaster finished comprehensive winners by 15 goals to 4.

The victory gave Lancaster a 7th British Title, and establishes Lancaster joint top of the all-time list overtaking London Polytechnic’s previous total of 7 titles.

This was undoubtedly a team victory with significant contributions from all members of the squad over the two weekends of the qualifiers, semi final and final. The future continues to look bright for Lancaster with surely more titles still to come. Even with old war horse Rysz Detko in the squad, who at 47 surely became the oldest winner of a British Title, the average age of the squad was favourable compared to the other squads on show this weekend.

Semi-Finals

Lancaster 13 Portobello 7
Rotherham 13 Cheltenham 8

Final

Lancaster 15 Rotherham 4

Competition Statistics

British Championship Titles