Harrogate Ladies Waterpolo Recent Events
European Youth Waterpolo Championships
Congratulations to Lindsey, Rachel D and Fran, who were selected for the GB squad that travelled to Crete on the 2nd August 2007 to compete in the European Youth Waterpolo Championships. Drawn in Group D with Hungary and Greece, it was a tough start to their tournament, but the GB squad did themselves proud and finished 9th overall. Well done to everyone.
Harrogate Goes Greek
Eleven players, plus Joan and Harry, made the trip to Thessaloniki in Northern Greece on the 19th April. We were the guests of the Hercules Club and stayed at the Apollo Sports Hotel, where we were extremely well provided for, in terms of accommodation, food, friendliness and transport.
We had two pool sessions a day for five days with an “official” match against Hercules on Sunday morning. Each of the sessions consisted of about 30 minutes swimming and then match play. Visit the hotel's website
We arrived and went to the first session with most of the team being very tired after an early start that morning and long journey. Four of the team had also been to Millfield and/or Portugal in the previous two weeks with the GBJ squad. Our first match session consisted of players who were travel weary, very tired and generally confused. It was very funny, and eventually we gave up and just enjoyed the session as a fun occasion. This was appreciated by our host, who thought we might play better with some rest!
The next day was a little different! After some tactical discussions and the team talk, we all started to play with great determination. Everyone was positive and wanted to play well. Our hosts seemed a little shocked at the improvement and the game started to take on a new significance and got a little rough. The club president suggested to both coaches that we all calmed down, which was agreed.
The Hercules club have a super group of young players, with at least three who should be included in the Greek Junior European squad. They also have seven 1991 national squad members. They are backed up by three paid coaches. One of them is the goalkeeping coach, who played for the Greek senior team and played against us. She was fantastic and made things very difficult for our team.
All of the sessions were very close and they were surprised by our teams strength and speed. In the Saturday session we played for about 1½ hours and the score was 19-12 to us.
The official match took place outside in the 50m pool, in bright sunshine. They had 22 in their squad and had used them all the previous day. In this game they used only three substitutes, which was a compliment to our team. We started off by going three goals down and found it very hard to score. Their man-up play was excellent and they scored off nearly all of them. The score was 6-4 at half time and then went 10-5 to Hercules at the end of the third session. Hercules had only three exclusions up to this point and we had had plenty!!!! It was clear at the start of the last period that our superior fitness and speed was telling and we started to claw the deficit back. We got to 10-10, then to 11-11 and eventually lost 12-11. This was a fitting score, but it gave our hosts a fright.
Hercules could be playing in the Greek first division next year and it was good to feel that we could hold our own against such opposition. We wish them well in the future. The tour was really enjoyable, with plenty of sun, great food, sun, waterpolo, sun, shopping, and did I mention sun? Thanks to all the squad for making it so much fun and for making so many more memories for Joan and I. Thanks also to Chris for the organisation and the parents for their support, I'm still wearing it!
