Harrogate Ladies Waterpolo Our History
Harrogate Ladies team was created in 2001 as an amalgam of three teams, Harrogate, Ripon and Bedale. We were based at the Harrogate Army Apprentices College at Harrogate and the first team was due to play in Millfield in the week that the 9/11 disaster took place. Because of this, all of the girl players who were in the Army could not attend as they were locked in College as a security measure. That first weekend took place with only five players and consequently all the points were lost. Not a great start to a new team. The first five players were Judi Clayton, Charlotte Hanson, Gemma Priestley and Kirsten and Lindsey Hart. In 2001 the team finished ninth in Division 3, but Charlotte was included in the GB Youth squad and Gemma eventually became part of the squad also.
The following year new recruits were gathered from other teams, mainly in the North East of England and there was a considerable improvement to 5th in the league. The average age in this year was 14.2 years! Fran Clayton scored her first goal for the team at the age of 10 years and is still the youngest goal scorer in the leagues history.
2003 was a monumental year when the team won the third division title and were promoted to the Division 2. The team now included players from Sunderland, Durham, Doncaster and Jenny Myo from South Wales. Unfortunately Charlotte left us to join Penguin in Division 1, but we were very confident of success with the team members gaining a vast amount of experience. Average age now about 16!
2004 was another special year when we won the second division title at the first attempt on goal difference from Tisbury. Promoted to Division 1.
2005, the first division. This was a tough year for a young team and we lost Kim Hills through illness, Anna Richardson took a year out and Jenny left us to further her career at Manchester. After some great matches with Solihull, Haywards Heath and Coventry, we eventually returned to the second division.
2006 proved to be a very good year in the second division. Finishing runners up at the end of the season, we went on to win the play-offs and we were promoted to Division 1.