OUWPC Oxford University Water Polo Club - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Title: OUWPC Oxford University Water Polo Club


1
OUWPCOxford University Water Polo Club
Men and Women Storm Through To BUSA Semi-Finals
Oxford Men began their campaign in the BUSA
Shield with a professional performance against a
weak Surrey team. Despite early doubts about the
number of Surrey players with Greek-sounding
names, it quickly became apparent that the Blues
were the superior team, with goals from Russell
Woolley, Gareth Davies and Matt Fox putting
Oxford comfortably 10-0 ahead at the end of the
first half. Surrey were having major problems
breaking down a stubborn Blues defence, but
gained a huge slice of luck in the early moments
of the second half when Oxford new boy Will
Herbert was wrapped up for brutality, after
kicking out above the waterline. Faced with four
minutes of man-down play, Oxford were shaken, but
Surrey still did not threaten the Oxford goal
with any conviction, all was going well until a
Surrey shot went in from the left wing and was
seemingly deflected clear by Oxford keeper Keith
Stanski, until ex-captain Steve Harrison bundled
the ball into his own goal, to the bemusement of
his team-mates and the crowd. However it was put
down to kindness, giving Surry their only goal of
the game! The result, a convincing 12-1 win for
the Blues. The Blues, inspired by the score
line, repeated the result winning 12-1 against
Warwick B. Having seen Oxfords counter attacking
prowess, Warwick employed an unusual tactic of
not bothering to come up in attack in order to
prevent the counter! After a slow start, the
Blues eventually converted some chances giving a
5-0 score at half time. The dominance continued
in the second half, with fresher Tom Ricketts
finishing nicely and Will Herbert adding to his
tally. At 8-0 up, captain Rich Thomson made a
change of dubious tactical merit, to bring out
the goalie and get him on the score sheet, with
Steve Harrison taking over as goalkeeper, Keith
Stanski made a single swim to the attacking end,
and buried a shot past the hapless Warwick goalie
with his first touch of the ball. Maybe the rest
of us should take some tips on finishing! With
Stinski on the side, the average-at-best
goalkeeping talents of Harrison were put to the
test. Sure enough, after scoring an own goal in
the last game, he was again responsible for
allowing in the second goal of the day, although
the defense may have had something to do with it
as well!! With Oxfords qualification for the
semi-finals almost in the bag, the Blues went
into the game against UCL needing only to draw to
progress. After a strong start by UCL, scoring a
few early goals, Oxford went ahead with goals
from Woolley, Matt Fox, and Gareth Davies and
finished the game 15-3 victors, securing their
place in the semi finals. The reigning BUSA
champions kicked off their title defence against
ULU. Oxford raced ahead in the opening quarter,
despite the significant presence of the ULU
centre-forward, who appeared to be on day-release
from the London Aquarium. Vice-captain Anne Hagen
handled her well, despite being at least half the
weight of her opposite number, and still had time
to score twice. Stephanie Lee picked up a couple,
one a quickly-taken free throw and the other
after a well-delivered pass from Hagen on
extra-player. Jess Radford was in the action too,
slotting home twice, first effortlessly from
distance and next after turning her defender at
centre-forward, to end a stunning opening quarter
6-1. The home side came out hard in the second
quarter and managed to snatch an early goal on
extra-player after Farrands was harshly
sin-binned by the referee. However Oxford were
soon back on track through a Radford double in
the same fashion as before. Oxfords player-down
defence was exposed again following another
dubious ejection, this time for Hagen, and ULU
scored their third to leave the score at 8-3 at
the half. The third quarter saw a ULU come-back
as Oxford relaxed their press defence, allowing
their opposition time to shoot, the dangerous
number 12 scoring two almost identical goals off
the left post. Radford initiated the Oxford
resurgence with a free-throw shot. The period
finished 11-7 after a counter-attack saw keeper
Paula Croxson save the first shot, but she could
only watch helplessly as the ULU attacker
smuggled in the rebound. Going into the last
quarter, ULU sniffed an opportunity and
bit-by-bit took advantage of Oxfords
complacency, scoring three from distance and one
from the penalty line. At 11-11, the ULU
contingent in the crowd was going wild,
especially after their team appeared to be dead
and buried. However, Tomkins stole a long pass
and drove up the pool, offloading to Radford who
made no mistake to seal a narrow win. At the
final hooter the Oxford coach was allegedly seen
clutching his chest in agony. Next up were
Cambridge, and Oxford was determined to lay down
the gauntlet for next terms Varsity Match.
Although Cambridge demonstrated some swimming
ability, it was without direction as the home
team raced to a 4-0 lead at the half, through
Farrands, finishing well twice after long swims,
and Hagen, matching the captain with two elegant
finishes. The Oxford coach was soon left tearing
out whats left of his hair as Cambridge were
allowed to take three undefended shots, with the
crowd crying out not again!. However, Oxford
regained their composure after some stern words
and after Lee was pulled back close to the
Cambridge goal, Hagen stepped up for the penalty
to make it 8-3. It was left to Radford, who had
been on defensive duties up to this point, to
steal the show as she made her mark on the game
with a half-way shot on the hooter, straight over
the keepers head. The visiting Birmingham team
were a different prospect, relying heavily on one
key player and resorting to a far more physical
style of play. The game opened scrappily with
neither team able to construct a solid attack.
However, Farrands broke the deadlock with another
trademark drive. Oxford continued to dominate in
the second half, despite the oppositions
aggressive attentions. Hagen picked up another
two in carbon-copy finishes right-side, and then
picked up a fourth from the opposite wing
following a sharp steal by Sarah Taylor. They
emerged 9-3 victors with their place in the semi
finals.
2
Blues Too Hot For Tabs
After five weeks and many hours of strenuous
training, combined with large amounts of team
bonding, none of which involved alcohol in any
form, for fear of incurring the wrath of the
Captain and gaining a large number of press-ups,
widths of fly, or swimming underwater, or some
harsh combination of the three, Cambridge
travelled to the Rosenblatt Pool at Iffley Road
in Oxford for the Varsity Match. The Dark Blues
had endured injuries, illnesses, and the threat
of full body shaving to get to this point, and
with results this season suggesting that the
match would be a tight one, were ready to battle
hard for the victory they felt they
deserved. With the atmosphere around the pool
tingling with anticipation, the game kicked off,
and both teams began nervously. With a number of
chances flying wide of the goal, or being saved
by the keeper, neither side wanted to be the
first to concede. With ninety seconds gone,
Oxford gained their first man-up, but after some
neat passing failed to convert. As the Dark
Blues turned to cover back in defence, they were
handed a reprieve, after an illegal entry by the
Cambridge player gifted them a second man-up.
Despite a seemingly golden opportunity, the
chance went begging, and after a third man-up was
squandered, Oxford were beginning to look
increasingly nervous, with some heroics from
keeper Keith Stanski keeping the Light Blues
out. With nearly six of the eight minutes over, a
clear cut chance was finally created, with
Vice-Captain Matt Fox catching the defence on the
counter and sprinting clear. Despite his shot
rebounding off the crossbar, Oxford were in luck,
the ball falling kindly to Steve Harrison ,who
placed the ball home to give Oxford the lead.
Barely thirty seconds later, Russell Woolley, in
his first Varsity, nailed a shot from distance to
open his account. Cambridge replied quickly,
coolly scoring a man-up after Harrison was
majored whilst defending the pit, but with a
minute to go in the quarter, Oxford again found
themselves man-up after a clumsy challenge on the
arc, and this time Captain Rich Thomson found Gaz
Davies clear on the post to slam the ball home.
With more acrobatic goalkeeping from Stanski
keeping the Tabs at bay, Oxford found themselves
3-1 to the good at the end of the quarter, and
had visibly relaxed into the game. The second
quarter began in the same vein as the first, with
Oxford going man-up quickly, and Woolley
converting the chance from the wing. Another
man-up goal from Woolley followed, and the Dark
Blues were looking dangerous on every attack,
while Cambridge were struggling to find a way
past Stanksi, as shots crashed back off the
woodwork or were deflected away by his ape-like
arms. However, as the Light Blues pressed
forward, a chance was created on the strong
driving position, and the Cambridge No. 9 made no
mistake with the shot, pulling it back to 5-2. A
period of scrappy play ensued, and when Fox was
ejected from pit defence, the No. 9 slotted home
again, with a Light Blue revival gaining
momentum. The initiative was snatched back when
Oxford again found themselves a man to the good,
Thomson placing an inch-perfect pass to Harrison
on the post, who nailed home a textbook post
goal. After a Cambridge timeout, and a missed
man-up opportunity for Cambridge after Davies was
ejected, the Dark Blues were handed a boost when
the Cambridge No. 9 was wrapped up after his
third major foul. Despite missing the chance,
and conceding a goal on the counter, Woolley took
his tally to four with a goal from the pit, the
first half ending with Oxford 7-4 up. The third
quarter began with a moment of controversy, with
Davies and his defender being simultaneously
expelled for some rough play in the pit. With
Davies now on two majors, a further slip-up would
cost the Dark Blues one of their key players.
The Oxford lead was extended again, as Harrison
found himself clean through on a counter attack,
and scored a neat one on zero at the near post.
The game was still peppered with patches of
scrappy play, and with just over half of the
quarter gone fresher Will Herbert marked his
first Varsity Match by giving away a penalty with
a clumsy challenge inside five metres while
trying to catch a counter attack. Fortunately
for him, his blushes were saved when Stanski
continued his incredible form to block the shot,
and when Woolley scored another goal from
distance on the resulting attack, it seemed that
it might be the Dark Blues day. There was
another twist in the tale, as Herbert was ejected
for the second time in a minute, and Cambridge
converted a goal from the weak wing, taking
advantage of a poor post block from Harrison.
With the Dark Blues suddenly struggling for
goals, Cambridge pulled another goal back,
leaving the game finely poised at 9-6 at the end
of the quarter. With Thomsons rallying call
ringing in their ears, Oxford kicked off the
final quarter looking to kill off the game early
on. It started well, with Herbert atoning for
his expulsions in the previous quarter to slot
home a one on zero at the near post after a
fifteen metre drive. Cambridge were not going to
give up without a fight, and cut the difference
to three with another well-worked goal. After
the Dark Blues missed three man-up goals in a
row, the nerves were beginning to show, with the
crowd becoming increasingly restless. When Fox
scored a crucial goal with just under half the
quarter gone, the crowd relaxed, and with the
next change of possession, Captain Thomson called
a timeout to compose his troops. With under four
minutes on the clock and four goals advantage,
the game was Oxfords to lose, and when Thomson
scored his first of the game from the resulting
attack, the victory was assured. There was still
time for Herbert to earn his third ejection of
the game, Woolley to score his sixth, and
Cambridge to pull one final goal back, before
committing the last of their fourteen majors with
ten seconds on the clock. As the clock ticked to
zero, the crowd went wild, as Oxford men secured
their first Varsity victory in the Rosenblatt
Pool, and put the memories of the previous years
behind them. The game finished 13-8.
3
The reigning Varsity champions took on the
visiting Tabs at the Rosenblatt Swimming Pool,
billed as massive favourites. However, Cambridge
passion coupled with some nervousness in the
Oxford camp meant that the visitors took the
lead, late in the first quarter, despite three
extra-player opportunities for the home side,
Rachael Mell squeezing one in from
centre-forward. But it was only a minute before
Oxford equalized, with Jess Radford reciprocating
at the other end, as they started to find some
shape and composure in attack. The second
quarter was all Oxford as Cambridge could no
longer hold off the inevitable goal-rush. Radford
added four more from various positions, with
captain Becky Farrands and vice-captain Anne
Hagen weighing in with one each to support the
Australian centre-forward. Goalkeeper Paula
Croxson pulled off a great penalty save at the
other end in the midst of the Dark Blues scoring
frenzy after some confusion with her sin-binned
team-mate resulted in the five-metre shot. A
consolation Cambridge goal, half-way through the
period, did little to ease the pressure and
Oxfords fearsome counter-attack was just too
strong.
Four more goals in the third quarter meant it was
all over at that point. Radford and Hagen each
picked up a goal for themselves and discovery of
the season, Sally Bullock, picked up a brace
after some play-making by Radford down the left.
The light blues picked up a solitary score on
extra-player after the Oxford captain was
excluded for a foul on the centre-forward. Farran
ds and Radford tied up the match with one each in
the final quarter, matching the two Cambridge
goals scored and the final result of 13-5 was an
emphatic demonstration of the destructive
capabilities the home side possessed and the
strength and depth in the squad, with every one
of the 13 players contributing in the water to
the win. Scorers- Oxford - Radford 7,
Farrands 2, Hagen 2, Bullock 2
Cambridge Mell 1, Ermgassen 1, Etiebet 2,
Riley 1
Boys On Tour
On the weekend of the 10th and 11th of December
the men's team made the short 260 miles trip to
beautiful Newcastle-on-Tyne for an invitational
tournament. Hopes were high that the 9 man team
could put in some good performances and overcome
the loss of some key players. Despite early
worries about the amount of time this trip might
take, Gaz' driving proved to be a lot quicker
than anyone could have envisaged, and we arrived
in good time, if slightly shaken. The journey up
was to prove mildly entertaining, with Gaz
employing the "how many spaces can I take up with
one bus?" approach to parking (the answer is
apparently six, although we were hoping for eight
at one stage) at our service station stop, then
using the now infamous "I'm bigger than everyone
else so can park where I like" technique during
our brief visit to the Angel of the North (by
simply pulling onto the verge on the edge of a
busy dual carriageway). Although a number of the
team were seen and heard to question the legality
of the method, it seems that the Wild Welshman is
actually a trendsetter in the world of parking,
as shown by the large number of tourists who
followed his lead and pulled up onto the verge
behind us. The entertainment on the journey was
not quite done, after a short detour through a
council estate and a slight hint of worry as it
was discovered we weren't 100 certain where we
were or where we were going, we were cheered up
no end by Biscuit's 'turkey air guitar'
accompaniment to the Guns 'n' Roses classic Sweet
Child O' Mine, and then further by finding where
we were supposed to be heading. Arriving into the
centre of Newcastle with Al Pacino warmly
informing us that "we're in Hell right now,
gentlemen", all that was left was for us to find
the pool and park the van, which proved to be
fairly straightforward when Gaz tried the "I'm
bigger than everyone else, one-way streets do not
apply to me" approach, and found that it did
actually work. With a couple of
hours to kill, we set off into the heart of the
Toon to search for a missing member of the team,
who was found relatively quickly, and to try and
understand what the Geordie Big Issue salesmen
were on about, which I don't think we managed all
weekend. A quick bite to eat later we were set
fair for a return to the pool and our first game
of the tournament, against Sheffield Hallam. We
had not faced Hallam since 2003, when they
defeated us in the final of the BUSA Shield, and
as the only member of the team who was present on
both that fateful day in Nottingham and this
slightly less fateful day in Newcastle, Steej
Harrison was keen to put in a good performance
and silence the demons that haunted him still.
The rest of the team just wanted to win because
they don't like losing very much. A swift
assessment of the Hallam team left us feeling
mildly confident - their team resembled a prop
forward convention, and they had clearly come
here for the drinking first and the water polo
second. Despite playing in a shallow-deep pool
for the first time this year the Blues made a
competent start. After conceding an early goal,
Steve Harrison equalised in the shallow goal
bouncing under the arms of the Hallam 'keeper.
Sheffield were proving to be fairly physical, and
had some strong shooters from the top of the arc,
and after conceding a couple more goals to these
types of shots from distance, Oxford vice-Captain
Matt Fox atoned for an earlier miss with a
confident finish from the weak side driving
position to leave the Blues 3-2 down at
half-time, and now attacking the deep end.
4
The second half began in superb style for Oxford,
with Fox and Harrison combining to score an early
contender for goal of the season. After Fox
peeled out to the right wing and received the
pass from 'keeper Keith Stanski, he spotted
Harrison's drive to the left post and placed a
wonderful inch-perfect pass over the heads of the
two chasing defenders, and Harrison buried a
first-time shot into the top corner past the
helpless Hallam goalie. Having equalised Oxford
were buoyed into further action, and top scorer
Russell Woolley quickly got in on the action with
a couple of excellent goals from distance.
Captain Rich Thomson also grabbed a goal from a
one on zero, much to the surprise of his team
mates. Oxford managed to end the half with a
clean sheet, with 'keeper Keith Stanski on top
form and saving his defenders blushes on a number
of occasions, and leaving the Blues victors by 8
goals to 3. With the match between the other two
men's teams ending with ULU beating Newcastle by
four goals, Oxford ended the day on top of the
group, and looking forward to the next day's
games. Before all that was the evenings
entertainment, and after dumping the minibus
outside the house of Mr. Incredible, who was
apparently making a special appearance for
Newcastle during the tournament, we headed off
into the depths of Newcastle in search of beer,
music and intelligent female company. The first
was discovered readily enough, and after new man
Doug Jordan narrowly missed out on his 5-second
pint downing badge twice in a row, TJ was
challenged to a downing challenge by his opposite
number from Newcastle. With the weight advantage
obviously in favour of the home side, he would
have his work cut out to gain victory, and so it
proved, although we still believe he was robbed
of his victory after the referee was swayed by
partisan home support. Whatever the real result
had been, it was time for us to move on. It
didn't take long for us to arrive at our final
destination, the Student Union bar at Northumbria
University. It became apparent that this was
their Christmas celebration for the year, which
we had shamelessly gatecrashed with a bunch of
students who weren't even at Northumbria. This
was never going to be a barrier from us having a
good time, and we set about it with gusto,
despite early claims from Biscuit and Foxy that
they were going to "take it easy". After getting
a couple of beers in, Mr. Incredible found us and
announced that there was to be a boat race, and
we had to find five of our most courageous men to
brave this dangerous challenge. First pick
obviously went to TJ, who was going to compete
whether he liked it or not. Second pick was
current pint-downing record holder Steej. Doug
and Russell swiftly joined the team, and the last
place was taken, slightly reluctantly, by Gaz,
who, in his last boat race had cost his team
victory by taking an age to get a pint of
Guinness down. The rules were explained
(briefly, since everyone knows how a boat race
works), and Biscuit inadvertently found himself
buying the team five pints of Diesel with some
money he'd given to Gaz to "get a round in".
Although the team were initially nervous of this
scary sounding drink, a quick inspection
discovered that it was nothing but the Purple
Turtle mainstay Snakebite Black. With that doubt
sent packing the team lined up. The starter's
gun went off, and the other teams were left in
our wake. Steej and Doug reinforced their
position as the clubs premier pint downers with
storming performances, but then disaster struck.
Gaz was struggling, finding the fizzy purple
drink too much for his sensitive palate. With the
other teams catching up fast, drastic action was
needed, and was taken by Steej, as he poured the
remnants of the pint over the head of the stunned
Welshman. With Gaz left dripping in the corner,
TJ and Russell finished up quickly and Oxford
were victorious, much to the disappointment of
the other teams. Indeed, a certain England player
from ULU was heard berating his teammates. "How
could you lose to Oxford?!" Apparently quite
easily. The rest of the evening passed mostly
without incident, although some women dressed as
sheep did come and offer themselves to us in
return for some "votes", Biscuit ended his
eight-girl "crash and burn" sequence with one of
Santa's elves, and Gaz got drunk and slipped over
in some water wed given him earlier to sober him
up, but he'd earlier spilled on the floor, which
was the source of much amusement, until we
realised he was driving us home the next day.
After that, the only thing left was for us to
take our tops off and nearly get thrown out of
the club, which we duly did, and duly nearly
were. The morning broke with the Blues all
feeling slightly worse for wear (except Keith who
had sensibly avoided such silly behaviour), as we
struggled back to Newcastle's City Pool to
continue the tournament. The first match of the
day pitted the Blues against BUSA champions ULU.
Having been comprehensively beaten in last years
corresponding fixtures, we were hoping for a
better performance, and had the added distraction
of TJ's leopardskin thong, purchased that
lunchtime as an early Christmas present for our
youngest member. However, the Blues started badly
whilst defending the shallow end, conceding a
number of goals off the rebound and from the pit,
finding themselves 4-0 down at half time. Despite
the scoreline, Oxford were battling hard, and
competing well against some talented opposition.
Sure enough, Oxford finally scored, with Russell
Woolley getting his first goal of the day, and
although Oxford failed to pull back the
difference, goals from Rich Thomson, Matt Fox and
Woolley ensured that the scoreline was
competitive at 9-4.
5
With only one ladies game between that game and
the final game against Newcastle, we knew it was
going to be tough, although the thong had
survived ULU and was confidently paraded before
the game. This seemed to act as more of a spur
than a distraction to Newcastle as they started
strongly, with Mr. Incredible shrugging off his
hangover to score from just inside the halfway
line. Things never really improved, with the
Blues turning in one of their worst performances
of the season. Trailing 5-1 at half-time, with
the solitary goal coming from Matt Fox, the Blues
managed to pull it back to 5-4 through goals from
Rich Thomson and Gareth Davies on the counter
attack, but just as the game seemed within their
reach, Newcastle scored two quick goals, and the
Blues seemed to lose a little bit of verve. As
Newcastle pulled away, it suddenly seemed that
everything was difficult for Oxford, as they
struggled to even set up an attack. With fatigue
setting in, the Blues failed to trouble the
scorers again, losing 8-4, and ending the
tournament on an ill-deserved bad note, having
put in good performances against Hallam and ULU
but failing to carry this through to the final
game. The journey home was less eventful than
the journey up, with most of the team opting for
sleep instead of hilarious antics, although
Biscuit caused a great deal of amusement when,
after Russell had driven him across Newcastle to
the train station, he discovered he had left some
articles in the minibus back where they had
started. Two trips across Newcastle later, Mr.
Woolley was not a happy bunny, but we laughed. It
had been a fun weekend.
In The Next Issue
Isle of man report Gaz is given another bus to
play with and is re-released on the unsuspecting
Manx population. BUSA Semis Men Win BUSA
Shield