Ping Pong and a new Ladies Waterpolo Tradition

Otter women's water polo club celebrated the end of a successful 2015/16 season, testing their dexterity over ping pong duels at Bounce. A healthy dose of competition and strength among the teams saw balls flying, and friendships in tatters..but at the end of the day, a wonderful time was had by all. 

A proud new tradition was also inaugurated, with club colours being introduced at the event. For the first time in Otter's history, a women's blazer has been made, to be handed down through the Ladies Waterpolo Club Captains.  The Blazer was presented on Sunday to outgoing captain Lex Higlett (2012-2016). 

Lex was "very honoured to be the first Lady Otter Waterpolo player to wear the club colours" and was excited to think of all the talented committed Otters who will wear the jacket in years to come. Otter Swimming Club has such a rich history & so many great club traditions. It is great for Ladies polo, a newer part of the club, to start such a lovely tradition. Lex will hand the colours down to the next Ladies Waterpolo Captain, Tracey Allen, at the beginning of the 2016 / 2017 season. 

The 2017/17 National League commences in September. Both Otter teams are looking forward to the 'International break'  before kicking into pre-season training in August. We wish all of our GB and other representatives the best of luck with their preparations for their upcoming  training camps, selection & tournaments.

Big thanks to Kathy & Mhairi for organising Sunday. To Claudia for a most delicious homemade gluten free birthday cake. It was probably the best tasting gluten free cake ever eaten. Happy Birthday CLAUDIA!

 

 

Otters at the EU Nations Cup, Prague

4 Otters were in action last weekend at the EU Nations Cup Waterpolo Competition in Prague, Czech Republic: Holly Campbell representing Scotland, Hannah Patchett, Kathy Rogers & Lilly Turner representing England U/19s.

England’s U19 women saw off Switzerland in their final game to finish fifth in the competition.The English team, kicked off their campaign with group stage wins over Scotland (11-2) and Austria (22-6) on the opening day in Prague. A nail-biting one-goal defeat to Slovakia (9-10) on day two was followed by a second loss (4-12), this time to eventual winners South Africa, before the English girls finished on a high winning their fifth place playoff vs Switzerland (14-6).  All 13 English outfield players found the net at least once, Otter’s Hannah Patchett and Manchester’s Rosie Huck finishing top scorers for the English girls with nine goals each. Otters Kathy and Lilly were both impressive in front of goals with 8 & 4 goals respectively. The English girls will now continue their build-up for September’s European U19 Championships in the Netherlands.

The Scottish Women finished overcame Ireland 11-10 in penalty shoot out to finish 7th in Prague.  
The team had a tough first day going down to England (2-11) & South Africa (5-16), but bounced back to beat Austria (16-4) before going down vs Slovakia (17-4) to set up a dramatic 7th vs 8th playoff with Ireland. With the scores locked at 7all at the end of ordinary time, the game went to a penalty shootout, with Scotland edging ahead to win 11-10. 

BWPL Phase 1 fixtures announced

The British Waterpolo League Phase 1 Fixtures have been announced. The Otter Ladies who finished the 2015/16 season 2nd will be playing in the Women's first division again next year, but will have to wait until the last weekend of Phase 1 to play last years Champions Liverpool in a rematch of the 2016 British Championship final. Otter Lutra who will be hoping to reclaim the Championship 1 title again next season will kick off their campaign in September at Ponds Forge. 3 1/2 months till season Otters.

Otter Fixtures: 
3:20pm Saturday 1st October Otter v Caledonia @Gloucester
12:50pm Sunday 2nd October Otter v Leeds Sharks @Gloucester
2:15pm Saturday 29th October Otter v Coventry @Watford
7:15pm Saturday 29th October Otter v Hucknall @Watford
10:15am Sunday 30th October Otter v Sheffield Sharks @Watford
3pm Saturday 26th November  Otter v Manchester @Liverpool
12:40pm Sunday 27th November Otter v Liverpool Lizzards @Liverpool  

Lutra Fixtures: 
12:25pm Saturday 17th September Lutra v Tyldesley @Ponds Forge
18:15pm Saturday 17th September Lutra v Liverpool Water Beatles @Ponds Forge
1:15pm Saturday 18th September Lutra v Manchester Comets @Ponds Forge
2pm Saturday 5th November Lutra v Welsh Wanderers @Plymouth
1.45pm Sunday 6th November Lutra v Penguin Emperors @Plymouth
4.45pm Saturday 26th November Lutra v Devonport @Northampton
1.45pm Sunday 27th November Lutra v Mid Sussex Marlins @Northampton

Full schedule can be found here & on the BWPL website. 

Otter Ladies remain undefeated in London

The Otter Ladies social team won all 3 of their games last night at Whitgift to remain undefeated in Division 1 of the London League after 2 rounds of play. The team shared playing time & goals around with everyone getting on the scorecard on the way to wins vs Mid Sussex Marlins 6-2, Basingstoke 8-1 & Penguin 7-4. The league now has a 1 month break, before the final round of games are played on Sunday 10th of July.  

Hannah, Kathy & Lily selected for England '97s

Congratulations to Otters Hannah, Kathy & Lily who have been selected in the England 1997 women's squad to compete at next month's EU Nations Cup in Prague:

The 15-strong team depart for Prague on the 16th June where they will compete against the Czech Republic, South Africa, Slovakia, Israel, Switzerland, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Austria.

The tournament (17th-19th June) will take place at the city's largest swimming centre, the outdoor Podoli Swimming Pool Complex, which is located by the Vltava River and is a 10-minute tram ride south of the city centre.

Prior to the competition, the England squad will meet for a one-day training camp in Northampton on 28th May, followed by an intensive weekend camp on 11th/12th June in Manchester. 

The squad is: Hannah Patchett - Otter, Kathy Rogers - Otter, Lily Turner - Otter, Izzy Howe - Manchester, Rosie Huck - Manchester, Steph Whittaker - Manchester, Anya Clapperton - Manchester, Becky Lee - Manchester, Kate Read - Liverpool, Beth Bolton - Liverpool, Verity McCoy - Liverpool, Hayley Price - Tyldesley/Liverpool, Milly Wordley - Exeter, Katy Cutler - Basingstoke/Exeter & Robyn Greenslade - Devonport. 

Otter 2nd at British Champs

Congratulations to Otter who are runners up at the 2016 @BritishWPC women's champions after an exciting 8-5 final vs City of Liverpool this weekend.

Otter finished the BWPL season in 2nd place so went into the Championships ranked 2nd & were drawn to play 3rd ranked Coventry in the 1st semi final on Saturday. It was a tightly fought match with only a goal or two between the teams. But Otter held tight to win 10-9 & progress to the final. Top ranked Liverpool steamrolled 4th placed Caledonia in the other semi final 20-2.

Sundays final vs Liverpool was played without coach Nick Buller on the bench, as he had received a red card in the semi final the day before. Liverpool jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first quarter, before a big penalty save from Otter goalie Tracey Allen really got Otter going. Lizzie Dunn scored from the outside in extra to take the score to 3-1 before Liverpool pegged one back 4-1. Otter then stepped up their defence, frustrating Liverpools attack & holding Liverpool scoreless. Sharp shooters Claudia Ferrone & Brooke Tafazolli found the the back of the net for Otter with outside shots in extra, & youngster Lily Turner scored a long range lob that beat the buzzer & England goal keeper Rosie Morris to take the game to 4-4. Liverpool struck back to take the lead 5-4, but Otter answered straight away with a sweet CF goal from Kathy Rogers off a lovely cross pass to level the score 5 all going into the final break. It was tense end to end play for much of the 4th quarter, before Liverpool got a decisive steal on extra man for a 1 on none counter to take the lead again 6-5. A penalty call against Otter extended Liverpools lead 7-5, before Liverpool scored off the drive to take the game 8-5. 

Massive congratulations to the Otter team who showed a lot of fight & determination in a tough game & congratulation to Liverpool. Next season should be a good one!

Final rankings Liverpool 1st, Otter 2nd, Coventry 3rd, Caledonia 4th. 

BWPL to live stream British Championships

The Otter Ladies Waterpolo team will be competing in British Championships this weekend at Gloucester. The team finished the British National League in 2nd place this year and are now looking to go one better & win the title.
 
Otter's first game of the weekend is at 2:30pm on Saturday Vs Coventry. 
The team will then play in either the Gold Medal match on Sunday @ 12:30pm or the Bronze medal match @9:30am.

While we'd love for you to come out and support the team in Gloucester, we also understand that most of the club are based in London, not Gloucester. But never fear.... For the first time ALL games will be streamed on the BWPL website. http://www.bwpl.org/
 
Further information about the weekend & live streams of the games can be found by going to https://twitter.com/BritishWPC or by following @BritishWPC.  
In advance of the event and in an attempt to generate as much publicity and promote the sport as much as possible we'd be grateful if you would circulate, like, and/or follow the following pages of the teams competing in the event. 
 
Much appreciated
The Otter Ladies Waterpolo team. 

Otter Ladies lead the London League Div 1

Otter ladies kicked off their defence of the Division 1 London Summer League title at Whitgift school last night winning all 3 of their matches.

The Otter team, which is a social team made up from a mix of the Otter 1st, Lutra & NAG junior team kicked off their campaign in style with a 14-0 win against West London Penguin. Before beating Mid Sussex Marlins 5-3 and Basingstoke 13-8. The 4 teams will face each other again on Sunday 22nd May & then again on Sunday 10th July. 

Massive thanks to super Otter supporter Daryl Nurthen who did the table for most of the night & helped set up the pitch too. Cheers Daryl. We think you're ace. 

 

 

Otter secure historic victory in Girls’ U19 final

London Otter secured an historic victory over City of Liverpool to claim the Girls’ U19 title at the ASA National Age Group Water Polo Championships 2016 in Manchester.
Liverpool went into the game unbeaten, but with the score tied at 7-7 at half-time, Otter took the game by the scruff of the next in the second half of the game, ultimately running out 13-8 (5-3, 2-4, 2-0, 4-1) winners. “We wanted to go out and hit them hard because we know if we play together, we’ll play well,” – Otter captain Mhairi Nurthen.
With their victory, London Otter became just the third side to ever lift the national U19 crown, with North West giants City of Manchester and City of Liverpool the only other winners since the inaugural Championship in 2004. But Otter captain Mhairi Nurthen, who top-scored in the final with five goals, insisted her side were confident they could write their names onto the trophy, having won the U15 and U17 titles as a squad in recent seasons.
“We’d never won an U19s but the same team and the same group of players have won the Academy and Youth, and now Juniors as well,” said Nurthen. “I’m ecstatic because we played so well today and it was such a close game. We just came in at half-time and at the end of the third quarter and collectively pulled ourselves together and thought as if it’s 0-0. Otter raced out of the blocks with three goals in the first three minutes, courtesy of Nurthen, Isobel Dean and Cecily Turner. Liverpool, who won bronze 12 months ago, were never going to be a pushover and fought back with two goals from Lucy Shaw and one from Molly Boniface-Ashton, but further goals from Helena Phillips and Anna Szyszko kept Otter 5-3 in front at the first break.
While Shaw completed her hat-trick early in the second quarter, second goals for Nurthen and Turner put Otter 7-4 up and seemingly in control of the tie. But Liverpool’s Grace Rowland had other ideas, and pulled her side level with a three-minute hat-trick, squeezing a bounce shot home, converting from Verity McCoy’s pass over the top of the Otter defence, then hammering home a penalty. A tense third quarter followed with man-ups going begging for both sides, but it was Otter who pushed 9-7 ahead with goals from Nurthen and Kathy Rogers. Liverpool fought hard to recover in the final quarter with Hayley Price pulling off a reaction save to a deflected shot, then Shaw bagging her fourth of the game with an outrageous lob as she back-tracked towards the half-way line. But 9-8 was the closest the North East side would get to their opponents in the fourth quarter as two goals apiece from Nurthen and Dean put the result beyond doubt.
All results from the weekend of competition can be found here. Last year’s champions City of Manchester won a thrilling game against Mid Sussex Marlins to land bronze. The Marlins led for much of the game but Manchester recovered in the second half before powering clear for a 15-11 win.

Otter U/17s 4th in THE NATION

It was tough weekend for the Otter U/17s at the National Age Group U/17s Waterpolo Finals in Manchester this weekend. 

Saturday saw defending champions Otter take on Exeter in an extremely tense semi final. With the scores locked at 11 goals each at the final whistle the teams played extra time before the Exeter side managed to overcome Otter, on penalties. The game finished with a final score of 17-16, and after playing brilliantly and putting up a valient fight Otter was relegated to Sundays bronze medal match vs Rotherham. 

Congrats to all of the Otter players on playing so well, and fighting so hard this weekend. We're incredibly proud of you all. 

Congrats also to Rotherham Metro who won the Girls’ U17 bronze medal, defeating last years Champions Otter 5-2. In the final City of Manchester held off a resolute Exeter side to lift the Girls’ U17 title at the ASA National Age Group Water Polo Championships 2016.