The Otter U19s went one better than last year finishing second in the 2015 National Age Group Championships. Otter beat Crawley 10-8 in the semi final, before loosing a tense battle with Manchester in the final 10-8. Captain Hannah Patchett, who is in the GB U19s squad for the 2015 World Championships in Mexico, was Otter's stop scorer for the weekend. Congratulations girls on a brilliant result.
The Otter U/19s have qualified in second place for this year's National Age Group Water Polo Championship Finals after strong preformances in the Girls' U/19 Qualification Group.
Otter drew with Liverpool 7 all. Lost to Manchester 4-11, posted the largest victory of the weekend with a 24-1 win over City of Leeds, and defeated Crawley 11-7.
It will be the same four finalists in the Girls' U/19 Championships as 12 months ago. Last years runners up Manchester progressed in first with Crawley third, and defending champions City of Liverpool fourth.
The Otter U/17s also qualified for the U/17 National Age Group finals. The seeding for the U/17s will come down to goal difference with Otter, City of Liverpool & Exeter all defeating each other to tie on two overall points.
The finals are being held in Manchester on the 25th & 26th April. Good luck girls.
Congrats to London Otters successful GB U17 coach Nick Buller, captain Izzy Dean, Mhairi Nurthen and Kathy Rogers who were celebrating in the south of France on Sunday after qualifying for this summer’s Baku 2015 European Games.
Great Britain was one of six countries that locked up their spots at the Baku 2015 European Games Under-17 women's Water Polo competition.
Hosts France went undefeated on 12 points to top Group A in Nice while Great Britain wound up battling Czech Republic for second place. Great Britain and the Czechs had tied 8-8 in the teams' second match of the tournament, meaning goal difference would decide second place if they finished even on points. That ended up being the case as France beat the Czechs 14-7 to leave Czech Republic with a +10 goal difference. Great Britain meanwhile rolled up a 30-0 victory over Switzerland on the last day to finish with a +52 goal difference - and a spot at Baku 2015. Otters Kathy Rogers, & Izzy Dean were amongst the top goal scorers for the GB side with 11 & 9 goals respectively.
France, Great Britain, Slovakia, Israel, Germany and Serbia will join the already qualified Greece, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Hungary and hosts Azerbaijan at the women's Baku 2015 tournament.
Group A Result:
Thursday, 12 March 2015: 18:00 Portugal 3-26 Great Britain
Friday, 13 March 2015: 10:15 Czech Republic 8-8 Great Britian & 19:15 France 13-12 Great Britian
Sunday, 15 March 2015: 09:00 Switzerland 0-30 Great Britian
Last week Otters Mhairi Nurthern, Kathy Rogers, Izzy Dean & Anna Szysko travelled to Germany with the GB Under 17 team for a training camp with SC Chemnitz & the German under 17s squad.
Good luck to Izzy, Mhairi& Kathy who have been selected to represent the GB U17s at a 4 nation tournament in Slovakia next week (5-8 March), and then at the qualification tournament for the Baku 2015 European Games 11-15 March) in Nice, France.
The GB U/17s are in Group A, along with Portugal, France, Switzerland & the Czech Republic. GB must finish first or second in the group to qualify for the European games. Best of luck girls.
Congrats to the Otters who represented London at the recent inter regional 98 age group competition in Walsall. The London team were runners up to North West A. Otter Mhairi Nurthen was voted the MVP for London.
The Otter first team has finished the 2014/2015 seasons in 4th place. It is the 5th consecutive top 4 finish for Otter, and sees the team qualify for the 2015 British Champs for the 5th year in a row. Peggy Etiebet, making her Otter come back after a year off playing professionally in Hungary was the teams top goal scorer for phase 2 with 15 goals.
This year saw a young Otter team travel to Imperia in Italy to take on 4 of the best professional teams Europe has to offer in the Women’s Euro League; Mediterranea Imperia (ITA), Plebiscito Padova (ITA), Utrecht ZSC (NED) & ZVK Mladost Zarreb (CRO).
Seven players made their European debut for Otter this year including five members of the Championship 1 winning Otter Lutra team, who were playing with the 1st team for the first time. 8 different Otters scored over the 4 games, lead by Emma & Lex with 5 goals each.
A huge thank you to Paul Hindle, Chris Eden & Otter SC for making the trip possible.
Otter Lutra retained their women's Championship 1 title at Matlock, edging out main rivals Leeds Sharks 9-8 in a winner-takes-all clash. Otter led 3-2, 7-4 and 8-5 in the first three quarters. But in a tense final period, Leeds caught up to 9-8 - and then failed to convert a man-up chance in the final minute.
Otter went through the championship 1 season undefeated for the second year in a row, to defend their title & claim win the league for the second year running.
Mhairi Nurthen made her reffing debut at Basingstoke on the 22 November. Mhairi was teamed up with international referee Brian Littlejohn, to take charge of Championnship 2 games between City of Birmingham and Polytechnic, & Polytechnic and Southampton. At 16 Mhairi is the youngest referee officiating in the league. The BWPL relies on volunteer referees & officials so it is great to see one of the young Otters stepping up. Keep up the good work Mhairi. If you are interested in helping out as either a volunteer table official or referee in 2015 please speak to Lex Higlett.
Otter Peggy Etiebet recently organized a training camp for the GB U17 Girls in Szentes as part of their preparation for the Baku European Olympics 2015. Four other Otters, Mhari Nuthern, Kathy Rogers and Izzy Dean - who was team Captain for the tour were selected for the trip with Nick Buller as head coach. Peggy went along as team manager - her first overseas trip as a team manager.
