LEN EUROPEAN MASTERS CHAMPIONSHIPS THIS WEEK!

After a whole lot of faffing it is finally time for the LEN European Masters Championships here in London! The competition kicks off bright and early on Wednesday morning with the 200IM, and promises to be a massive week of swimming. Good luck to all of the Otters competing. And remember: Dive like Craig, streamline like Wade, turn like Gina, FFS spot your finishes & above all else have fun like Jess.

Schedule and start lists can be found here

Access to training for swimmers competing at the Championships is available from 12 noon till 20:00 on Monday the 23rd May and from 08:00 till 20:00 on Tuesday 24th May. This will be managed with a limit of 200 in pool 1 at any one time and 160 in pool 2 at any one time. 

Reminder that all athletes swimming in the 400m & 800m Freestyle must reconfirm their intention to race by 18:00 the day prior to the race. This can be done online or at a terminal located at the Sport Info desk.

And what would a masters event be without the social events? Organised by the lovely Gina Hobson, the welcome social event for the GB Masters swimmers will be held at The Royal Inn on the Park pub (111 Lauriston Road, E9 7HJ, overlooking Victoria Park) from 5-10.30pm on Tuesday 24th May. More information about the event & tickets can be found here.  And once you've finished your swims on Sunday 29th come on down and celebrate of a successful week of racing (& make the most of the Bank holiday which follows.) More info on tickets for that one here.

LETS GO OTTER! 

 

 

 

 

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. 

 

 

Norfolk County ASA Open Masters

A small team of Otters travelled to UEA this weekend to compete in the Norfolk County ASA Open Masters & to see if the University of Ben, Babies, Bondy & Hayley was everything it was cracked up to be.  (It was.)

The team picked up a total of 30 medals at the meet, 18 Gold, 9 Silver & 3 Bronze. The times weren't all fast. But it was great to get some last minute Long Course race practice in before the European Masters Championships in London later this month. Thank you Norfolk County for hosting the competition & having us. 

Otters Michelle, Nico, Gina, Hannah, Olivia, Ben & Ollie. 

Otters Michelle, Nico, Gina, Hannah, Olivia, Ben & Ollie. 

Full results from the meet can be found here.

 

 

 

London Masters Training Camp in Tenerife

Back in early April 16 Otters & Otter Head Coach Steve Bratt travelled to the wonderfully warm & sunny Tenerife Top Training T3 Centre for the London Swimming Masters training camp. 

The 7 day camp was jammed packed with training to get us in the best possible shape for Europeans - 2 x 2 hour water training sessions, 2 x 1 hour land training sessions & 2 x 30minute stretching sessions each day. There were also optional open water swims, spinning classes, pilates, a session each in the flume with analysis of our stroke & video sessions. (And in true masters style plenty of sun baking time at the hotel pool, much needed massages from Peitro & Max at T3 & a decent amount of food and Gin.)

Massive thanks to Steve Folsom for organising the camp and to the coaching staff Steve Bratt, Craid Keller,  Petra Paulínyová & Sue Croft. We had a blast. 

Otter swimmers: Nico Barber, Catherine Demont, Dontony Gill-Nasadi, Fliss Hannon, Lex Higlett, Gina Hobson, Laure Kearns, Maddie Parra, Olivia Reynolds, Wade Rimbach, Josh Cambrook, Youri Schwartz, Mich Seneval, Emma Shkurka, Tohn Talbott &…

Otter swimmers: Nico Barber, Catherine Demont, Dontony Gill-Nasadi, Fliss Hannon, Lex Higlett, Gina Hobson, Laure Kearns, Maddie Parra, Olivia Reynolds, Wade Rimbach, Josh Cambrook, Youri Schwartz, Mich Seneval, Emma Shkurka, Tohn Talbott & Camille Vrain & Head Coach Steve Bratt with the rest of the London Swimmers at the 2016 London Swimming Masters Training Camp. 

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.