ESSA National Semi Finals

On Wednesday afternoon, our U13 mixed water polo team took part in their ESSA National Semi Finals tournament, hosted here at Alleyn’s. The team were fully aware of the obstacles in front of them; a round robin tournament, four other very strong and successful teams, all of purely boys sides compared to our fully co-ed 50/50 girls/boys side, all competing for first place, to then progress through to the National Finals day next week with the other top five teams in the country.

The team were off to a great start beating Dulwich College 4-1, then continued to win their next two games against City of London (4-2) and Churcher’s College 5-2, including a timely and very needed hat-trick from Thomas Green in the second half to take it from 2-2 to 5-2!

It all fell on the last game of the tournament with a very organised and physical KCS Wimbledon (although interestingly, due to earlier results, the fight for first place came down to ourselves and City of London, who were eagerly waiting in the stands for the result). We had to draw or win to go through. At 3-2 down, a frantic scuffle in front of KCS’s goal ended in Thomas Green popping the ball out of danger and into the safe possession of Ben Pearse, who launched it into the goal with mere seconds to go, meaning we got the draw! The team are incredibly excited to be in their first National Final on Tuesday of next week, with the U13 girls final the day before, both in Northampton.