Water Polo: Great Britain vs Israel, European Championship Qualifier

Yestereve I was privileged to be the guest of British Swimming at an International Women's Water Polo European Championships qualifying match between Great Britain & Israel.

Being mid-Water Polo Challenge I couldn't resist the offer and when the venue changed from Liverpool to Loughborough a 10 hour round trip was halved to make it even more appealing.

Lauren Sanderson of GB Water Polo kindly offered me the ticket and was the perfect host; meeting me at the busy entrance and even sitting with me during the game - while she multi-tasked and wrote notes for her own report on the match on her laptop, poolside.

I heard that Israel hadn't played Women's International Water Polo since 2004 and when one of the GB girls announced she was confident of a 10 point-clear-win I wondered whether the Israeli team had secretly been mastering this aqua sport from behind closed doors for years - would Team GB be eating those words?

Team's GB & Israel line up for the National Anthems

The tie 'kicked off'' with a storm of activity as both teams raced towards the ball in the centre of the pool which looked to have been held there by a bucket on a wire rope.

Nerves then appeared to take the better of them but in hindsight it just seemed like the home team were trying to suss their opponents out.

Once Team GB opened the scoring the floodgates opened and poor Israel looked to be shocked by the ferocity of the home nations play.

Water Polo is not like Netball in a pool. Water Polo is more like American Football meets Cage Fighting, meets Sprint Swimming - its fast, furious and not for the feint hearted.

In goes Goal No.4!

By the end of the first quarter GB were 6-0 up, and the visitors had yet to score.

Beckie Kershaw opened the scoring in the 2nd quarter, just as she had done in the first!

In flew goals 8, 9 and 10 - Israel looked like a group of friends on holiday that hadn't bargained for the feisty British locals in the pool.

By half time the hosts lead 13-0, but they were in no mood to settle for anything less than utter domination - almost as soon as the whistle had signalled the 3rd quarter GBs aggressive start saw a hand in the face of an Israeli and another goal.

4 more goals in the 3rd quarter yet the flow was slowing down, had Israel finally got to grips with organising their defense?

No! GB flew in 8 goals in the final quarter, including a bouncer for the 25th but unbelievably a lapse in concentration saw Israel regain a minimum of pride with a breakaway goal in the final second of the match!

This European Championship Qualifier ended: Great Britain 26 - Israel 1.

Robyn Nicholls was immense in goal for our girls - organising the defense and spearheading a large amount of the attacks.

At the end, in true British understatement Fiona McCann said, 'It was a relief'.

Bless you and your humble ways Fiona - it was a Demolition!

Members of Team GB get to meet a fat lad with a beard.

Find out more about the GB Water Polo Team here.


The Water Polo Challenge continues...

Fresh Legs

First things first...

Happy New Year!

I hope you're all well and the fatlad with the white beard and dodgy red outfit didn't just eat your mince pie and neck the brandy you left him but actually left you some of the gifts you'd asked for too.

I've been quiet of late, apologies for that - I promise I'll be updating you regularly on here, on Twitter ( @EveryOlympian ) and on Facebook (Search The Everyman Olympics) from here on!

Just so you know I've not given up, here's how my December panned out:

Early in the month I tried to get The Fencing Challenge up and running; Karim of Catch Sport was kind enough to supply me with some contacts - he's a former International Fencer himself and runs a great company that aids athletes in gaining financial support, so he's very well connected.

Unfortunately I didn't hear back from the Fencing contacts, and with time ticking by I put the feelers out for The Football Challenge.

A wonderful lady who called Una, who it turns out trains people in the South West to do Synchronised Swimming, suggested I contact the local Football Association (FA) representatives who could provide me with contacts for local teams.

Though as I sent out a cartload of emails to cover the areas I'd be traveling to during the coming weeks, bad weather arrived in the UK and snow began to be forecast - even Premiership football matches began to get cancelled and those stadiums have heated pitches...it wasn't looking good!

Disaster struck care of yours truly when at my works Christmas Party I got coaxed into drinking games - before I knew it I was running around a broom 3 times before trying to catch a colleague to tag for their turn when I drunkenly ran knee-first into a solid wooden chair.

The resulting lump on my kneecap put me out on the sidelines for the remainder of 2010.

I snapped out of the Christmas eating binge around the 28th December and tentatively entered a gym in Northamptonshire to begin testing my knee on the treadmill...

Thankfully I survived the treadmill test, and the cross trainer, and the exercise bike - I was back in the game!


Yes, yes, I know I owe you write-ups for The Decathlon Challenge, The Table Tennis Challenge & The Swimming Challenge  - I'm currently going back over my notes and will have them out shortly...I've just become distracted with The Water Polo Challenge!!!