Men’s Water Polo
07/11/10
Lancaster University – 15
Manchester 2nds – 5
The first opponent for Lancaster’s Men’s Water Polo team was a tricky tie against Manchester 2nds. The match got off to a very slow start, with Manchester scoring first and Lancaster levelling up shortly after to make the score at the end of the first quarter 1-1.
In the second quarter, Lancaster began to pull away, with four goals from Decland Ellwood and one goal from Ben Jennings, ending the quarter 5-1. In the third quarter, Lancaster managed to increase their lead further, winning the quarter 4-3, making the score 9-4, with goals coming from Matt Byrne, Steven Moulton, Alasdair Grubb and Ellwood.
Going into the last quarter, Manchester seemed defeated. Lancaster scored six goals, with Jake Thornton, Dan Korcz and Andy Greaves putting their names on the score sheet. This made the final score 15-5 to Lancaster, which was a good result for the team in their first game of this year’s u-polo league.
Lancaster Goal Scorers: Decland Ellwood (7), Andrew Greaves (2), Matt Byrne (1), Jake Thornton (1), Dan Korcz (1), Ben Jennings (1), Steven Moulton (1), Alasdair Grubb (1).
14/11/10
Lancaster University – 16
Liverpool – 14
This game was the second in the u-polo league, with opponents coming from Liverpool University. The match got off to a very good start, with Shuichiro Kawaguchi putting away five goals and Andrew Barratclough scoring one, making the score at the end of the first quarter 6-3.
The score increased again in both the second and third quarters, with goals from Korcz, Greaves, Kawaguchi and Barratclough.
However Lancaster began to struggle in the last quarter, giving away silly goals, and Liverpool managed to pull it back to level the score at 14-14. But with goals from Jennings and Kawaguchi, Lancaster managed to edge a victory of 16-14 against Liverpool.
Lancaster Goal Scorers: Shuichiro Kawaguci (7), Andrew Barratclough (4), Andrew Greaves (2), Ben Jennings (2), Dan Korcz (1).
21/11/10
Lancaster University – 17
MMU Cheshire – 7
As one of the better teams in the league, Lancaster knew that MMU Cheshire would be no easy match. Lancaster went out full throttle, with Ellwood, Kawaguchi and Simon Rigby getting their names on the score sheet, ending the first quarter 5-1.
The second quarter continued as the first quarter had finished, with Moulton adding his second league goal of the year. At half-time Lancaster had a seemingly comfortable 8-3 lead.
The second half of the match saw no real response from MMU Cheshire, with Lancaster continuing their fine performance, winning the third quarter 4-1 with Rigby, Greaves, Ellwood and Kawaguchi all scoring.
The final quarter, Lancaster won the quarter 5-3, with Barratclough getting his first goal of the game. The final score ended Lancaster 17-7 MMU Cheshire. The result saw Lancaster go top of the U-polo league, and gave the team a massive boost before the following week’s match against Liverpool John Moore’s.
Lancaster Goal Scorers: Decland Ellwood (6), Shuichiro Kawaguci (5), Simon Rigby (3), Stephen Moulton (1), Andrew Greaves (1), Andrew Barratclough (1).
Women’s Water Polo
The Lancaster University Women’s Water Polo team headed to Liverpool this weekend to compete in their round of BUCS matches. Despite a fantastic team effort in the first game of the afternoon against Sheffield Hallam, and two great goals by Becky Gannon, Lancaster University were narrowly defeated.
The team improved throughout the afternoon, with impressive goals being scored from all angles, and a great team spirit demonstrated in the pool and on the bench alike. As the afternoon went on the team was constantly improving, with impressive goals seen by a number of our girls and great team spirits shown by players in the pool and on the bench alike.
There were some close matches, with Lancaster being defeated by just two goals against Liverpool University. Nonetheless, the day finished well, beating Sheffield University 4-1, with two great goals from Captain Ali Corkill.
The girls can now build on these performances and use the experience to prepare for their upcoming matches in the U -Polo league.
Swimming: BUCS Short Course Championships 2010
Lancaster’s Swimming team travelled to Sheffield in week five to compete in the BUCS short course championships. Ten University records were broken and the girls freestyle relay team reached the B final on the Saturday evening, but just missed out on another University record.
The most surprising record to be broken was Sterling Austin in the 100m breaststroke after establishing himself as a specialist in back-stroke, he finished with a record time of 1:13.38. Jinny Gunston in her last swim for the team did amazingly well in the 50m butterfly with a time of 31.13 to break another record.
The swim team performed impressively over the weekend, considering in some cases they were competing against Olympians and Commonwealth champions; the most famous being Liam Tancock, who in 2009 set the world record for 50m backstroke.
The new academic year has started amazingly well for Lancaster’s Swimming and Water Polo teams, and it can only be hoped that this form is maintained up until and including this year’s battle of the Roses.
