WATER POLO SECTION REPORT NATIONAL LEAGUE 1st Team Men’s The City of Birmingham Water Polo Club had it’s most successful season in it’s history. Competing in the British Water Polo League, the first half the season it competed in Division 3 the results were: Played 7, Won 7, Goals For 120, Goals Against 65. That meant we qualified to play in the Championship 2 Division for the second half of the season. In that half we: Played 7, Won 7, Goals For 116, Goals Against 74. A perfect season which means we are now competing in Division 2 of the British Water Polo League. We are confident of another good season to come. BIRMINGHAM SPORTS AWARDS We were nominated in the Team of the Year section, and were selected as finalists and ended up being runners up. 2nd City Birmingham Men’s Slightly disappointing season in that we were relegated from Division 4, but positive in the fact many juniors were “blooded” in to the National League set up. Women’s A very encouraging season we won Division 3, and then came 5th in Championship 2 narrowly missing out on promotion. AGE GROUP COMPETITIONS There was disappointment from both boys teams this year the 96s & 98s both failed to qualify from the first round of the competitions, and then played in the respective plate competitions. We didn’t enter the girl competitions. The 96s with a full team won the plate competition at ease, unfortunately for the initial qualifying round we had numerous players unavailable. The 98s won one, drew one, and lost two in the plate competition. GB REPRESENTATION Ryan Padbury was selected & played for U19 GB team in the European junior qualifiers in Malta over 7th-10th May. Ryan was also selected & played for the full senior side against Romania in Bucharest in February. A fantastic achievement! TRAINING NIGHT Despite everybody’s best efforts this is still a major problem in the development of the water polo club. Currently we have pool time at Stetchford on a Friday night 79pm. ideally we want this changed to either a Wednesday or Thursday evening, unfortunately at this time it has not been possible to do this but we will continue to explore other possibilities. Having a dedicated cub night is crucial for the long term development of the club.