One Sunday morning in mid October I was rudely awakened at 08:05 by my ringtone and, wondering who on earth was calling me so early on a Sunday morning, I reached for my phone to see it was Lloyd. I answered the phone to find he was outside ready and raring to go for a day of intense polo competition, at which point it became apparent that he hadn’t got the message that the start time was 10.30 not 08:30!
It turned out well for him as I provided the bacon butties and set about preparing food to go in the slow cooker which would surely be much needed by the end of the tournament! We set off for the docks to meet up with our team mates at Liverpool Marina, with myself and fellow Liverpool University Canoe Club members Lloyd, Tolly and Greg joining Darren, Tom, Gibbo and Keith to represent Liverpool Canoe Club. Once kitted up we paddled the short distance round to the Mersey Sport Centre in Queens Dock. Somehow Greg managed to get lost in the fog so Tolly and I set off in search of our lost fresher and with the help of a sighting from a dragon boat crew managed to quickly track him down.
The tournament is a regular fixture organised and hosted by local club Friends of Allonby Liverpool Canoe Club who had entered 2 teams, as had Liverpool Canoe Club and Bangor University, guaranteeing 5 games for each team for the bargain price of £5.00 per person, and as its local the bare minimum of travel was required.
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Photo taken from http://friendsofallonby.org.uk/the-club/disciplines/canoe-polo
There was a mixed bag of results for both Liverpool CC teams playing against a variety of abilities from beginner/development players through to players that have represented Great Britain, with 8 minute halves being played. As we only had 8 players in total and polo teams consisting of 5 players, this meant playing for both teams and back to back matches for some players, except for when we had to play each other when we drafted in a couple of extras from other teams to make up the numbers, so everyone was exhausted by the end.
I also refereed my first ever competitive matches with the help of a qualified referee (thanks Darren), and there should be an opportunity to taking part in a referees course in the near future (details to be confirmed) which is a good way to learn the rules, and at tournaments a player from each team referees the match following their match, so the more referees per team the better.
It was a great way to spend a Sunday, thanks to all those that took part.
For those interested in playing polo the next FOA tournament is on Sunday 11th November, this is a great opportunity to try out those polo skills that can be acquired by attending the weekly polo sessions on Wednesdays at the university sports centre, the session is 19.30 to 20.30 so meet at sheds from 19:00 to take kit to the pool and make the most of the hour long session.
Anthony Kingdom is the clubs polo representative so any questions feel free to contact him luccpolo@gmail.com
Squirrel
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