Women’s water polo by captain Raine Astin-Chamberlain
The team started of this year with 3 players, since then we have expanded to a squad of 14 girls, many of these being new to water polo. The BUCS tournaments were used to develop the team’s skills and develop knowledge of the game, although there were a few close games.
As mentioned before, the team for Roses this year is almost completely different, giving the squad a new burst of energy. The individual player progress over the past 6 months has been immense with the girls creating a true team spirit and enthusiastically developing their skills. The women’s water polo game this year is guaranteed to be exciting!
The player to watch for this year’s water polo would have to be Louise Highton. New to the team, Highton quickly became the top goal scorer and a strong forward player. In terms of defensive play, the girl to watch would be Sophie Gorman. Gorman started playing water polo when she came to York and can be seen at Roses playing in the ‘pit’.
Predicted score: Hopefully a win, but its going to be a close game!
Men’s by captain Chris Snowden
The team has built on a solid performance in the BUCS league last year with third placing in the slightly expanded BUCS league this year. It was a successful season thoughout with two big wins against Chester and Liverpool 2nds and two narrow losses against Manchester 2nds and Liverpool 1sts. On another day either of the losses could have become wins and we would have been through to the play off tournament.
Last year was a very tense and exciting game which we narrowly won 8-7. It was our first win in 5 years and the game had everything; two sending offs for York, a last minute goal and two penalty saves. We won Roses team of the year for that performance and hopefully we can emulate that success this year. Whilst we lost a couple of important players, including our captain at the end of last year, the freshers intake has made up for that and we are an even better team this year than we were last year.
Player to watch: Mike Perkins, top scorer this season with 13 goals this season and a veteran of Roses, this being his 6th year playing. Usually playing centre forward he has been on top form this year scoring 8 goals in three matches on the BUCS tournament day. He has the experience and the talent to really make a difference in the fixture this year as well take the game to Lancaster!
Predicted score: As long as we win I don’t care!