Sedgefield Water Polo Club made their annual visit to the Manchester Water Polo Festival at the Aquatic Centre.This is the biggest tournament in the country with 30 teams entered in the two age groups of under 14 and under 16. Last year Sedgefield managed to become the first team ever to win both age groups at the same time.
Sedgefield under 14’s made an excellent start in their 7 team group beating Bolton School 6-1 and then progressed with wins over CWM Draig from Wales 10-2, Rotherham 9-1, Royton from Manchester 5-4, Watford 7-3, Castleford 7-3 to the semi finals.
They were playing the Welsh Champions Welsh Wanderers from Cardiff who were expected to be a tough game. However Sedgefield started at a very high tempo and quickly over whelmed the Welsh team to win 10-2. In the final they faced the runners up from their group Bolton School who they had already beaten 6-1.
However this game was very different as Sedgefield struggled to impose themselves on Bolton. Some poor defensive work saw Sedgefield chasing the game and found themselves a goal behind with a minute to go but then Sedgefield’s leading goal scorer John Pratt came up with two great goals for Sedgefield to squeeze home 7-6 to retain the trophy from last year. This was a great effort by the young Sedgefield team winning all 8 games over 9 hours. John Pratt 13 was the tournament’s leading goal scorer for the second year running with 28 goals, however Jake Plant 13 was voted player of the tournament for Sedgefield for his tireless display. Kristopher Egginton 12, Michael Cousins 12 and Connor Keeble 11 all performed admirably scoring goals and defending really tightly.
Terri Millington and Emily Pilkington 13 gave excellent defensive displays. Goalkeepers Simeran Kang 13 and Luke Curley showed great potential for the future with some important saves. Ben Stephenson and Michael Hampshire both only 10 performed admirably to play an important part in the Sedgefield triumph. The Sedgefield coaches were Richard Cousins and Greg Barker.
Sedgefield’s under 16 team started at a high pace with convincing wins in their 6 group games against Welsh Wanders, Sheffield, Royton, Falkirk, Chester and Tyldsley. In their quarter final they played Watford but unfortunately some poor referee decisions and a failure to take their chances saw Sedgefield lose 3-1, a disappointing end to their tournament finishing 5th from 14 teams after further victories over Tyldsley and Carlisle.
The Sedgefield under 16 team was Richie Howe, Josh Lowther, Frazer Roe, Abbi Turnbull, Holly Short, Simon Howe, Ben Turnbull, Adam Courtley, James Pratt and Joe Barker. Coach was Scott Carpenter.