AGM REPORT

2003-04

The senior teams completed the main Summer Season in November 2003. The first team finished in second place in London League Division 1 with seven wins and three losses, and in third place again in Surrey Division 1, behind Sutton & cheam and Avondale, with four wins, two drawn games and four losses. The second team finished in second place in Surrey Division 2. We were also successful in winning the London League ‘refs cup’ with a memorable win in the final after extra time. Thirty players represented the teams over the season.

Junior teams played at under 18 and under 15 level in the London League and at under 18 and under 16 in the Southern Counties Club Championships. We successfully retained the under 18 and the under 15 London League titles. We reached the final of both Southern Counties Championships playing Penguin and Beckenham but on a difficult night to raise strong teams we had to settle for silver medals in both.

The Winter League, which is open to Clubs in the South and played between November and March, was also very successful. The Club’s senior team, newly promoted to division 1, finished as runners up. We also won the over 40’s knock out cup, the junior, the under 16, and under 14 Leagues. Overall our best winter season ever.

We are now coming to the end of the London and Surrey League seasons for 2004 and are currently top in the table of London League Division 1 heading for promotion to the premier league and we have finished second in Surrey Division 1. The second team, with a good blend of youth and experience has won Surrey Division 2 for the first time losing only once. At junior level we have retained the London League under 18s (three years now) but at under 15 level we have had to release the title we have held for three years to Sutton & Cheam. In our final games of the season we were missing our best three players and although a very young team played with great effort we could not win the games we needed to.

4 players represented Surrey in the winning Over 40s team in the Inter-counties competition in July, and 2 players represented Surrey at over 50s back in November, 5 players played for Surrey and 2 for Kent in the under 16s Inter-counties.

For the first time we entered the National League at junior level (under 18) and played on two weekends in February. Against some very good teams from all over the country we found the competition hard and did not win a game but benefited from the experience and I am sure will do better next year.

During the year we started mini polo on Saturday mornings at Whitgift for under 12s and regularly have 15 young players learning and having some fun.

Trevor Langan was awarded player of the year as well as winning the ‘major king’ shield

The water polo section now has over 80 playing members. Between twenty and thirty-five young players, between 11 and 17 years old, regularly train on Thursday evenings, improving their skills as well as having some fun. All newcomers are welcome, contact Chris Martin.