End of Season
BRISTOL CENTRAL CLINCH CHAMPIONSHIP CROWN! Lancaster's magnificent five-year reign as National League champions is over after Bristol Central claimed the 2007 title in style at Loughborough University.
By defeating Manchester 15-7 and Rotherham 16-13, Bristol Central finished two points clear of Lancaster, the runners-up. In reality, however, the victory over Manchester on day one was sufficient to ensure top spot because, in the very next match, the other title challengers, Cheltenham, went down 16-15 to Rotherham. Bristol Central's superior record in matches against Lancaster this season two wins, one defeat also meant at that stage that they could not be caught by their arch rivals. Rhys Tamlyn, Bristol Central's coach, pinpointed his team's 9-8 victory over Lancaster on 18 November as the result that made all the difference. In October, he recalled, I thought that playing in the European LEN Trophy would boost our league prospects. But on our return we lost both matches against Lancaster and Cheltenham at Loughborough and it dented confidence. We then did some work in training and began to play well again. We believed we could win the title after that vital win over Lancaster in their own pool. Rhys added: People know that we have established match-winners like Craig Figes, Matt Thresher, Danny Williams, Jon Hutchings and John Sissons in our squad. But this has been a real team effort, with Paul Morris scoring a hatful of goals in recent weeks, goalkeeper Andy Crawford outstanding and bench players such as Sean Coles, Brad Poole and Greg Harper all making a significant contribution. Our target now will be to win the British Championship. In the longer term, I would like to think we can improve sufficiently to at least get through the first round of a European competition. Bristol Central saved one of their slickest performances of the season for the clash with Manchester at Loughborough University. They were 4-0 up after the first period and 7-1 ahead at half-time before eventually running out winners 15-7.
Craig Figes and Sean Coles scored three apiece in Bristol's win over Manchester. Figes (4) and Coles (3) were again on target when Bristol rounded off their season with a 16-13 defeat of Rotherham on the second day. |
Cheltenham put in place by Superior Central ! National League Division 1 Millfield Saturday 1 st December That headline looks good don't you think? But it was a tough game and the local rivals pushed us all the way. Having lost both other encounters (11-8 & 9-6) without key players due to suspensions, we only had our director of coaching sitting this one out. He tried to make a difference by bellowing at the p ** n star look-alike ref from the spectator seating but I'm not sure he heard any of it due to constant Central Supporters cheering!! Its great to have support like that and it makes a difference big thanks to all who came to watch us. The game started at a cracking pace in terms of goals and just pure swim speed : Both teams going out quickly on possession turnovers. They scored 1 st from a outside shot which we didn't close down well enough: Morris equalised with a tasty looking lob. Craig unleashed a howitzer from 8m to take the lead, and we then traded goals to 3-3. They then took a 2 goal lead with 1½ to go. Mesh then scored a sneaky breakaway & Morris scored on counter to make 5-5. 2nd Qtr saw some good man up goals from Brad on the post and the good doctor Dan with Hutch scoring in open play can't remember it oops !. they replied with only 1 man up goal and there was one point when both teams had 5/6 full on possession change swims which almost brought the game to an old fashioned 2, 2, 2 formation up the pool no guessing where Mesh was in the formation and he's a pro! So halftime saw us 86 up. 3rd qtr started badly and with Military Buffoon Bennett back from his Atlantic jaunt I thrust him into c/fwd defence. He picked up a major straight away which they scored from. They then scored again on counter to level it and then Brad unleashed 8m bullet to go 98 up. They scored at the end to level it 99. We changed to a 1 man drop in this qtr with only limited success and it did feel like we were running out of steam a bit. So, a rousing Jez type squeeze your b**ls' team talk by yours truly left little impression ! a bad kick out by the Serbian warlord ref on Sean and goal by them to go 109 up : Craig equalised straight away. Stupendously good time out by good self after a mid bath kick out meant we went into man up which Mesh smoked one in from outside position. Craig got a great cross pass from Morris to score and we went 1311 up. Cheltenham then went for it in big time 2 pit men , V hard counter attacking , Sneaky & illegal double handed tugs mid bath but they met their match in the mighty Crayfish in goal who was just outstanding. At this pressure point in the game I think they knew they had to shoot absolute screamers to beat him and I spotted a couple of them think twice before they took him on to no avail. With 30 secs to go Morris got left on 3m out wide and walked in and scored to go 1411 up. We then let in a sloppy tip on goal but ran out WINNERS 14-12 !! A great committed team performance with Mesh 4, Craig and Morris hat tricks, Brad with a couple and Dr Dan scoring just the one. Special mention though for Crayfish who continues to be outstanding in the second half of the season. On Sunday, the team got a little sloppy. Without Dr Dan and Craig we managed to go 5-1 down to the whippersnapper GB Juniors at half time. I'm told we played much better 2nd half and started scoring. But losing 9-6 is a sobering' lesson from them and we may have learnt something. Being a type of artist' at night and then a sportsman in the morning doesn't quite mix. Next weekend we play Manchester - richest team in w polo and still can't get near a title on Saturday 3.55pm & Rotherham on Sunday 2.40pm at Loughborough. We need 3 points to win the title. Both Lancaster & Cheltenham could win it if we mess up. |
The coach's one eyed view of the Lancaster weekend 17th / 18th November Our logistics manager did his usual trick of last minute hotel bookings a strange one considering he's on gardening leave and we travelled to a bl**dy miserable hellhole of a place called Lancaster. On arrival we caught the last qtr of Lancaster V Manx and saw the Lancaster sneak a highly scabby win 8 7 with 2 goals in last 30 seconds I did hope at the time that they had used up all of their luck in that game and maybe that came true. So, 1 st up was Rotherham , a team capable of playing like gods 1 minute, cods the next 1 st qtr turned out like this .. . they were the gods, we were the cods ! .. My tactics of lets play steady after long journey and keep a tight defence' was shot to pieces !!!! 3- 1 down went to 4 -1 halfway through the 2 nd but in all honesty I couldn't see us losing the game. The Yorkie's are a one trick Scholefield pony and once we woke up and started playing a decent drop and counter they looked less threatening. Half time finished with us being 6 -5 down and the surprise of a hat trick from the Italian cider drinker. Our usual p*ss poor shooting continued through the 3 rd with the Logistics manager screwing in his shooting arm - well used as usual and bagging a couple along with a Mesh goal. That left us 8- 8 going into the last and Craig slotted one to go 9 -8 and Mesh again to go 10 -8. they grabbed their only goal in the final qtr to make it 10 9 and for us to have our usual jitters of loads of chances but poor shooting . A superbly called timeout by me ! after an exclusion meant we scored another to go 11- 9. The cider drinker got his 4 th !!! goal of the game to take it out of reach of the Yorkies and on the final whistle we witnessed Mesh finish them with a tasty spin lob top corner to run out 13- 9 winners Scorers : Morris ! 4 / Mesh 3 / Hutch 2 / Johnny S 2 / Craig 2 Our planned quiet night of card playing and supping of shandies fell apart when stand in TJ forgot the cards and the pen and paper for scoring !!! Heinous crimes which saw us witness a mini hissy fit from the curly headed one !! So Lancaster were up next in the Sunday lunchtime slot and not only a full crowd yes I really do mean a full crowd ! - but a TV Camera that looked suspiciously like Hutch's remote control TV Mobile phone !!!! A good long warm up focused us pretty well and the team looked ready. We wanted to stop their main weapon of counter attack and take care when possession changed. So although Cray let in a sloppy back hand shot early in the 1 st we set our stall and stuck to it. Missed chances and sloppy covering back meant we went 3- 1 down but 2 good man up goals from Hutch and Dan drew us level to 3- 3. the major count against us didn't really register with me until Craig and Mesh were on 2 each early in the 2 nd but we were getting kicked out a lot more than they were. With our covering back stopping their counter attack and big Colin out on 3 they didn't play a set attack very convincingly. They started to outside pot shot and some class shot stopping from Cray and some friendly woodwork kept them at bay. We won a penalty which Craig hit the crossbar above the Bush head and stayed out and I thought here we go! We changed ends at 5 4 down but I sensed that they were short of ideas in attack and we changed round our C/Fwd player rotating with Dan , Mesh and Craig & Johnny S taking turns. Craig then scored a cracker from the pit and then a quick man up to counter their goal from a junior but through all this we were getting kicked out more than they were and I couldn't quite understand why. End of the 3 rd we were level 6 6 with 11 6 majors in their favour. The team looked composed at the start of the 4 th and then seeing Greg really nail a man up goal from the post to go 1 up gave the team a real lift. Cray caught hold of the goal to give away a penalty which levelled it but then Craig scored 2 more classy goals to go 2 up. So with 2 minutes left we were 9 -7 up but racking up majors. Brad , Sean and Greg worked really hard to keep them at bay as 1 st Morris , then Johnny S for a misconduct and then Hutch picked up 3 majors. They scored a man up to get back to 9 -8 and even had another man up to draw level but they panicked and missed and we ran out 9 -8 WINNERS ! The major count was 18 against us and only 9 against them - draw your own conclusions ! So, we turned them over in their own backyard and to be truthful whilst we rode our luck at times, we worked harder than they did and played more as team to really deserve it. Scorers ; Craig 5 / Hutch / Johnny S / Dan / Greg all 1 each. |