Weston Swimming Club entered an under-15s Water Polo Team into a Bristol & West Water Polo Tournament.
It had been arranged by the league with the aid of a Sport England grant to enable players to return to the water after the Covid pandemic.
The tournament, held at Plymouth Life Centre over two days on November 27 and 28, with the help of the management of the Life Centre, Everyone Active, was for three age groups, under-17s, under-15s and under-13s, and almost 200 players competing.
This is the first under-15s team which Weston's water polo section had produced in a number of years, and proves that the resurgence of water polo in the club, and all of the players it was their first taste of a proper water polo match.
The team was captained by Luke Withers, and comprised of Alex Radu, Ashton Gilmore, Spencer Croucher, Thomas Page, Alex Caunter, and they were assisted by four players from Paignton, Eva, Neill, Sophie and Owen.
In Weston’s opening game, they came up against the tournament favourites and eventual winners, Devonport Royal, and lost 10-2.
In the second game that Weston played against Newton Abbot, they had regained some composure, with Ashton Gilmore getting two goals, including one from the penalty spot, and two goals from Eva, they won their first game, 4-3.
In their third game they came up against Devonport’s B team, and managed to restrict them to only scoring five goals to their one.
The eventual runners-up, Exeter were Weston’s four opponents, and they were defeated 8-3, with Gilmore scoring one goal, and the other two coming from Nell.
Their final game was against Barnstaple, and at one stage Weston were holding the experienced side to one-all, but in the second half Barnstaple found the net twice, making it 3-1. Weston managed to get a goal to pull it back to 3-2, and give them a glimmer of hope, but they ran out of time.
The Weston goals came from Gilmour and Eva.
Head coach Coles said: “I was extremely proud of the team, who showed, after only seven weeks of being together, a very strong spirit and promise for the future. We will evaluate the performance and decided what competitions to enter next year.
"I must give special mention to the superb goalkeeping by Thomas Page who restricted the opposition to scoring more goals; also Ashton Gilmore, who scored a number of goals in this tournament, and the captaincy of Luke Withers, and support play by Spencer Croucher.”
Weston would like to say a special thank you to all the parents who took the players to Plymouth for the tournament.
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