Go to the Varsity 2019 page for scores and pictures from the weekend.
Oxford Womens’ Blues
The Oxford Women’s Blues Team have been going from strength to strength this season, sitting comfortably mid top of their BUCS league, scoring 165 goals in competitive matches this season. This multinational squad, for the most part all have several years experience playing polo, including two returning captains; Lucy Wright and Hannah Wilson – who is reprising her role as captain from 2006-7. This dedicated squad has not only been training hard in the pool but also benefited from specialised strength and conditioning training, which has played a valuable role developing the squad into a more professional team. This year the women’s squad undertook a training tour to Budapest, the home of water polo, and learnt valuable lessons on game awareness, ball handling and contact play. This group of girls brings an incredible level of dedication, enthusiasm (notably Anna Szyszko, VC, who hasn’t been seen without a smile since 2003) and drive to the pool, and are looking forward to the challenge of playing Cambridge as underdogs, in a shallow end pool. Oxford Womens’ 2s This newly created team has only really been separate from the rest of the squad of girls for a short period of time. The team is made up of some returning players, and a large number of new comers to water polo. They have had a steep learning curve this year over the course of several development squad matches, with increasing success with every match. Several members of this team joined the Budapest Tour, which resulted in a dramatic improvement in game awareness and skills over the course of the season. Many of the starting 7 for this team narrowly missed out on positions in the 1sts, and have perhaps more to prove than the Blues this Varsity weekend. Under the guidance of captain Leah Taylor-Kearney, and vice captain Matilda Hadcock, this team has amalgamated into a tight knit group, with boundless enthusiasm for the sport. What they lack in experience they are sure to make up for in determination, ready to do OUWPC proud as the first ever Women’s Seconds Team. Oxford Mens’ Blues The Oxford University Men’s Blues have gone from strength to strength in the 2018-2019 season. Coming off the back of a BUCS Premier South and Varsity win in the previous season, the team demonstrated that this was not a singular occurrence, finishing the current season with only 1 defeat and finishing 2nd in the league behind a very heavily fortified Cardiff side. This high position has enabled the Blues team to be eligible for Full Blues for a second year running – a feat which has not been achieved in recent memory until last season. This achievement is no doubt due to the excellent depth within our Blues squad, who started the season with a squad of 18 (which was difficult to whittle down to 13 for every game). This depth enabled the team to fight valiantly in every fixture despite being plagued by various injuries throughout the season. Special mention should be given to those players in the 2nd Team Varsity who consistently aided the Blues team in their times of need, and played to their best ability and stepped up when required. It has been a pleasure to lead the team this year, and will be an honor to walk out with them at Varsity. Oxford Mens’ 2s The Oxford Men's 2s come into Varsity off the back of a very successful season. With one of the biggest squads we have ever to pick from, and some great new additions to the squad, we secured second place in BUCS Midlands 2A. We started the season with a hard fought win against Nottingham Trent, inflicting their only defeat on them all season. Our first meeting against the Cambridge 2s resulted in a resounding 15-1 win for Oxford, an excellent team performance all round. We also won a close game away at Oxford Brookes, coming out 6-5 winners with just 8 players available. After just one loss in Michaelmas term, we headed into Hilary, securing another win against Cambridge 2s, this time a much closer game. Water polo newbie Tommy Pullan having his best game in the pool yet, scoring the bulk of our goals and seeing us over the line for a 13-11 win. We had one more hard fought win against Leicester, which was achieved thanks to a beautiful lob from former club president Ameen Chekroud with the scores tied and just 90 seconds on the clock. Those results secured second place in the league for us, one of our highest ever finishes. It's been a huge effort this year with a squad including several young players - Matt Rosenfeld, Matt Webb, Josh Greensmith, as well as good performances from seasoned members of the squad Ameen Chekroud and Tom Morcom. Thanks to Ajay Kapur for all his work coaching. After a much closer game this term, we're excited for what will be a close Varsity match! Over the Christmas holidays the OUWPC ladies had a very successful tour to Budapest. We were hosted by one of the largest water polo clubs in the city, UVSE, who we played and trained with throughout the week. Whilst we played a lot of water polo, we also found the time to watch a national semi-final, explore the city, go the Szechenyi baths and spend time at the Christmas markets. Thanks go to UVSE for hosting and feeding us, and to Christy for organising such a great tour! Match report
BUCS match against UEA away. Win 26:2 Really fun day, despite a very long drive and a very short warm up, the Oxford ladies put in a fantastic performance. Starting with Rhiannon in goal, who is gaining confidence since her return and starting to really own the space between the posts. Outfield TJ Ophelia scored her first goal for OUWPC, and survived the notorious TJ minibus challenge. Leah Taylor Kearney, Zara Ahmad and Gabrielle Bourret-Sicotte all were tenacious in the press and worked hard to shut down any offensive play from the opposition. Soraya Kezelmann and Catherine Mills were absolute super subs, and made a massive difference to controlling the play once in the pool. Our starting outfield players were cool, calm and played intelligent polo despite a lack of structure from the opposition. At the top of the 4th quarter Jodie R White, Lucy Wright, Emily Van Heerden, Leonor VA, Anna Szyszko, all showed the depth of ability and fitness that our squad has, which resulted in 10 goals in less than 8 minutes. FINAL SCORE: 14-8 (to Oxford)
After last week’s triumph, the Oxford Mens Blues lined up once more at the Rosenblatt Fortress for their home fixture against Imperial College London. This was no ordinary fixture against the London side however, with OUWPC alum, and previous Mens Captain Joseph Ortiz making his return to the Rosenblatt for the opposition side. However this fixture also saw the return of OUWPC alum Nicolas Lippolis for the Dark Blues as he just couldn’t stay away. The first quarter began fiercely contested, likely as the boys focused too much on Ortiz to notice the other IC threats as remained level at 1-1 for the majority of the period. However, a burst of activity saw goals from Dr Richard O’Halloran and Seh Woon Neo to end the quarter 3-1. IC rapidly responded in the second quarter bringing the game level to 3-3 through a lapse in Oxford concentration, before a rapid flurry of Oxford goals from VC Joshua Silverbeck, O’Halloran, Pietro Ferrero and Neo to end the quarter 7-4. The second half saw the Oxford Boys retain their strong lead, with goals from Neo and Ferrero, whilst IC also scored 2. The final quarter saw more drama however, with final majors being given against Lippolis and Captain Ajay Kapur. This did not stop the momentum of the Dark Blues however, who in this quarter put 5 goals past a tired IC side, including a goal from Social Secretary Patrick Isaacs to close the game out, leading to a final score of 14-8. Goals in this game were scored by Ferrero (6), Neo (3), O’Halloran (2), Silverbeck (2) and Isaacs (1), whilst the major king title this week is awarded to Lippolis (as he was majored out of the game first). The next fixture will prove to be the first test for the lads as they make the trip down to Wales to face Cardiff. Match Report – Bath Home Coming into the new season and with the intake of some exceptional freshers, the Mens Blues side lined up at the Rosenblatt Fortress for their season opener against newly promoted Bath University.
The opposition were clearly nervous and started off tentative, allowing the Blues to go 2-0 up within the first 2 minutes with excellent goals from senior superstar Seh Woon Neo and incoming fresher Pietro Ferrero. It was not long before Bath clawed it back to 2-2, before the quarter ended with the Blues 3-2 up after a rocket penalty from Neo. The second quarter was initially closely contested with Bath quickly equalizing. However, a focused Oxford side slotted in three goals in rapid succession thanks to Neo, Ferrero and last season’s top goal scorer, Dr Richard O’Halloran, before Bath capitalized on a slip in concentration and ended the half 6-4. The third quarter saw a similar picture being painted, with goals from O’Halloran, Ferrero and Neo seeing Oxford maintain their 2 goal lead at 9-7, before a fourth quarter display of excellence seeing the side reach a final score of 12-9. The game saw 3 goal-scorers from the Dark Blues: Neo (6), Ferrero (4) and O’Halloran (2), with the Major King award for the most majors also being awarded to Ferrero (2) |
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