WATER POLO - Varsity Match 2011
Saturday 19 February 2011
The 111th Men’s Varsity Water Polo Match took place last Saturday at Parkside Pools. The Cambridge Men’s team secured a deserved 13-12 win, to complement wins by both the Swimming and the Ladies’ Water Polo teams earlier in the day, in front of a large and vocal home crowd.
The Light Blues side entered the match with a good record from the previous weeks, including strong BUCS wins over both Imperial and Oxford. The Cambridge side had also emerged 7-6 winners over the City of Cambridge side in the annual Town vs. Gown match on the 17th February, and so knew that victory was a definite possibility.
Cambridge started strong in the first quarter, attacking the shallow end. They were first to concede but pulled the score back to 3-1 at the end of the first quarter. It is commonly held that it is harder to attack the shallow end than the deep, and so both coach Andy Knight and the rest of the team were delighted with the first quarter performance.
The Light Blues continued their dominance in the second quarter, with the introduction of Hamish Crichton at centre forward forcing Oxford to drop off the arc. Whilst Oxford managed this slightly more effectively than their at times confused effort in BUCS, Cambridge were still able to exploit the Dark Blues’ defence to end the second quarter ahead by 10 goals to 4, with both Riccardo di Pietro and Alex Davies picking up first half hat tricks. For the first two quarters Cambridge played some exceptionally good polo, and looked set to dominate the rest of the match.
What happened next seriously rocked the Cambridge team, as they lost their controlling position. With a few quick counter-attacks, and some missed opportunities for the Light Blues, Cambridge saw their lead slip from six goals to just two as Oxford scored five unanswered goals in the space of around four minutes. Testing the nerve of the team almost to breaking point, an horrific quarter finished with Cambridge still slightly ahead 11-9.
The break at the end of the quarter allowed Cambridge to regroup slightly, and strong words from a number of people led to a Light Blues side determined to close out the match, and earn the victory which only fifteen minutes before had seemed almost assured.
A rejuvenated Oxford side also emerged at the beginning of the final quarter, after they had fought so hard to pull themselves back into the match. But it was Cambridge who showed their impressive ability to close out games which this year has proved immeasurably useful against a number of opponents. After it looked like the match was almost going to be thrown away, the Light Blues showed immense heart to come back and finish the match in style. Final quarter goals from Nick McLoughlin and Dave Leigh sealed the result, as Cambridge held out to become the 2011 Varsity winners.
