British Canoeing’s Canoe Polo National Championships

Last weekend saw LCC attend the British Canoeing’s Canoe Polo National Championships. The two-day tournament kicked off with a close yet comfortable win against Viking B. This was unfortunately where our winning came to an end on Saturday following games against 3 Division 1 teams, which included a 9-0 battering. Due to these results, we placed 4th in our seeded group meaning that on Sunday we were placed in the bowl competition.

Bright and early on Sunday morning we started with a very close game against Cumbria which we nicked the win by scoring two goals late on in a 5-out chase. Next up saw the team up against Manchester Wildcats seeing out a 5-4 win in which our youngest player Aaron Cook and oldest player Richard Clews got their first goals in the national league. Our final game of the group saw the team playing against Eastend which resulted in a disappointing loss of 4-2. After this game, we found out we had done enough to face Eastend once more in the final playing for the bowl trophy.

The final saw LCC gain an early lead against Eastend to then lose it just before halftime, and then we conceded again early in the second half. Luckily we equalised late on, closing full-time at 2-2 meaning we had to start the golden goal period to decide the winner. Both extra halves came and went with neither team able to find that golden goal despite a tough fight from all on the pitch. The deadlock now had to be broken with one last infinite half until a goal was scored, a long shot catching the keeper off guard gave LCC the win. The game which should have taken 20 minutes ended up lasting 33 minutes the full team came off elated but exhausted!

Massive congratulations to the whole team:

Aaron Cook, Aaron Jackson, Callum Cook, Callum Housley, Norman Cook, Richard Clews and Sam Watson

If anyone wants to get into canoe polo, we run sessions every Tuesday evening just get in touch with Callum Cook (polo@liverpoolcanoeclub.co.uk)

Cheers,