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Junior Canoe Polo Takes off at Liverpool Canoe Club

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Junior Canoe Polo Takes off at Liverpool Canoe Club by Richard Clews

Liverpool Canoe Club has long had committed –  and occasionally successful adult Canoe Polo teams. Our mixed team entry into this year’s National Division 2 League won the title. Another mixed team entry just had a successful weekend playing in Class 2 in the Scottish Open in Glasgow. 

However, as a club in the last few years, we’ve not had many LCC Juniors keen to take up the sport. Not enough to consider putting together a Junior team, anyway. All that has changed over the Summer, and we’ve got ten Juniors who’ve given Canoe Polo a try in the several sessions we’ve had over the Summer. With our Juniors’ ages ranging from 10 to 17, the sessions have been great fun; playing games, dribbling races where you try to move forward, throw the ball..and, the hard bit…keep moving in a straight line!

While LCC has not had a Junior team in some years, we have helped some top Polo players along the way…three of our Juniors who started their paddling with LCC now play Canoe Polo for Great Britain U21 sides and others who play at Class 1 or Class 2. Who knows, maybe some of our new Junior players will go on to similar achievements.

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Even for our session tomorrow night, we’ve got nine Canoe Polo players booked on ready to play in the twilight, while Mike Bond leads other parents out on a more relaxing paddle. 

Tomorrow night will probably be our last evening session due to the fading light, but we hope to carry on the sessions on Sunday mornings. 

While there sadly isn’t a Junior Canoe League these days, I’m looking at possibilities for link-ups with other clubs with Juniors in the North West, with a training day in Kendal planned for November with Penrith.

We’ve not got a pool for Canoe Polo over the winter this year, but there’s always a couple of Polo balls being thrown around at the Speke general pool session, and this is a great facility for working on ball skills, rolls and boat skills. 

Extra thanks to Polo players Norman, Emily and Jake for helping run these sessions over the Summer.

If you are a Junior or an adult and interested in giving Canoe Polo a try, contact me (for Juniors) or Callum Cook (for Adult sessions).

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Richard Clews

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