News

21 November

Sirens Won 14-9

7 November

Andover Won 16-15

Great job by the whole team tonight - great performances all round, especially some of our newer and younger players. Well done all!

3 October

Southampton Sirens Lost 14-12

Super well played to everyone tonight… with a great mix of players they all did themselves proud against a highly competent ladies national league team!!

21 September 

Bournemouth Won 15-14

Well done everyone!

14 September 

Basingtoke Won 14-13

Well done everyone, massive shift from all our players, excellent performance working to our strengths-really proud of all of you

September 2023

A day out at the Water Park

Massive congratulations to the whole team on winning the 2023 Hampshire Junior League and also big congrats to Isaac and Darcy on being our Senior players of the year!! (I have your trophy…)

13 July 2023

Friendly 7-3

11 July 2023

Great match tonight - 13-13. Lucky for some! Well done everyone..!

20 June 2023 Basingstoke Lost 16-10

Great job everyone tonight - we had a wide range of ages and abilities but everyone stepped up and played their part!

May 2023

Sirens Mixed Game 13-10

Well played all our juniors tonight - most of the ladies play National League and several have played internationally yet you all coped extremely well and Isaac was top scorer in the match- well done everyone!!

April 2023

Portsmouth Won 14-8

March 2023

Southampton Uni Won 13-12

25/03 Eton Tournament

Guernsey Won 11-4

Weymouth Won 9-6

Great comeback after being 5-3 down at half time.

Reading Won 9-6

Portsmouth Won 14-3

Friendly vs Bournemouth

On February 28th, Bournemouth u18s had a great game in Winchester. See the results page for more details

On February 21st, Andover visited Winchester. 

A spirited game for the U18s ended with Winchester coming out ahead 18 to 12.

Well done to the U13s - 6-6 coming in the final quarter but went down 9-6 at the end. 

2023 Dublin Tour Summary

Following the success of our inaugural tour in Guernsey last year, this year we packed our bags for Dublin.

The trip was beset with logistics issues from the outset, many of our team had their outbound flights cancelled, finding accommodation proved to be quite challenging because of other events happening in the city the same weekend (most notably Pride and an Iron Maiden concert) and worst of all, we had a tournament arranged for the Saturday afternoon in Newry which was cancelled at short notice due to an accidental double-booking of the pool (and yes, we lost out!)

The team stayed in a hostel sandwiched between the infamous Temple Bar and Trinity College, a hundred yards from the Liffey.

Our first game was against a very talented St Vincents team on the Friday night; the venue was the National Aquatic centre on the outskirts of the City, which holds a capacity of 3,500 spectators (sadly, it didn’t sell out to watch us play).  It was a good game and very competitive, whilst we had a size advantage, our opposition had better fitness and a handful of their players were technically very good - we were countered against on numerous occasions but our goalies, Alex Stretch and Oscar Keeler did a great job of keeping us in the game.  It was a very competitive fixture, neither team was ever more than one goal ahead going into the final quarter, we entered the 4th quarter one goal behind.  In the final quarter, the game got away from us - their better fitness showed and they ran out comfortable winners. 

One of our biggest challenges in the game was the referee (who was by himself); we were not adapting our play and our approach to the game in accordance with his philosophy as to how the game should be played and what constituted a foul - this led to some significant frustration with our players and rather tainted the fixture.  Nevertheless, I’m sure all our players appreciated playing in such an impressive sports venue.  

In lieu of a fixture on Saturday, we made our way through the Pride celebrations out to the open air Clontarf pool where the sun shone - it was a beautiful venue, attached to a very attractive restaurant and bar (it was reminiscent of being in Malta!).  The squad had fun there, although they later paid the price for the limited amount of sub team used,  and the generous staff allowed us an hour or so to play a friendly match among ourselves after the public had left, using floating buoys as goals.

We headed back into town and had a gut busting Mexican meal before sneaking into in to a sports bar in Temple Bar where we played pool, shuffle board and ping pong and let our hair down, listened to very talented local musicians playing live music to our appreciative ears.

On Sunday, we played the very welcoming Half Moon club at the Trinity College pool. Again, our players had a size advantage and on face value, it looked like it wouldn’t be an even contest so we played 2x short quarters to see how our teams matched up - we lost the first 4-0 but came back in the second well and drew 4-4.  So we stayed as we were and played a further 5 quarters, ensuring everyone had plenty of game time.  Wishing to learn from Friday night, each team supplied a referee and there was much less interpretation of the rules.  It was a great game, everyone got involved and on our team, goals were distributed between a number of different players - we won the match 11-8.

And then we were done, it was time to say goodbye to Dublin and head to the airport to come home.  I think we will all look back at the trip as being a great success and hopefully one that will be nostalgically remembered by all the players.

Sadly, it will be the last junior tour for Bria, Owen and Oscar - but hopefully not their last ever water polo tour.

Photos are available on our instagram account, https://www.instagram.com/winchesterwaterpolo/

Full list of tourists:

Toby King (Head Coach)

Jaime Spicer (Assistant Coach)

Ben King (Assistant Coach)

Alex Stretch

Oscar Keeler

Owen South

Jamie King

Sam King

Noah Spicer 

Rhys Clayton

Olliver Clayton

Bria Bone

Darcy Hunt

Hermone Davies

Lucas Maul

Jensen King

Parent Helpers:

Natalie Clayton

Carol Keeler (Team Manager)

Christian Maul

Jacqui King

We are currently in the process of organising a Hampshire league style tournament for the Junior teams of Hampshire.

On 24th September, Winchester held a mini tournament for 5 teams in Hampshire. Each team played every other team once scoring 2 points for a win, 1 for a draw and none for a loss. in the case of a draw, the team who conceded the least major fouls won.(see 'results' for final standings)