Third game in five days (with a training session in between). It’s fair to say fatigue would definitely be an issue at this point. For any other team this may be true, but not for the herculean seconds who laugh at the concept of physical limitations. This is a good thing because we were up against a physically strong team in their own backyard. We were going to need all the strength we could muster. Unfortunately this didn’t happen for various reasons so I gathered the guys I could and off we went to make the short trip to Fareham. Chris was as ever late to meet, despite literally living 50 steps from the uni. He’s definitely racked up enough strikes for a cannon, if any of the biggest boys fancy a challenge?

We arrived and Lawrence had a bit of a moan about navy security not realising that we were coming and making him pull over. No such worries for our car, a quick glance inside showed the gateman all the credentials he needed and in we went. We were greeted by the warmest pool I think I’ve ever played in, ideal for a nice relaxing float about, not so much for the brand of high octane polo I was planning on unleashing. A nice leisurely warm up ensued, some draconian referee rules were established and away we went.

Unfortunately the match sheet is a little incomplete so I’m just going to guess at what went on in this first quarter. Pretty sure that we went a goal down early on as we learnt what game our opponents would be playing. Once we realised we had the swimming edge we started to stretch the game and impose ourselves, culminating in goals from Conal and BKS, both picking up the fine goalscoring form they had enjoyed in the previous game. The navy were quite helpfully looking out for our mental wellbeing and had declined to provide a scoreboard, providing the extra challenge of having to remember the score as we went.

The second quarter started and we really started to impose our better fitness in the pool and our superior pace on the break. I won’t pretend it’s the best Polo, but sometimes going long is effective and proved the case here. Horlock, Perry and Conal all got goals, with only one scored against us. Some quick mental arithmetic told me that meant we were going into half time 5 – 2 up.

This quarter was one of a disciplinary tightrope. Myself and Perry were both on two majors, with a particularly difficult customer to deal with in the pit. It was agreed to trial a 2 – 4 drop to deal with this threat, safe in the knowledge that Lawrence might save the odd shot from the arc if it was right at him (definitely joking here, he’s played really well last couple of games). We conceded first again, scored a quick reply through Conal and then conceded again. We’d all had enough of not being able to pull away scorewise, so we sorted ourselves out and smacked in 3 more through Conal, Perry and BKS. I’d given up counting the goals by this point but was pretty sure we were a good few goals ahead so was pretty confident heading into the last quarter.

I then got in on the goal scoring act having missed a few half chances earlier in the game, swiftly followed by another from Horlock. Perry jumped in with a goal, and then another from Horlock. Conal then scored a tasty lob shot. He got rather hurt at some later suggestions that he might not have meant it, so I’m assuming he did. Well in. The navy did get in a solitary goal this quarter too to leave the final score at Southampton: Lots – Navy: Not so many.

After 3 consecutive wins there was only one way to properly celebrate, so in true SUWPC style we made our way across the road to the golden arches to celebrate like champions. Notable topics of conversation included the definition of ‘majority’ (not even for the first time this year for fucks sake) and the revelation that we’ve all been opening Oxo cubes wrong for years.

Sorry for the lack of details in the goals. All the polo this week has made my memory of all our amazing goals pretty blurry. There was definitely some nice goals, some good passing and moving and some good goalkeeping. Everything you want from a game. Also sorry if some of the details aren’t right, Conal says he got 4 goals but he’s down as 5 on the sheet so if I’m wrong let me know and I’ll adjust the stats accordingly.

Thanks also to Christian and Vids who didn’t get mentions because they weren’t on the scoresheet, but both’s contributions over the past week can’t be overlooked so thanks a lot guys.

 

GOALS

Conal 5

Perry 3

Horlock 3

BKS 2

Me 1

 

MAJORS
Perry 2

Christian 2

Me 2

Horlock 1

Vids 1