Report Author: Dan Ammon

Game: Southampton Men vs Basingstoke

Location: Basingstoke Aquadrome

Score: 8-15

Date: 28/02/23

On the eve of the 1^st of March, Soton’s biggest boys made a trek to Basingstoke to face their Hampshire league team. Arriving half an hour early, El Capitan had more than enough time to deliver an inspiring speech and game plan to the lads before we got into the pool. After warming up the match was underway with some cheerful screams from Soton’s fan girls.

The first quarter began with a bang as Basingstoke won the swim off which was followed by a goal. From a questionable call, Luke managed to give away a penalty which he was unable to save. The Southampton players realised that one of the Basingstoke players was not a a fast swimmer which we tried to exploit, however some in-game arguing foiled our attempts to score. This was followed by two more goals in the final two minutes from Basingstoke, ending the quarter at 4-0.

The second quarter began with Howard scoring a goal from a man up after one of their players thought is was okay to swim over someone’s back. Basingstoke retaliated with a goal but they did not keep this lead for long as Southampton came back with vengeance as Omar sling the ball into the top right corner of the goal. This was followed by Woody slamming it into the back of the net from pit attack. Basingstoke was not pleased with this so they managed to get Omar excluded – he clearly disagreed, as he wagged his finger at the ref. Basingstoke proceeded to score, followed by 2 more to bring the first half to a close at 8-3.

The third quarter began with Mr. Scott winning the swim off, followed by a lovely pass to Omar who scored. Soton then wasted another man-up which hindered the flow of the game as there were no goals or kickouts for another 3 minutes until Basingstoke score another halfway through the quarter. This gave Omar the motivation he needed to score another bounce shot under the keeper’s arms. Basingstoke scored another before another of their players got excluded to which, Soton capitalised as Omar scored another from on top of the arc. Once the game resumed Basingstoke got another exclusion with a beautiful pass into pit attack where Miroslav had an incredible backhand through the keeper’s arms, scoring a doughnut to end the third quarter at 10-7.

The final quarter began with Dimond getting kicked out of a very sus decision by the ref which led to a goal for Basingstoke. Basingstoke then proceeded to score another as they left a player to loaf on our side who was able to receive the ball and score a 1 on 1 against Luke. Finally taking matters into his own hands, El Capitan decided to score from the top of the arc as our opponents were focused on dropping on Omar in pit. After trying to steal the ball from Basingstoke, Omar gets hit in his eye which causes the play to stop as both refs saw but did not call an exclusion or brutality. Basingstoke then scored another three, bringing the match to a close at 15-8.

Man of the Match – Miroslav Milanov for scoring an incredible backhand while being marked by 2 players

Dick of the Day-  Luke Bennalick for somehow managing to get a penalty in the first few minutes

Names – Goals/Majors

Luke Bennalick – 0/1

Til Jordan – 0/0

Ed Wilkes – 0/0

Omar Tawakol- 4/1

Miroslav Milanov – 1/0

Dan Ammon – 1/0

Vincenzo Bancale – 0/0

Alex Wilmshurst – 0/1

Michael Scott – 0/0

Woody Cho – 1/0

Howard Teng – 1/1

Nathan Dimond – 0/1