The stage was set for the lads’ final home game of the year. Being a Hampshire league game, optimistic isn’t the word I’d use to describe how we felt, but with Pres’s assurance that this was winnable, we entered hopeful.

11 of the biggest of boys lined up, and true to form, our soon-to-be captain Finn won the swim off, and within a few minutes of back and forth, he secured the first goal of the game with another true-to-form performance with a back shot from the left post – standard stuff from him. The rest of the quarter didn’t go quite so hot, with the quarter ending 1-3, not too bad attacking the shallow.

We fought hard in the second quarter, both scoring and going man down 3-times in those glorious 7 minutes. The goals came from the likely suspects, with 2 from Omar and one from Mr. Teng, while the blokes from Bournemouth only managed one in the last minute, leaving us 4-4 at the end of the second quarter. For a minute there we were actually winning! It’s a rare feeling for us with the fun days of Essex and Barts far in the rear-view mirror, so we’ve got the savour the small things.

The third quarter sadly did not go quite so swimmingly (bad dum tuss), as Bournemouth managed to get three past Luke’s very able hands, with our only retort being another goal from our Egyptian superstar Omar. This left us with a score line of 5-7, the game was very much in reach, the oracle that is Pres was bang on in the pre-game chat. However, we had lost a powerful asset in Mr. Teng as he came down with cramp, though any onlookers couldn’t be blamed for thinking he’d been kicked in the head by a mule with his Shakespeare worthy flop on the side of the pool which managed to scare the lifeguards into action. Far from his first time doing that either, the man terrorises lifeguards like no other.

The final quarter was a bloody one, not literally of course despite how happy this would make our VP as it would have made one hell of a battle scars tik-tok, but 6 exclusions is a tidy few. Finn kicked things off with an early exclusion followed by a very tasty goal leaving him on 2 majors and 2 goals. Omar sadly only followed him in one aspect, joining our captain-to-be on 2 majors. Unfortunately Bournemouth then fired back, scoring 2 goals in one minute leaving the game at 6-9 with 2 and a half minutes to go. Scott then finally decided to get those lovely long arms of his working, pinging one in, and leaving us just 2 goals down.

The final minute and a half was fought hard, the lads went full pelt in attack, but despite our best efforts, this only garnered us another 2 majors, going to El Capitan and Pres, and one for Bournemouth’s captain.

Southampton’s biggest of boys walked out of our last game of the season with our heads held high, we may have lost, but we played easily one of best games of the season and very nearly came away with a victory, a game as close as 7-9 could easily have gone our way.

Man of the Match: Finn Thomas

The scoresheet will tell you that Finn had a great game, scoring 2 of our 7 goals, but this is not the reason he wins this most illustrious of awards. Finn played a big role in maintaining team morale and keeping us going in the pool and during the team talks, and I for one am very excited to play under him in the coming season.

Dick of the Day: Howard Teng

The man effectively played dead for a quarter because of a cramp.

Names – Goals/Majors 

Michael Scott – 1/0

Edward Wilkes – 0/0 

Omar Tawakol – 3/2

Daniel Ammon – 0/2 

Finn Thomas – 2/2 

Alex Wilmshurst – 0/1

Sam Ellis – 0/0

Howard Teng – 1/1

Nathan Dimond – 0/0

Luke Bennalick – 0/0