Having had a close call with Basingstoke in the last Hampshire league match, Southampton Men’s team were ready for their first match with Southampton Bitter, an away fixture in Winchester. However, despite starting the week with a full team of 12, it seemed the water polo gods thought the Uni’s biggest boys needed a harder challenge so reasonable excuses including car trouble and antibiotics and blood meant that they would be paying with a team of 7.

After a brief warm up conserving their energy, and a tactics talk from Captain Finn Thomas, the first quarter was underway. Having a bench of 5 subs, Bitter were less worried about playing the long game and so won the swim off and a quick drive resulted in the first goal of the match in the first 11 seconds. Now seeing that the Soton City team were going to take full advantage of the Unis lack of subs, the boys began their first attack of the match, a drop on pit unfortunately stopped Finn from scoring and so the boys were back on the defensive but the ever reliable Luke stopped Bitter’s hopes for a counter. A few minutes later a clever set up lead to Bitter’s second goal of the match. Despite not being used to playing with shot clocks, Jack managed some lovely discards of the ball to give the boys time to get back in defense. Bitter managed 2 more goals before conceding their first exclusion. A beautifully executed man-up lead to the Uni’s first goal by Finn and the end of the quarter finished 4-1 to the home team.

Happy with the tactics so far, the slightly (okay very) out of breath boys jumped back in the pool for the second quarter after admiring Eds battle wound gained from some intense defense in the last few minutes of the quarter. With a fresh round of players, Bitter once again won the swim off and some clever arc work saw the first goal of the quarter leaving the score 5-1. It was at this point that Finn decided he wasn’t doing enough swimming so set off from half way before the refs whistle had him swimming back for a restart. Another goal from Bitter was quickly matched by Alex as the boys defense was quickly becoming their own enemy as several attacks were thwarted and so lots of swimming was done before Bitter cheekily lobbed Luke in goal, leaving the score 7-2. This was still not enough exercise for Finn as he proceeded to once again go and admire the oppositions goal before the starting whistle. Now having used all his energy, Finn received the Unis first exclusion of the match, but in his defense also got the Bitter played sent out as well. A goal from Bitter followed by Dan determine to one up his Captains gave away a penalty meaning the score was 9-2 going into the last minute. Not to be outdone, Bitter received their third exclusion and Soton’s biggest boys once again set up a beau ful man-up to finish the quarter 9-3.

Satisfied with their play so far, the Uni boys humbly accept their defeat and the game took on a fun turn as Bitter donated two of their players to the Uni team to allow Ed to heal his concussion and provide a sub. Ever consistent, the quarter kicked off with Bitter winning the swim off and scoring a goal. But, liking their successes with man-ups in the previous half, the first 5 minutes of the game alternated between an exclusion from Bitter and a goal for the Uni (including our adopted player Josh) until the score read 10-5. A pit pass and a back shot from Bitter that left Dan in awe wishing he’d done that for his goal and a third goal from our top scorer Finn finished the quarter 11-7.

The final quarter began with the Uni winning the swim off thanks to being able to sub but a half way shot from Dan narrowly missed the goal and a frustrating shot by Bitter floated just past the goal line giving Bitter the first goal of the quarter. This was matched by Alex as the quarter continued with all the boys doing some excellent defense and attack. A very clean quarter meant no one was sent out but three more goals to Bitter and one to the Uni left 7 seconds in the match as each goalie decided to test out their full length shots but no goals le the score sheet at 15-9 (the official score was left on 18-6).

Both teams then left the pool in good spirits to head to the pub for a pint before driving back to Southampton for some well-deserved rest.

Man of the Match: Woody, a massive presence in the pool, had the bitter boys quaking.

Dick of the day: Sa𝑚2, George and Noah who pulled out last minute (even if they were very good excuses).

Goals/Majors
Luke Bennalick 0/0
Ed Wilkes 1/0
Finn Thomas 3/1
Daniel Ammon 1/1
Jack James 0/0
Alex Wilmshurst 2/0
Woody Cho 0/0

Written by Lottie