What a year! After a challenging 9 matches in the Southern Premiership League, the time had come to wrap up the year with the final Bucs match against the second-place holders, Oxford. Despite a minorly inconvenient date in the middle of the Soton exam season, a dedicated (or blessed by the timetabling gods) 13 girls found themselves on redbrick awaiting their minibus chariot and charioteer Mr Michael Scott. A slightly late get away combined with the dreaded 5pm Southampton traffic meant the girls had a rather rushed start to the match with little warm up and a very quick team talk.

The match start as the ball was dropped in the middle, with Rhia and Lottie having to much of a yap to realised speedy fresher Isobel had in fact won the ball. Oops. This slightly shacky set up lead to an unsuccessful attack by the Soton seven and a goal for the home team. However, now with her mind fully in the game, Miss Perks did what Miss Perks does best and got herself a penalty for a chance to even the score. This was taken by Captain Lottie who had let slip that in 4 years of playing for the club had never taken a penalty. Feeling all the pressure, the penalty was taken, and the score was now 1-1. Oxford scored off their attack, but for the majority off the quarter both teams displayed some excellent defence, and the ball simply swept up and down the pool. This was until Lottie, eager to reinstate her major queen title earned an exclusion which gave Oxford another goal. Sorry Neve. She did redeem herself by getting another goal for Soton, but Oxford were quick off the starting line and scored another. Happy to join in on the match sheet, Rhia scored a beauty of a goal with only 20s remaining, leaving the final score 4-3. Not bad!

A quick chat from pool side coach Mr Jack James and Lottie, the girls lined up for the second quarter. Now prepared for Miss Neighbor’s speed, Oxford won the swim off and swiftly deposited the ball in the back off the net. The Oxford Number 7 then got a taste for goal feeling and proceeded to dominate the game with a further 3 goals in swift succession. Thankfully Rhia put a stop to this earning and taking a beautiful penalty bringing the score to 9-4. A slightly slow response from the girls lead to an unsuccessful man up and a couple more goals for Oxford. Coming to Soton’s aid again was Miss Perks with another goal, also followed by a swift penalty. However, due to a slightly questionable hesitation between the ref and the Oxford goalie loudly announcing she wasn’t ready, there was no goal for Southampton this time. The quarter end with a kick out for fresher Nuria and a score of 12-5 to Oxford.

Between swapping ends of the pool one of the refs helpfully informed Mia that she is in fact not allowed to place the opposition in a headlock again, as it wouldn’t help her play anyway. Her mistake. A change in play style from Oxford now had the Soton girls also shake up the positions a bit as they lined up to begin the second half. Isobel won the ball but a swift wrestle with Oxford earned them the ball but a swift reaction from Goalie Neve prevented a goal. The first three minutes were super tight between the two teams with neither wanting to concede the first goal. This was unfortunately broken as the Oxford number 7 scored a cheeky lob shot. This was answered by another goal from captain Lottie but swiftly nullified by Oxford. Excited by all the drama polo fresher Rain got herself an apparently inspiring exclusion as the Oxford number five also earned herself a kick out. The quarter came to end following three more goals from Oxford, but big shoutout to Neve for using her face to make sure it wasn’t four.

One quarter left of the match, with the Southampton girls still raring to go and hoping to score some more goals. Or maybe it was the thought of the baked goods waiting in the minibus kindly cooked by Miss Rowland and Miss Fairhurst. The quarter starts off strong with the first goal coming from Lottie for Soton. But both teams were keen to fight to the end, so several attacks were thwarted by each side. Another two goals were scored by Oxford before a fourth goal of the quarter was scored by Lottie. Miss Bugnar was clearly inspired by Lottie’s actions, just not her positive ones, as she earned herself not only an exclusion but a penalty. Thankfully a great save by Neve meant the scored remained 19-8. Happy to not be the only girl getting sent out, Lottie decided to do it again. My bad? Two more goals for Oxford and a stunning pit goal by Iris meant the match ended 21-9 and the girls successfully earned their place in the playoffs.

Although this won’t be the last match the girls play for Southampton this season, it was the last official Bucs match of the year so I’d like to say a big thank you to all our girls graduating this year. Immy Lancaster who despite only joining the team this year has been a wonderful addition to the girls both in and out the pool. Neve Rowland who has made leaps and bounds as goalkeeper, becoming a dependable member of defence (as she likes to say, has played every minute of every match). Georgia Skelton who has become an invaluable member of the team, scoring multiple goals (and majors) and being a well-rounded player. Lottie Ratledge who has never missed a Bucs match in her four years and has kindly captained the team for the past two years (you’re welcome). And Rhia Perks who is perhaps the best player the club has ever produced, having never played polo before university. Thank you, girls! Lastly, a big, big thank you to all the girls who have regularly attended training and who have all made massive improvements, as individuals and as a team, that leave me very excited to see what you will all achieve next year!

Written by Captain Lottie Ratledge.

Most Valuable Player: Neve Rowland for an incredible performance including a penalty save and a face save.

Dick of the Day: Lottie Ratledge for being just a girl and getting emotional at the end of the match!

Goals/Majors:

Neve Rowland 0/0

Nuria Martin Jimenez 0/1

Eleanna Fairhurst 0/0

Rain Chatterjee 0/1

Isobel Neighbour 0/0

Rhia Perks 3/0

Immy Lancaster 0/0

Georgia Skelton 0/0

Ella Evans 0/0

Lottie Ratledge 5/2

Iris Bugnar 1/1

Mia Spencer 0/0

Alice Hunter 0/0