Seagulls' water polo juniors take bronze (From Bournemouth Echo)

Seagulls' water polo juniors take bronze

7:00am Thursday 2nd July 2009 in

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CHRISTCHURCH and New Milton Seagulls’ under-15 squad continued their march up the water polo rankings when they secured the bronze medal podium place in the ASA South West Championships.

The tournament at Exeter featured the eight strongest junior clubs in the region and the young Seagulls squad narrowly missed out on an even higher placing.

Seagulls’ only blip in their qualifying group was a 7-3 defeat to pre-tournament favourites Cheltenham in their opening match.

But convincing wins against home team Exeter (7-2) and tournament newcomers Devonport (12-2) saw them through to a semi-final showdown against Newton Abbot.

The south Devon club, fielding a strong team that featured six county plays including one who has recently been called up to the Great Britain junior squad, pinned Seagulls into their own half as they raced into a 5-0 lead after just four minutes.

Two substitutions and a half-time team talk saw Seagulls claw their way back to 5-3, then hit the post in the dying seconds before Newton Abbot scored again to go through 6-3.

Newton Abbot went on to take the title with a 5-4 win over Cheltenham in the final.

Seagulls’ coach Rob Webber said: “We targeted a top four finish so to finish third losing only to the two eventual finalists is a massive step up for us and a vindication of the hard work put in by both players and coaches alike.

“The bonus is that half of our squad will still be in this age group next year.”

A rival coach said: “Seagulls have reached a point where other teams now hope to see them in the other half of the draw.”

U15 squad: Georgina Crossley, Charles Elderfield, Megan Fletcher, Joe Foale-Groves, David Gallagher, Nick Hardacre, Mikey Kingsley, Cianan Mann, Jackson Mullins, Ali Rogers, Charlie Roberts, Sam Webber, Natasha Webber, Elliot Wilks.