179 WATER Polo 1ST TEAM We began the season with a young and somewhat wide-eyed team at the Pretoria Boys tournament against some tough opposition.The boys soon found their fins and began to play with confidence.The results reveal a hard fought win against a very strong Affies team and an excellent performance against Jeppe.The team gained much needed experience and began to show signs of promise. A combination of interrupted preparation and an untimely encounter with Clifton (who are arguably the strongest school team in the country) severely dented our confidence just before the Clifton tournament. Despite this, the boys gave of their best and put together some exceptional passages of play against top opposition, most notably against Bishops and St Stithians who were silver and bronze medallists respectively. Again we drew much experience and our team spirit began to develop. Our expectation for the Top 10 tournament wasn’t very high given our warmup league results and our tough draw but we knew that if we challenged key matches, we would do well. Our first day was exceptional: running both Michaelhouse and Glenwood very close and turning the tables onWestville to push ourselves out of the dreaded last place playoff. Sadly though, Clifton once again put us into a downward spiral and we lost two games we really should have won. Maybe we were a little shor t on fitness but we cer tainly played beyond expectations. A week later we turned in our most complete performance of the season to comprehensively beat Maritzburg College and we ended the year strongly with a comfor table win against St Charles in which the team played a well-rounded match. The results don’t make good reading but they don’t reflect some truly excellent play and the great camaraderie of this team.What they do show is how we improved substantially against almost every team we played. My thanks are extended to captain, Patrick Zietkiewicz, for his calm and determined leadership. Also to the matrics who set a fine example for the rest of the boys.The younger players have endured an enormous learning curve and are developing into a very promising unit.With extra commitment and confidence, I look forward to a strong showing next year. Chris Reardon Played: 31 Won: 7 Lost: 24 Drew: 1 WATERPOLO 1ST Back row: S Phillips, C Dunnett, G Sander, J Meyer, R Jackson, J Morse, T Muller, L Croshaw Front row: S Tedder, A schoeman, P Zietkiewicz (captain), Mr C Reardon (coach), A Quenet, L Missio, T Beunk-Burgess With grateful thanks to Bruce Rencken
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