The City of Manchester women have taken the honours at the British Water Polo Championships after a day of highly competitive action at Manchester Aquatics Centre.
The final was a nail-biting affair, with City of Manchester and Liverpool unable to be separated in both normal and extra time. It was the City of Manchester team who finally took the title after emerging 13-12 winners in the sudden death penalty shoot-out.
Liverpool’s Hannah Wild put the first score on the board when Ros Griffiths conceded a penalty but Manchester hit straight back as captain Kate Lewis found the back of the net. The rest of the first quarter consisted of end to end stuff as both Liverpool and Manchester hit the bar but neither team could take advantage of exclusions on both sides.
The second quarter was just as keenly fought as Liverpool captain Wild had a shot tipped over the crossbar before Chloe Wilcox gave Manchester the lead for the first time. Fiona McCann struck back for Liverpool and Rachael Drabble sent Liverpool into the lead at the end of the second quarter.
Both teams had chances in the third quarter but defensive play kept both sides at bay. The final quarter began just as tight, with Victoria C Hawkins leveling the score with just five and a half minutes left in the game for Manchester.
As the end of the match approached both sides had their eyes on goal, and the captain’s led by example with Wild putting her side back in front with just two minutes and 50 mins left before Manchester’s captain Kate Lewis hit back within 30 seconds to tie the score.
Not to be outdone, Wild found the net with a brilliant lob to complete her hat-trick, before Manchester’s Vicki L Hawkins found the net.
With less than a second left on the clock Manchester called a time out and went for goal but couldn’t take advantage and the game went into extra time.
Wilcox gave Manchester the edge with just over a minute left in the first period of extra time, but Liverpool hit back before Manchester’s Alex Rutlidge produced a long range shot to give them the lead once again. Sustained possession paid off for Liverpool as Drabble struck from the edge of arc to make the scores 7-7.
With just over 30 seconds left, Manchester called a time-out but Sarah Pimblett couldn’t make the pressure count from the restart and Liverpool called their own time-out with just eight seconds remaining. Drabble shot just wide on the restart and the match end 7-7 after extra time, taking the match to penalties.
Pimblett got her side off to a great start as she took and scored Manchester’s first penalty. But not to be outdone Liverpool captain Wild also scored, although Manchester keeper Robyn Nicholls got her finger tips to the ball.
Misses by Manchester’s Rebecca Benson and Wilcox kept the teams level, leaving the pressure on Liverpool’s Fiona McCann to take the final of the ten penalities. And it showed as her shot was stopped by Nicholls but it trickled out of the keeper’s hands and just over the line – although half of the Manchester team were already in the water celebrating the win before the referee awarded the goal.
The game went to sudden death and Manchester scored theirs but Benson was unable to find the back of the net and hand the match to Manchester.
Manchester’s captain Kate Lewis said: “It was a fabulous match. Whenever we play Liverpool it is a really good game and this season they have beaten us twice in the league and we have won once, so this settled a score.
“As we went into penalties I could feel the nerves building up and I started to feel a little bit sick. But we have just a absolutely fantastic team and it finally showed.”
In the women’s third and fourth place match, West London Penguin showed their strength, overcoming their Sheffield opponents 12-6.
A hat-trick from Bernice Cowton was the highlight for Sheffield but it was not enough to overcome Penguins, who went into the second half of the match already 7-2 and continued to dominate with a stand out performance from professional dancer Charlotte Hanson.
