The match began well with a goal from Mike, scored from the pit before Bournemouth immediately fought back and were unlucky not to score as the ball hit the Basingstoke goal post. Hilton then made a sprint towards goal before earning a penalty, which he successfully scored. With Basingstoke now leading by two goals, Geoff enabled the team to cling to this lead as he made an excellent save to deny Bournemouth their first goal of the match. Just before the end of the quarter Ross decided to choose optimism over realism and attempted the impossible feat of trying to score with his armpit! Result……unsuccessful!

An outstanding pass from Pauline opened the second quarter, it was just a pity that it went directly to a Bournemouth player! A goal from Hilton then took the score to 0-3 and another save from Geoff kept Bournemouth from gaining their opening goal. Bournemouth finally managed to get onto the score sheet with an unstoppable shot from half way before Hilton added his third of the match to take the score to 1-4.

The third quarter began with a shot on goal from Mark. Unfortunately a freak gust of wind blew the ball off course and it went just wide- at least that was the popular excuse at the time! A goal from Mike increased Basingstoke’s lead to 4 goals (1-5) and yet another from Hilton took the score to 1-6. Bournemouth then scored their second before the quarter ended with Gerry being sent out for apparently drowning a Bournemouth player. He was heard to argue that he “got the ball then shoved him under” but the referee was having none of it!

Geoff started the final quarter with yet another fine save but Bournemouth got the rebound and placed the ball in the back of the net to take the score to 3-6. Mark responded with a goal from 5m (3-7) and Pauline’s attempt from 7m was just saved by the Bournemouth keeper. Two more saves from Geoff kept the score at 3-7 before Gerry climbed out mumbling something about chest pains! A one-two between Matthew and Hilton led to Hilton’s fifth goal before a final save by Geoff ended the match with Basingstoke winning convincingly 3-8.

Man of the match: Geoff, too many saves to count!
Donkey of the match: Ross, for attempting to score a goal with his armpit!

The mens A team extended their Hampshire league unbeaten record with a well deserved victory of away to Bournemouth.

The Bluefins showed great character and team work to come from behind to beat the home team 11 - 8.

Bournemouth had home advantage in the narrow and shallow pool. This was helped by the greater numbers of the Bournemouth team, Buefins only had 1 sub.

Bournemouth tried to take advantage of the numerical supremecy by working hard in the first 2 periods. By half time they were leading 6 - 3. Bluefins were kept in the game by 2 great distance strikes by man of the match Paul Adams and a goal by Ben Naylor.

The strong Bluefins team work started to pay off in the 3rd period. Bluefins wore down the home team, with good goals from Alan Fairhead, Trace Morgan, Dave Trewhella and Paul Adams. Solid defensive work from Steve Paton and goalie Brad Mcbain kept Bournemouth at bay. Bluefins finished the 3rd period 7 - 6 up.

Going in to the last period Bluefins kept up the pressure and 2 more excellent long range strikes from Adams, a lovely back hander fron Fairhead helped Bluefins close out the game as 11 - 8 winners.

Captain Paton was especially pleased with the great team work shown by the Bluefins, in light of recent dissapointment in the Lady Richmond Brown tournament.

Bluefins were:

Brad Mcbain, Steve Paton, Paul Adams, Ben Naylor, Trace Morgan, Alan Fairhead, Dave Trewhella & Andrew Wilcox

Team: Pauline Lipscombe, Michael Hammond, Brad McBain, Hilton Quinn, Matthew Hodgkin, Robert Stone-Ward, Matthew
Welfare, Tom Penrose, Ross Corbishley, Nicky Stewart, Geoff Wellman, Lizzie, Tom
Penrose, Paul Grishin; Coach: Dave Bush

Basingstoke-B 7, Bournemouth 10

Last time we played Bournemouth the score was

Basingstoke-B 2, Bournemouth 12, so we can be pretty satisfied with tonight's result. Admittedly our first quarter was rubbish, but this is becoming
a bit of a B team thing. Next match we must all resolve to start the game with more passion. If we exclude the first quarter from the results we actually won
the match tonight 6-5.

We're playing Bournemouth again next month, so third time lucky

Man of the match: Geoff, improving every game Donkey of the match: Brad, for that rubbish lob in the third

The Basingstoke 'polo team finished a disappointing third in the Lady Richmond Brown waterpolo tournament at the Aquadrome. The team were hoping to challenge for the top spot of the Hampshire club tournament, but let themselves down in their second game versus University of Southampton.

They started the tournament well seeing off an emerging Weymouth team 4 – 2. The Bluefins needed to start well as all of the games were being played as two halves of 5 minutes. Weymouth pushed hard for the equaliser, but good defensive work by the Bluefins kept Weymouth at bay. Bluefins extended their lead to 2 – 0 at the half way stage. Weymouth started strong and scored to bring the score back to 2 – 1. Bluefins responded with two more goals, to Weymouth’s one to end the game 4 – 2 victors.

Next up were the well organised Southampton University team. Bluefins started badly with the university team taking a 1 goal lead. Bluefins finally managed to get themselves in to the game, closing the first half out 1 – 1. During the second period Bluefins teamwork fell apart and the team struggled to convert numerous chances. Bluefins managed to break the dead lock ad pull ahead 2 – 1, with a minute to go. The Uni team pressed hard and poor defensive organisation let the Uni team in to score in the last 10 seconds to level the match 2 – 2.

Bluefins next game against Hampshire U19s was critical as goal difference could influence which teams would be playing for the top 2 spots in the tournament. Bluefins pulled ahead in the game to an 8 – 0 start, before slack defence let the U19s score, with the game finishing 8 – 1. Unfortunately the goal difference wasn’t enough and the Uni team beat the Bluefins for a place in the final.

A bitterly disappointed Bluefins team had to play Andover for third/fourth play off spot. Bluefins were determined to finish the game on a positive note, they beat Andover 6 – 2. If they had shown the form of the last game versus the Uni then Bluefins would have been playing for the trophy in the final.

City of Southampton retained their trophy, comfortably beating the University team after a close first half.

Final Scores

Heats:

City of Southampton 4-0 Portsmouth (13:00)

Weymouth 0-3 Basingstoke (13:15)

Bournemouth 1-2 Andover (13:30)

Hants u/19 0-7 Southampton Uni (13:45)

City of Southampton 3-0 Andover (14:00)

Basingstoke 2-2 Southampton Uni (14:15)

Bournemouth 2-5 Portsmouth (14:30)

Weymouth 7-3 Hants u/19 (14:45)

City of Southampton 6-0 Portsmouth (15:00)

Basingstoke 8-1 Hants U/19 (15:15)

Portsmouth 2-5 Andover (15:30)

Weymouth 0-7 Southampton Uni (15:45)

Play-offs:

7th v 8th

Bournmouth 5-2 Hampsire u19 (16:00)

5th v 6th

Portsmouth 2-1 Weymouth (16:15)

3rd v 4th

Basingstoke 6-2 Andover (16:30)

1st v 2nd

City of Southampton 6-1 Uni of Southampton (16:45)