Citizen 10th December 2010 - the City of London School

Friday December 10 2010
Page 15
Sport
City in finals of Independent Schools Swimming League
Citizen Sports Correspondent
The best swimmers from Old
Grammar, the First and Second
Form were selected and the
team travelled to Brentwood
School to take place in
the Independent Schools
Under Sixteen
Water Polo Tour
to Devon
Citizen School Sports Reporter
On 27 November the under sixteen water
polo team officially went on tour. The coach
trip was a learning experience for all as
we found out just how long it would take
for 100 bottles to fall off a wall; renditions
of ‘happy birthday’ were also on the cards
for Omer Kirdar. As per usual, luxurious
hospitality was expected and the school did
not disappoint with both the Travel Lodge
and KFC being provided. The North Devon
Leisure centre played host to the tournament
in which City were to play against three club
teams from around Devon.
The first match began badly, City failed to
keep track of their men and Paignton scored
some fast goals with City only managing
to scrape one back. At the end of the first
quarter we found our selves 3-1 down.
City responded emphatically, and ended up
Swimming League. The
team were confident of good
performances as they were
well prepared. Robert Dos
Santos broke a school record
by a massive 15 seconds in the
first race of the evening. More
records are likely to fall later in
the year when the relay teams
perfect their change overs and
shave valuable seconds off
their collective times.
City finished the gala in second
place and have qualified for the
finals which will be held next
romping to an 11-4 victory with slick attacks
and solid defence tearing apart the opposition
team. Notable contributions came from Albie
Duffy who scored three goals and Arthur
Lewis who scored four goals.
City were now really beginning to hit
their stride; their next match was against
Davenport, the weakest team in the
competition. The team hardly broke sweat
as they brushed their opponents aside
with considerable ease, the midfield of
Jack Pentol-Levy, Ollie Bolderson, Oscar
Emanuel, Josh Kenway and young’un Jack
Emlyn-Jones leading the way with all of the
boys contributing to the score sheet and the
defence was almost impenetrable. The end
score was a comfortable 17-1.
The final match was against Barnstaple
Water Polo Club. Barnstaple had dominated
the other teams in the competition in the
same way that City had; this left the final
match as the one that would decide the
competition. City found Barnstaple’s strength
and pace hard to deal with and a fast break
by their number 7 left City trailing within
the first two minutes and Devon’s locals
already seemed to be running away with the
term. Well done to those who
attended the gala and to those
who are pushing for places in
the team, keep working hard in
Junior Aquatics Club.
match. However the boys had spent a long
time waiting for this and were not going
to go down without a fight; an opportunity
presented itself soon after and City equalised
through a finely placed shot from Jamie
Moursy. Now that the boys saw that it could
be done they began to fight back against the
Barnstaple strength using guile and well
constructed attacks. Goals from Arthur Lewis
and the up and coming duo, Albie Duffy
and Mateo Castelnuovo left the opposition
reeling as the first half ended 5-1 to City.
The game now just needed to be seen out
and despite Barnstaple’s superior size and
increasingly dirty tactics; a defence made
up of Rene Zamudio, Jack Farkas and Jamie
Moursy never looked like letting the lead
slip. The match ended 5-3 to City leaving
them top in the competition.
The boys represented the school extremely
well and a special mention must be given
to goal keeper Venu Manikavasagar who
performed exceptionally well throughout
the competition. A special thank you must
go to Mr Jack Paxton who gave up his
weekend and endured many digs about the
Australian rugby team but not many about
the cricketers.