Brentwoodian 2019

57 This year has been a very challenging year for the Water Polo team. Having experienced a large decline in numbers with previous Upper Sixth Formers leaving, the team needed to work hard in the pool to achieve the results we were aiming for. This allowed for greater opportunities to compete at higher standard Water Polo for the younger players who are within the squad. We started off with the group stages of the national competition at Northampton Boys School. With marginal losses 5-4 and 3-1 to Bedford and Eton College respectively, we needed to win the remaining games against Cheltenham and Bedford Modern in order to progress to the championship stages of the competition. A strong performance from the whole team gained a deserved 7-4 victory against Cheltenham. An outstanding performance from Zach Davidson in goal supported by the attacking power of Philippos Manuelides and myself, ensured our first win of the tournament. With a lot of experience gained from playing against challenging opposition, the Water Polo Since seeing many of the younger years continue to grow (not just in height!) but in swimming ability the School sent, for the first time ever, the Second and Third year swim team to attend a training camp at Club La Santa in sunny Lanzarote during April, which proved to be a great opportunity for them to develop their swimming abilities and spend time with friends. The highlight of the year has been protecting our title as Brentwood and District Champions for another year running, making this the 15th year for both the boys and girls, a remarkable achievement, and I’m sure we hope this continues. I and the team would all like to say a massive thank you to Mrs Watson, with her intense but rewarding training sessions paying off, enabling us to continue to smash records and gain new and keep our existing titles. With early morning swims, the aching after an intense HIIT workout, or swimming more lengths than I can count, it has all been worthwhile, winning many and losing few, the Brentwood School Swimmers are not to be messed with! It has been an honour to work alongside you for the past two years, and it has been a pleasure to swim and cheer along all swimmers; I hope your enthusiasm and talent continues to grow. The laughs and memories in the pool and on poolside I will never forget. I wish all swimmers the best of luck in the future. Just keep swimming! By Rachel Burgin team was unfortunate not to secure a spot in the finals, following another narrow defeat to Bedford Modern. The lack of experience from the younger individuals was outweighed by their courageous efforts in the pool which ensured a respectable all- round team performance. Following on from the national tournament, we travelled to Eton College for our final tournament of the year. A full turnout from the boys was followed by two wins out of three. The hooligan support from the bench by Finlay Turner and Finlay Hardy boosted the morale of the team every time we scored. I’m still confident the reason for our full turnout was Mrs Watson’s scheduled McDonald’s visit after the tournament. Lastly, I would like to thank the team and the coach for their support this year and everyone’s tremendous efforts both in and out of the pool. By Jack Warman