North West Thunder win U18 Inter Regionals in Blackpool

North West Thunder stormed to victory at the U18 Girls Division 1 Inter-Regional Water Polo Championships in Blackpool.

Thunder were the only team to win all four matches over the weekend and sealed the title with a crucial victory over defending champions South West in their final game.

England Water Polo U19 Assistant Coach Sue Webb was watching from the sidelines, observing her squad players as they look towards the World Youth Championships in Serbia in August.

“The girls had worked hard in training to improve their overall fitness after the Christmas break,” said head coach Lauren Tasker.

“They applied the team tactics which really showed over the four-match tournament. It was an excellent weekend of junior water polo from all teams and it was great to be a part of it.”

Eight goals for Boniface-Ashton in opener

The North West side took on the East Region in Saturday’s first match and comfortably ran out 18-3 victors thanks largely to eight goals from centre forward Molly Boniface-Ashton and excellent goalkeeping from Annie Holt, who saved two penalties.

Next up were last year’s bronze medalists South East, who held them at 10-8 at half-time following a second period hat-trick from Lily Turner.

However, North West centre forwards Molly Boniface-Ashton and Thea Simpson were too strong for the South East defence, scoring 12 goals between them to secure a 14-11 win.

Sunday saw the North West carry on where they left off on Saturday by demolishing London 20-2 which gave them their biggest winning margin of the weekend. Tournament Top Goalkeeper Annie Holt shut them out completely for final three quarters.

Their final match of the weekend was to decide the gold and silver medal positions and although the South West kept the game tight until half-time, a decisive third quarter performance from the North West saw them score three without reply to lead 9-5 going into the fourth.

A spirited effort by Katy Cutler in the final period, scoring three goals on behalf of the South West, meant the North West had to keep their concentration to the end for their 13-9 victory.

South West took consolation with an overall silver while South East won bronze with victories over London and East Angels.

This result means the North West Region currently hold all three women’s age-group titles in the Inter-Regional Championships.

Wales win Division Two Title

Wales won a closely-fought battle for the Division Two title at Woodside Leisure Centre in Watford.

While they drew their opening match 8-8 with Scotland, an 8-7 defeat of West Midlands proved crucial.

The Welsh side finished on seven points with three wins and a draw with West Midlands second and Scotland third.

“It was a great weekend of water polo, capped by Wales winning Division 2,” said Welsh head coach Phil Whiting.

“We had two really hard games, in which we went behind, but fought back to draw against Scotland and win by a goal against West Midlands.

“To win Top Goalkeeper and Top Scorer was the icing on the cake!“

Results and Group Table

Click or tap on ‘PDF’ to download a match sheet for each fixture.