We knew from the home game at Crown Pools Colchester were a powerful side, but on arrival at Colchester on Sunday evening we spotted they had a good number of players described by some parents poolside – “built like a brick ………..” .

Colchester won possession at the start and immediately attack the Torpedoes goal scoring first of many for their No 7.  SC Torpedoes hit back with a goal from James, they then got another couple before Rufus got on the score sheet with his first goal. Colchester used their power to score three more despite some excellent defending from Kirsty and Pheobe’s excellent goal keeping. So 6-2 down at the end of the 1st.

Into the second, Colchester continued to dominate scoring 4 more with only one in reply from Robert for torpedoes. 11-3 down.

After the break Colchester rested a couple of their “leviathans”, this gave the SC Torpedoes players more time and space to play some really good attacking water polo resulting in 3 goals for James and 2 for Rufus with only one in reply from Colchester.  That had narrowed the score to 12-8. Only 4 goals in it.

Realising Torpedoes were getting the upper hand, the leviathans were put back into the water and they forced two more goals before the end of the quarter ending finishng 14-8.

Final quarter Colchesters domination continued adding 5 more goals to score line with game finishing  19-8.

Well done to all our players all gave 110% but again the victory eluded them. So that is for competitive matches now for summer, the next match for U15s is 27 Sept at Crown Pools against Bishops Storford.

SC Torpedoes Team – Pheobe Vale, Robert Johnson, Kirsty Logan, Jess Temple, Nathan Griggs, Andy Perry, James Leney, Brooke Flower, Rufus Church, Billy Vale, Faye Hermon

SC Torpedoes Goal Scorers – James x 4, Rufus x 3, Robert x 1.

In looking at the score line from last nights U15s game you would think that this was a very one sided affair with Ipswich dominating.

Yes they did dominate the scoring but they did not dominate the play as you can see from the opening paragraph their match report. “Interesting game tonight, SC torpedoes played a good game gave us a run for the whole game, which is not reflected in the scoreline. We were able to find space and get goals when in front of goal despite their excellent keeper who stopped a good deal of shots at both ends of the pitch. Our offence found it tough also against Kirsty Logan in pit defence who eventually used her 3 personal fouls and was expelled in Q4 (to the delight of the Ipswich offence, Brad and James!).”

Ipswich are saying they did not find it easy and they felt they had to work hard to win, so well done to our players who gave a 100% last night. So whilst a heavy defeat is never easy to taste we did come up against a good side who showed us how to exploit space if it is made available.

I learnt something from the game last night– in 5 years of watching water polo, and skimming the rules once I never realised a player would be excluded from the rest of the game if he/she committed three fouls. Never seen that before.

Our u15s team is built of a number of experienced players and those still learning the nuances of match play so with more experience I am sure the team will become stronger and score a hatful of goals ourselves.

SC torpedoes team. – Pheobe Vale, Robert Johnson, Faye Hermon, Rufus Church, Jess Temple, Conall Smyth, Andy Perry, Kirsty Logan, Brooke Flower, Adam Palmer.

SC torpedoes ONLY scorer!  – Rufus x 2.

So next up away to Colchester on Sunday, a chance to erase this from our memory, the home game was tight with torpedoes only losing by one goal so this encounter could go either way.