Otter Peggy Etiebet recently organized a training camp for the GB U17 Girls in Szentes as part of their preparation for the Baku European Olympics 2015. Four other Otters, Mhari Nuthern, Kathy Rogers and Izzy Dean - who was team Captain for the tour were selected for the trip with Nick Buller as head coach. Peggy went along as team manager - her first overseas trip as a team manager.
Otter Holly Campbell has been busy representing Scotland over the summer. Playing a key role in the Scottish women’s recent bronze medal at the EU 5 nations tournament in Switzerland with a convincing 15-6 win over a resurgent Denmark. Nice work Holly.
Otter Women’s water polo players – Brooke Tafazolli, Tilda Williams ,Hannah Patchett, Kathy Rogers competed for GB U/19s at the 2014 European Champs in Ostia finishing in 7th place. The team finished second in Group B after comfortable wins against Portugal (14-6) and Slovakia (10-7) lost against Italy (1-16) and Russia (4-23) before beating Ukraine in the seventh place playoff match.
The Championships followed training camps for the team in Manchester, Holland, Serbia, Romania & Hungary.
Congratulations Brooke, Tilda, Hannah & Kathy.
Congratulations to Peggy for winning the London swimming Waterpolo Athlete of the year award.
In 2013/14 Peggy made her full International debut for GB and represented GB at the World Championships in Barcelona, World League Games, the European Qualifiers and at the European Championships In Budapest. She played the season in the Hungarian National League. Her team won the Hungarian National League and in doing so she became the first ever British player to win a Hungarian Water Polo Championship. She was granted the award as she is a wonderful role medal who gives back to the sport coaching England Talent and the Crystal Palace Beacon Programme, acting as a team manager for the GB U17 girls team and helping with club organisation.
Otter took a small team made up of Otter & Otter Lutra players to Hamburg over the August long weekend for some pre-season friendly games vs recently promoted Dutch club team SGHA & Hamburg ETV. Otter won all 6 games played. Huge thanks to Hamburg ETV for hosting us again, we had a brilliant time. Come over to London soon!
The Great Britain under 17s water polo team have returned as runners-up from the 4 Nations International Tournament in Warendorf, Germany which was held from 14 - 17 August.
Otters Izzy Dean, Mhairi Nurthen & Anna Szyszko represented GB U/17s at the Tournament, where many of their games were against older opponents. Otter Izzy Dean was named Captain for the tour & Otter coach Nick Buller was part of the coaching staff.
The Otters juniors performed brilliantly this weekend at the National Age Group Championships. The U17s are as of today the National Age Group Youth champions beating Liverpool in the final 10 - 7. The U19s were National Age Group Junior Bronze medal winners beating Crawley 15 - 10. Otter Izzy Dean was also nominated MVP for the weekend! A massive congratulations to both teams & coach Nick Buller.
Congratulations to Otter Holly Campbell who has been selected in Scotland's team for the Commonwealth Water Polo Championships! Good luck Holly.
Otter Women’s Water Polo player Peggy Etiebet won the Hungarian National Championship this week with her team Szentes. After sailing past ZF-Eger with three straight wins in their playoff semi-final, Szentes saw off Dunaujvaros by 3-1 in the final, winning the first two matches 14-13 and 9-8 respectively, losing the third game 8-5, then claiming the title with a 15-14 victory in game four.
“The atmosphere at all the games has been electric,” said Etiebet. "The play-offs take place on a home and away basis over a best of five games series.
“The stands were packed with exuberant and very noisy fans. The town really got behind the team and it has been a fantastic finish to the season.”
Congrats Peggy!
Otter ladies first team have won silver after going down 15-12 vs Liverpool Lizards in the final of the British championships.
In a close match that saw both sides attack and defend well, Liverpool’s strong start proved decisive in their eventual victory over Super 5s Champions Otter (5-1, 3-4, 3-3, 4-4).
Liverpools Rachel Drabble opened the scoring and took advantage of a man-up to score her second of the quarter. Otter’s Sarah Benett replied but two goals from Liverpool’s Lauren Tasker and one from Liverpool Captain Fiona McCann meant they finished the quarter four goals ahead.
Good build up play, some cracking goals from Liz 'Turny' Dunn and movement in the pit gave Otter the edge in the second quarter with a 4-3 win. But a goal and penalty conversion from Liverpools Katie Hesketh gave the Lizards a lead of three at the end of the first half.
Otter came out fighting in the second half with four goals from Captain Lexi Higlett and some important saves from Goalkeeper Tracey Allen. The two teams were tied during the last two periods but Liverpool’s first quarter lead proved too great for the London club to come back from and the match finished 15 – 12.
