Otters dominate on the golf course?

The 2014 edition of the Otter golf tournament was one of the closest and most memorable events of many a year. It had a classy field, packed with experience and nous (some of it even golf-related). In a tense event, the humble organiser, a certain Mr A. Craig managed to get around with minimal 3 putting. A couple of fluky holes, including a 3 at the (par 5) 7th hole, ensured an unassailable total of 28 points.

Peter Rae was the worthy runner-up and el Presidente, Mr Hindle, a distant third. Certain other esteemed members of the swimming fraternity didn’t really trouble the scorers, but we will leave them to stew in anonymity - this time around!

Once again, the post-golf lunch was a well-attended affair and a delicious spread was laid on by the Royal Wimbledon Golf Club (RWGC). Many thanks are owed, in particular to those who managed to navigate their way around one of London’s most picturesque (and occasionally tricky) courses and the RWGC for allowing a bunch of less than reputable aquatic mammals to roam freely on its hallowed greens.

Otter wins top ladies’, men’s and overall trophies at Middlesex

Once again Otter put together a large team for the Middlesex County Championships, this year held at Barnet Copthall Leisure Centre on 1 June. Despite other clubs aiming to topple us from our position as county champions, a strong team effort saw Otter dominate throughout and come home with the men’s, ladies’ and overall team titles.

Otter win U/17s National Age Group Youth championships & claim Bronze in the U19 competition.

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. 

Holly Campbell selected to represent Scotland at the Commonwealth Games

Congratulations to Otter Holly Campbell who has been selected in Scotland's team for the Commonwealth Water Polo Championships! Good luck Holly.  

Etiebet Wins the Hungarian National Champs

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 runners up at British Water Polo champions

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.

Annual Bath and Otter Cup contested at Aquatics Centre

In March the Bath and Otter Cup competition was hosted at the London Aquatics Centre, with representatives from Independent Schools across the UK taking advantage of being among some of the first to race in the Olympic pool since it reopened, and some of Otter’s members volunteering to support by officiating. In 2014, Whitgift lifted the Bath Cup and Otter Medley, with Guildford High School winning the girls’ events.

Otter’s men’s team would normally compete in the pre-Bath Cup, held the day before, but due to a scheduling mix up stood down in 2014. Hopefully, we will be back competing in 2015 in this prestigious and historic event.

Otter crowned Super 5 champions

Otter won their first-ever British League title by defeating reigning champions City of Manchester 16-14 in a pulsating Super 5s decider at the Surrey University pool, Guildford (26 January).

The London club led 5-4 and then 10-6 at the end of the first two quarters and were only briefly under serious pressure when Manchester fought back to trail 12-11 towards the end of the third.

Otter captain Lex Higlett, who finished the match with seven goals then struck a decisive blow. With 30 seconds of Otter possession almost completed and the defence anticipating the ball would be dumped, the Australian whipped a fine shot into the net from an acute angle. Another Otter goal early in the final quarter stretched the lead to 14-11, effectively ending the Manchester challenge. Victory clinched a special double for the Otter club - their Lutra team won Championship 1.

Congrats to the whole Otter Super 5's championship team. Sarah Tollefson, Liz Dunn, Vicky Bowen, Fran Leighton, Tracey Allen, Brooke Tafazolli, Sarah Bennett, Michelle Sazama, Emma Shkurka, Rox Hargraeves, Lex Higlett, Vivi Castagna, Sammy Owen & Coach Nick Buller. 

Undefeated Otter Lutra win Championship 1

Otter Lutra are the new winners of Championship 1, chalking up three wins at Grantham (30 November/1 December) to finish with a 100 per cent record. They will be joined in Division One at the start of next season by Sheffield Sharks and Leeds Sharks.

Otter had to work hard for their points. They beat Manchester Comets 7-4 - hat-tricks from Holly Campbell and Hannah Patchett - Leeds 9-6 and had to rely on a last quarter hat-trick from Hannah Patchett to clinch a 6-5 win over Mid Sussex Marlins, who had led 5-3 with four minutes remaining.

Otter players, back row, left to right: Emily Grant, Hannah Patchett, Ellie Danielson, Lindsey Williams, Rebecca Mulcahy, Isabelle (Izzy) Dean. Front: Marie Mulligan, Catherine Freeman, Jennifer Darnborough, Juliet Edey, Mhairi Nurthen and Holly Campbell.

Success for Otter at Masters Short Course National Championships

When the rest of the UK was in lock down preparing for the impending Hurricane an intrepid group of 35 Otters travelled up to Sheffield for the GB Masters Short Course Nationals, where the fearless folk from Otter put their swimming skills to the test against the very best Masters swimmers from around the UK. There was success across the board for Otter, with team members old and new all posting some impressively fast times, winning medals and national titles to boot. 

It was great to see some new faces competing for Otter to join some well-established ranks this year. We had first competitive appearances for Otter at National level from Felicity Hannon, Lex Higlett, Olivia Reynolds and Will Wall.

There were some fantastic results over the weekend and it’s been a difficult task selecting the highlights from such a strong set of results.

• The “Otter Old Boys” (Derek Parr, James Stewart, Mike Wake, Roger Lloyd-Mostyn, Roger Philips and Tony Ray) demonstrated they are a class act by winning multiple national relay titles in the 280+ age group.
• Nico Barber not only completing the 50m, 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m f/cprogramme (phew!) but also becoming National champion in his age group in 400m and 800m f/c.
• Gina Hobson winning multiple National titles and comfortably breaking 60 seconds for the 100m freestyle.
• Ted Evans having a great meet leaving Sheffield as a multiple national medallist.
• Olivia Reynolds for digging out her old suit, doing the wiggle dance and confounding her own expectations by setting masters PBs and being close to her all-time best swims in all the sprint freestyle events and not just the 50!
• Sprint specialist Matt Davis stepping up when it mattered with some exceedingly fast 50m swims both in the relays and individuals, in particular winning the 50m back national title.
• Middle distance queens Katie Kerr and Michelle Senecal winning National titles in the 200m back and 200m fly respectively.
• Dave Roberts once again showed class in both the 100m and 200m freestyle winning national titles with some extremely fast swims throughout the weekend.
• The Otter women dominated the freestyle relays with the 120+ 4x100m f/c team of Lex Higlett, Helen Prentice, Jess Trevellick and Jane McMenemy and the 120+ 4x50m f/c team of Gina Hobson, Lex Higlett, Olivia Reynolds and Cat Hasnain posting some impressively quick split times and winning by a clear margin in both events. Well done ladies!
• Topping off a very successful weekend for Otter, Dave Warren again showed his dominance in the pool by breaking the 200m f/c British record and dipping under the one minute barrier for the 100m IM lowering his own GB record in the process! Congratulations Dave!

Tony again stepped up to the challenge of “herding cats” also known as making sure that every Otter relay team got to the blocks on time, in the right lane, in the correct heat and with 4 swimmers ready to go! Not an easy task – thanks Tony!

Thanks to Coach Steve for his great work getting us all in tip top shape for Sheffield and his help and guidance on poolside throughout the weekend.

The Short Course Nationals are a highlight of the Masters season so it was great to see that all of the hard work in the pool during 2013 paid off with some very fast swimming. Everyone involved should be very proud of their achievements at the weekend. Well done team!

If you haven’t raced before for Otter and this has got your competitive juices flowing for 2014 then please do come and speak to Cat or I at training or drop us an email and we’ll be happy to help (benny_t100@hotmail.com, Catherine.dobson@gmail.com). There will be lots of opportunities to compete throughout 2014 so please do keep checking your emails.