Congratulations to the two Canterbury Water Polo U12 teams who traveled to Invercargill this weekend. Superb effort by all players and outstanding results. Canterbury finished as the top two teams in the U12 division. It was fantastic to watch the development of these young players and both teams played at an outstanding level. Awesome work guys, you made us very proud.

A huge thank you to coach Laura Hammond and her assistant coach Lachie Marshall (Chairman of CWP). Also a big thanks must go to Rachelle Spencer and her team of parent helpers in making sure our U12 players were well looked after.

Please read Lachie Marshall's words below:

Dear Canterbury Water Polo Family,

This is just a brief email to let you know of the success that our two Under 12 teams had in the most recent round of the Tri-Series in Invercargill over the weekend.

Canterbury sent two Under 12 teams down to participate in this round.  With only 11 players over the two teams this made for a lot of game time for these young players.  The format was for a round-robin and then a final on the Sunday.  The Canterbury Red team won the round-robin game against the Canterbury Black team 8-7.  This was played in a full pool and was the 3rd game of the day on the Saturday.  The final was a repeat of Canterbury Black verses Canterbury Red.  Canterbury Red came out on top again 8-7.  Both games were very close and were a good reflection of where we are at.

Both teams showed that they were clearly at a level above Otago and Southland in this age group.  This is a direct reflection of the training program that these players are in and so to our Coaches – keep up the good work.  The number of parents from Southland who were commenting on the skill set that our players had was numerous. 

To the parents that went down and assisted, we thank you for all your work over the weekend because without your assistance this trip would not have been possible.  It is always a pleasure to work with enthusiastic parents who are forthcoming in supporting their children and their aspirations.

Laura, thank you for your work over the weekend.  You do (and continue to do) a fantastic job with these young players and not only are they playing winning Water Polo, but a very good style of Water Polo.

We are now only 4 weeks away from the next round of our Tri-Series in Dunedin.  Otago and Southland are looking forward to competing against more of our Canterbury teams.  This is also the first week of our revised training schedule and we hope with the increase in pool space we are able to give each age group a more game specific focus.

The Coaches and I look forward to watching you continue to develop and work hard as we build towards our future tournaments for the rest of the year.  I look forward to seeing all your smiling faces down at the pool.  Keep up the good work.

Kind Regards,

Lachie Marshall

Chairperson

Canterbury Water Polo