|
Viking start the year with winning ways Viking were invited to take part in a demonstration event at this years London Boat Show. A great opportunity for us to showcase the sport on a big stage and for us to show off our new team Peak UK jackets!
Due to the nature of the show, Canoe Polo was given relatively little water time so three men’s teams and two women’s team were invited to ‘put on a show’ and compete in three games each day for three days. The venue was fantastic, a 70m pool with a grandstand, professional commentator, music, huge screen and lighting effects. This year the pool was the centrepiece of the Boat Show so everyone could see it.
The polo started well on the Friday, Viking saw off St Albans ‘All Stars’ with relative ease, their fitness levels paying dividends running out 10-2 winners.
On the Saturday Viking had to play both Meridian and St Albans. Historically Viking vs Meridian is a closely fought battle with tempers a plenty. The game did not disappoint with plenty of intervention from the referees. Meridian did not threaten the Viking goal as much as they would have liked and Viking counter attacked well, punishing any errors. The score ended 5-1 to Viking.
St Albans put on a much better show on Saturday, especially late on when they scored three late goals, limiting Viking to just nine this time.
The Sunday saw finals day. The first game of the day was Meridian vs St Albans. St Albans pulled off a great result to beat Meridian in golden goal extra time. Meridian, however still made it to the final to play Viking, thanks to the earlier result against St Albans, which they won comfortably.
The final started closely, Viking attacked wave after wave, retaining possession for five minutes before scoring. Meridian pulled one back quickly before Viking showed why they are current National League and Club Champions, again running out 5-1 winners.
Away from the polo the team had a look round the show, some pretty impressive boats, one we looked at clocked in at £8.5million! Even the £95,000 a year cleaning bill was somewhat out of our price range! And to top it off, two had been sold in the two days we were there. Viking must have been rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous and we did not even know it!
Hopefully the show we put on this year will have gained us an invitation back next year and we can start to promote the sport to a wider audience. Thanks must extend to Sarah Gladstone of the London Boat Show and Curly Barker (Canoe Polo representative) for inviting us, and of course Peak UK for providing first class kit, as always.
The team after the final with random mascot! Left to right; Martyn Williamson, George Murfin, Andy Petrie, Tom Baston, Nick Archer, James Bowers. Front Row; unknown! (Posted on the 23rd Jan 2011 by timb) |
RSS 2.0