Pembroke Seniors have come away with their best achievement ever, in a major national competition run by the British Octopush Association, namely the National Championships, a two-part competition, held at the John Charles Centre Aquatics pool in Leeds for the qualifiers, and then if successful, the finals at Ponds Forge in Sheffield.
Earlier this year, Pembroke’s captain Nick Barnett selected a mixed adult team to enter the British Octopush National Championships.
On Saturday, March 16, for the qaulifiers, the team achieved fifth place in their group, which put them through to the finals for the Sunday games, which was firstly no mean feat for a club playing against the top 24 ranked teams in the country.
After another day of more intense games on the Sunday, against qualifying teams that had made it through the previous rounds to take part and challenge for either the National Finals Shield or Finals Plate, Pembroke came sixth in their group, thus qualifying them to challenge for the National Championship Plate later in June. Just getting to this stage in the competition had never been achieved before.
On June 7, the team made the journey away again, this time to Sheffield’s Ponds Forge International Pool, to play matches at a deeper depth of 3m, which challenges the players considerably more and changes the dynamics of the game as opposed to the 2m playing depth.
In the group stages, Pembroke played six 20-minute games on Saturday, followed by a final seventh game on the Sunday morning. As the games went on, Pembroke seemed to step up each time and play better and better, finishing third in their group for the round robins. After the group deciders, Pembroke went on to beat Glasgow 2-1 in the quarter-finals and Bournmouth/Southampton 4-1 in the semi-final ending up in the final against Orkney.
After playing a longer 30-minute final against Orkney, the group leaders from the start, it was Orkney who won the day with a 7-0 victory.
For a small Pembrokeshire club which doesn’t have any other local clubs to play against, coming second in a major tournament is a fantastic result and has seeded the adult team into 10th position in the whole country, out of 58 registered teams.
Pembroke’s mixed team consisted of players from the youngest at 16 through to the oldest at 55.
Pembroke club has a fantastic junior section, in which players are constantly coming through to play at adult level, from the age of 15/16. It is this influx of juniors into the adults which is keeping the club strong and diverse. Many of the younger juniors from the age of 14, are already taking part in the GB training camps, to hopefully make the Under 19s and 23s GB squads.
Congratulations and good luck, go to Nia Matthews, Vicky Crawford and Chloe Edwards who have once again been selected for the GB squads and will be representing their country in this year’s World Championships, being hosted this time by Great Britain at Sheffield’s Ponds Forge International Pool this coming August.
For those who like the water and like playing a team sport, then this exciting sport could be for you!
Pembroke have two junior age group sessions on from ages nine to 12 on Wednesdays from 7 - 8 pm and 13 to 16s from 8 - 9 pm at Pembroke Leisure Centre. Senior sessions are on Mondays 8.30 - 10 pm and Wednesdays 9 - 10 pm.
Alternatively, Pembroke have developed a second club in Haverfordwest Leisure Centre, which plays on Friday night. They are actively trying to encourage new members, especially the juniors from the age of nine up, to further develop this sport in West Wales. Club times are 8 pm for juniors ,followed by seniors at 9 - 10 pm. Find us on Facebook for more information.