Commonwealth Water Polo Championships: day four

Commonwealth Championships: day four

8 Apr 2014

England Men, Scotland Women and both Wales teams were in action on the fourth day of the Commonwealth Water Polo Championship.

New Zealand beat Singapore 13-5 (3-1,3-1,3-1,4-2) in the first match of the day. The second match saw England Men play Wales who were looking for thier first win of the competition.

England opened the scoring through Sean King which was quickly cancelled out by Wales' Dan Laxton. Goals from O’Regan, Scholefield and two from Vincent gave England a 5-1 lead at the end of the first quarter. England's dominance continued for the rest of the half and they finished the second quarter 9-1 up. 

Wales came out fighting in the second half. A good defense reduced the goal difference and scores from Carl Wyatt and Dan Laxton gave Wales a win in the final quarter, but England's lead was too strong and they claimed a 11 - 3 (5-1, 4-0, 2-0, 0-2) victory. 

The third Men's match saw Malta narrowly defeat South Africa 9 -8 (3-4, 2-1,2-1, 2-1) in a high tempo match. At half time the game was tied 5-5 and With four minutes left Malta was up 9-7. South Africa reduced the deficit to one thanks to a great goal from Lood Rabie and nearly found an equaliser 20 seconds from time but Nic Mollyneux's shot was wonderfully saved by Borg Cole.

Next it was on to the Womens competition with Canada playing their second game against a Wales team yet to score any points.

The Canadians got off to strong start, winning the first quarter 4-1 as they looked to build on their impressive win over Scotland in their first game. Amy Yule who was on top form in that game showed her class again scoring two goals in the second quarter as the Canadians extended their lead to 10-3 at the half-time break. Canada’s Emma Wright put on a fantastic display scoring six of her team’s goals as they kept a clean sheet in the second half, winning the match 26-3 (1-4, 2-6, 0-8,0-0-8). 

The final game of day four featured Scotland Women and South Africa in a repeat of the Men’s match last night. Once again the home team was well supported but South Africa were looking for a good performance after a disappointing result against England yesterday and they started as if they meant business.

Two goals each for Tay Schooling, Kelsey White and Kim Kay and one for Tammy Heydenrych gave South Africa a 7-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. The visitors' dominance continued for the rest of the match, and although the crowd were desperate to see their team score, excellent goalkeeping by Bentley continued to deny them and South Africa won 23-0 (7-0, 3-0, 9-0, 4-0).