Water Polo storm Germany

The Aachen Annual Water Polo Tournament is by far the most challenging encounter Imperial College’s Water Polo team faces every year. Historically, their performance in this tournament has been humble, so they arrived without the prejudice of having to protect a reputation, which meant everyone could let loose a little and enjoy themselves. Furthermore, it was a great opportunity for people new to the sport to earn some valuable match experience.

The tournament started on the Saturday morning, with most of the team averaging four hours sleep on the floor of a common room and sporting a commendable hangover. It was a slow start, with the first match ending in a less than ideal 0-7, but Imperial began speeding up their counter attacks and getting more offensive, which allowed Alex to bag a goal in the second game, reducing Imperial’s next loss to a more respectable 4-1. The last game of the day ended in a particularly brutal 0-9 against Aachen’s 1st team of wild beasts and set the scene for an appropriate consumption of alcohol later in the evening.

The Imperial women’s team performed in a similar light to the men’s, sporting a modest 1-9 in their first match, with the goal executed skilfully by Anna, and a 7-0 in the second. A special mention also has to go to Philippine who saw the team was getting so overwhelmed by German force, she felt she had to get creative and save a goal with her face.

The day was not without victory however, because the men’s team managed to earn a place at the semi-finals in the swimming tug of war, and thewomen’s team succeeded in finishing 1st in the tournament’s beer relay, in which a team of swimmers sprinted 25m, got out, downed a pint, then sprinted back. Later that night, the Aachen water polo club hosted a party, in which, satisfyingly, there was a predominant attendance of the team’s mascot – Blumenkohl the cauliflower.

On the Sunday, Imperial started out at a disadvantage due to the goalkeeper, Jen Wei “the ninja” Niam, being indisposed in his efforts to recover his lost passport and avoid imminent deportation, but they held together strong and played with Edward in goal, yielding an 11-1 loss, with the goal scored by Vicente. The team’s ethos continued to hold steady and a combination of fast drives of strong offence yielded in a further goal from Marco against DSSC Duisburg and Anna against DSSC Duisburg (women’s).

Imperial returned to campus at 1am on Sunday night feeling extremely satisfied by a very rewarding tournament, with lectures in store for most of them on Monday morning. Even without their coach Adam at the tournament, both the men’s and women’s teams performed admirably and are now more ready than ever to take on the other universities in BUCS and LUSL.