​Sheffield’s successes – winning against champions City of Manchester and Polytechnic - on the final weekend of men’s Division 1 matches at Coventry proved all in vain as they missed out on progress to the Super 5s.A 9-6 victory today (1 December) over Polytechnic briefly enabled Sheffield to leapfrog into third place. But that was as good as it got. There was brief hope for Sheffield as Cheltenham, needing a win to clinch their Super 5s slot, trailed 6-5 to Sutton & ..read more

​Expect the unexpected . . . surprise results were certainly on the menu at the evening session of day one matches in men’s Division 1 at Coventry.How’s this for a first win of the season, Watford defeating Penguin 14-13 after a real seesaw battle which reached 12-12 midway through the final period. Then, crucially, Watford struck twice – through Walter Vecchiarini and Sam Carling – to make it 14-12 with little more than two minutes to go. Andre Savic responded wit ..read more

Cheltenham, chasing points to secure qualification for the men’s Super 5s, stunned City of Manchester by taking an early 5-0 lead in Division 1 at Coventry today – only for a dramatic rally in the final period to snatch a 10-9 victory for the champions.Goals by Louie McKie, George Davies, George Glover, Tom Hunt and Alistair Bruce gave Cheltenham their commanding start and they were still 8-6 ahead at the start of the fourth quarter.It wasn’t until 1.36 from the end that Rory ..read more

Invicta grabbed the final day victory at Gloucester that they needed to ensure progress from men’s Division 2 to Championship 1, but only after a superb battle with Exeter, who went down 18-16.So close was the match that the Devon side actually led four times. In the end, however, it was the finishing of Invicta’s captain and 2012 Olympian Jack Waller (pictured) that made the difference. He scored nine, none better than the brilliant back-hander that levelled the match at 15-15 just ..read more

Derby matches produced the tightest of finishes as teams in men’s Division 2 battled at pools 200 miles apart for top five places and the reward of progress to Championship 1 in the New Year.In the clash of two West Country rivals at Gloucester, City of Bristol gained their second narrow win of the day – 16-15 against Exeter. The sides were locked at 10-10 in the third period at which point Bristol edged ahead 14-10 with goals by Nathan Brown (2), Steffan Williams and Noah Knights-Hu ..read more

After the great escape achieved by Worthing women last weekend (taking maximum points from three games to snatch the key fifth qualification spot in Division 2), the club’s men’s team continued their all-conquering season at Gloucester today.With Vyautas Liubertas, Ben Curtis, Joao Martins (Photo: Trevor Hyde)  and George Wood all scoring three, Worthing beat Exeter 18-9 to make it six wins out of six in Division 2. They will be in Championship 1 in the New Year along with Port ..read more

Penalty shoot-outs, introduced this season in BWPL, were to have a massive impact in deciding where teams would find themselves in the second half of the season.Drama 1: Otter, needing a win in today’s final match at Bolton to secure a top five spot in Division 1, seemed comfortably on target when they led Liverpool Lizards 10-7 after three periods. But somehow Liverpool contrived to edge the last quarter 3-0, levelling the game at 10-10 – with Liverpool triumphing in the shoot-out 1 ..read more

The struggle to avoid the bottom three places in women's Division 2 was the main focus on day one of hastily-arranged matches at the London Aquatics Centre today. And it was teams who began the weekend in danger of slipping down who produced some stunning results. The first match set the tone as Worthing, with no previous wins this season, defeated Watford, who were already guaranteed a top five placing together with progress to Championship 1 in phase two of the season. Worthing trailed 7 ..read more

Some players never lose it . . . as Penguin proved when they won silver medals in the annual Swiss Masters tournament in Montreux.The competition, involving teams from Germany, Hungary, Spain, Malta, France and the host country, began with Penguin finishing runners-up in their group stage, which took them to the semi-finals where they edged past Budapest Starfish, last year’s tournament winners, in quite a feisty affair.So it was on to the final where Penguin were up against another Hunga ..read more

The British League is about to break new ground – by staging a first-ever event at the London Aquatics Centre, iconic home of the 2012 Olympics!In truth, it’s not something we planned months ago. Neither, it is acknowledged, will it happen without the teams involved being put to some inconvenience. But here are the facts:The third and final weekend of matches in women’s Division 2 is scheduled to take place at Haberdashers School on 16/17 November. But it can’t happen &nd ..read more