London League 1 - 7 April 2008

From The South London Correspondent:

Croydon I 10 - Avondale I 12 (London League, 7 April 2008)

This was my first visit to the new facility at Whitgift School, having spent the previous season unavoidably absent as a result of several regional conflicts – such is life and war! It’s a considerable improvement on the old pool and nice to see that someone thought to provide a deep pool for Water Polo, they are too few and far between.

Croydon have aspirations in all competitions this season and with some talented old hands and some rapidly improving youngsters they have a lot of potential. Avondale are much the same as I remember them; relaxed seemingly to the point of indifference on occasions, they still have a wealth of talent to call on and are a difficult team to beat.

Avondale led from the start and could have been seven or eight goals clear by half time. Croydon have an excellent young keeper (they are all young compared with the wizened old goat the Avondale keep trotting out) who stopped several good shots, but the people looking most nervous were the pool management. Their nice new goal posts took a terrible drubbing from the lightning fast shots of Avondale’s “007” and “The Sniper”. On tonight’s showing Avondale should bring some spare timber and a Black and Decker when “007” is playing.

Croydon have several dangerous shooters and will always score goals if they are not marked. Perhaps Avondale were far enough clear in the last quarter that they could afford to be somewhat relaxed in their close marking – although perhaps I’m being charitable and the big pool had taken its toll by then. In any event Croydon were too far down for their comeback to really threaten the final result, but it made for a more exciting last few minutes for Rocky and me.