Penrith A team played the second of their tournaments in National Div 2 North & Central Canoe Polo League in Leeds.
After the first tournaments were played, the league was split into a top half and bottom half for the remaining 2 tournaments. Penrith in their first season in this league, didn’t make the cut and were playing in the bottom half of the league. However, that meant that all games were winnable.
The first match was against Tees Tigers, who were a fast and physically strong team. Penrith played some good polo, scoring 3 goals from Jack Dunn & Katie Farley (2).
However, in defence, we couldn’t seem to keep Tees Tigers out and lost 3-6. This wasn’t too demoralising as Tees Tigers were probably the strongest team in our half of the league. Next we played Luton and things started to come together both defensively and in attack.
Penrith won this game 3-1 with goals from Jack Dunn (2) & Caitlin Fox. Next up were Trentham A. They played hard, were well organised in defence and were leading 3-2 till Trentham equalised in the last few minutes.
Penrith goals came from Jack Dunn, Caitlin Fox & Katie Farley. The 4th match was against Hull Mariners, who are very experienced team, but Penrith were feeling reasonably positive.
Penrith played a very well defensively, not allowing Mariners a decent shot on goal. However, we also couldn’t break down their defence. It was 0-0 at half time. In the second half we went 1 up with a goal from Robin Helsby, but Mariners caught Penrith twice on breaks with final score Penrith 1 Hull Mariners 2.
The final game should have been one that Penrith could win, and we certainly had most of the possession and shots on goal, but their goal keeping was just too good for us. It was very close game drawing 1-1 till near then end when White rose managed to take the lead 2-1. Penrith goal from Jack Dunn.
The last tournament is in March with a few Regional league tournaments in between for training.
