Longford Canoe Polo Club Championships Weekend

With the rivers in Ireland still dry and a break in the K1 schedule, I took to the road in search of water, friends and something to do!

As it happened I received a call from Niall Power about a canoe polo competition taking place in Longford, a new venue on the calendar………. An offer I couldn't refuse!

With the van loaded I headed for the venue a small village called Clondra, based on the grand canal with the tease of a dry Tamonbarry to keep focused.

The venue was a small harbour basin big enough for 2 regulation size pitches with parking. camping, toilets and shower facilities as well as a pub. what more could be asked!

The event kicked off 10am Saturday with the first rounds of games. each team would play a league event with the top 4 from each division progressing through to semi finals and Finals.

The Sun was out but unfortunately our players weren't with our first game kicking off with only 3 players we held our own keeping the defence tight and looking for the break. midway through the first half the Calvary arrived bringing ‘Turtles’ up to a full team.

We gelled quickly and put out impressive victory's over our 1st four games on Saturday with teams from WWKC, Kilkenny Irish ladies and bad company all stepping aside.

The evening saw the local pub provide a BBQ for competitors keeping every one both hydrated and fed.

Sunday we awoke with games kicking off at 9am, the early start again caught us short once again 3 players with one late arrival saw us 4 against 5 and on the back foot resulting in a close game and our first loss of the weekend, with one league game left we needed the win to keep us top and meant the easier draw for the semi final, this we did with a full team and good goal difference putting us against Kilkenny in the semi in a 1st against 4th encounter,

Since Saturday the Kilkenny team had become seriously stronger with some late player additions including Billy Brett (Freestyle junior team paddler) again we pushed with skill and brute force taking the game and making it ours with what resulted in a comfortable win.

The sun made a brief appearance over lunch whilst the playoffs went on seeing Kilkenny beat the Galway team.

The afternoons excitement kicked off with a golden goal decided in Div 3,

next up Div 2 final saw Turtles against The WWKC team the game was a very close affair with the introduction of the shot clock causing lots of rushing and mistakes from both teams with a simple lob shot from Eric the decider in an extremely close 3-2 win for the WWKC team.

Last game of the afternoon was the div 1 final with the usual suspects of gremlins and WWKC in another heated final with only one yellow card in a hard fought match seeing Gremlins take the win.

Overall an excellent event in a superb venue with nice weather and lots of good polo and professionalism from all.