Weiyi Tan

2022-23 Season Review:

W1 had a tough season last year but made some great improvements in both individual and team play throughout the season, making for a close Varsity match that unfortunately ended with a 10-6 loss but was still a great end to the season. The team finished 5/6 in the BUCS Premier South Division, with memorable wins against Oxford and Bath. W2 also suffered a loss at Varsity, but it was a great opportunity for them to play and own their own match.

Stand out performers included Anna Leeson who led us incredibly through her second year of captaincy. Also, our two speedy wingers, Georgina Quayle who consistently won swim offs, got the ball, swam it into space and scored, and Carrie Day, who displayed incredible stamina and improved incredibly throughout the season.

2023-24 Season Preview:

This season, W1 are still competing in the Premier South Division of BUCS. We’ve had a lot of turn over this year and the team is made up of a majority of water polo novices. Given the strength of the league this year we expect BUCS to be a bit of a trial by fire, but endeavour to enjoy and learn from every experience. So far, we have had one win against King’s College London and three losses, with one closely fought match against Oxford until tiring out at the final quarter, and two very challenging matches against Birmingham and Bristol.

Promising players to look out for include Ffion Gregory, a new strong Pit Defence player who played for Sheffield University previously, and Lucy Wimhurst, our goalie who is completely new to water polo this year but has improved rapidly as she has been thrown quite literally into the deep end in BUCS matches!

Looking ahead to the rest of the season, recruitment was successful, and it is exciting that we have enough players for both a firsts and seconds team, especially given the scare of being left with only 7 members continuing after last year. We are looking forward to our training camp in Amsterdam which will not only provide steep improvement to gear us up for Varsity, but also be lots of fun and team bonding! For the seconds, we will organise friendly matches once the newbies get a hold of the basics. For the firsts, expectation management is key, and although we have tough competition, we are improving with every match and excited to see how far we can go as a team.