Ever heard the saying of the Virgin Birth? -- Something happening, causing reactions with a particular effect on people who in the first place had nothing to do with it? Well, this is how the “Addlestone Eagles” came into being… Here is the story, first things first:

It all started with a letter from Sue Hornby, the Youth Representative of the BCU for our region. It contained some information, advertisement and entry forms for a Youth Paddle Event at Crystal Palace in London: Two days of paddle challenge for the under 18s with pool slalom on Saturday and easy-rule canoe polo on Sunday. With respect to Sean's freshly commenced slalom training programme, Sue sent the letter to him encouraging him to bring some of his charges for a first taster of slalom competition. But nothing ever works as planned and Murphy's Law struck with true precision. None of the slalom trainees showed the least inclination to follow that call, but a careless notion of putting a polo team together and having some fun promptly sparked into flame…

With barely two weeks to go before the event, an emergency plan had to be devised. The proposed team was short of some members to start with, so Sean phoned around all the Club youngsters to get the minimum five players and possibly a substitute or two. A task easier said than done, considering the fact that during winter time only a core group of mainly adult paddlers seem to join in the ACC paddle sessions. But his efforts were rewarded in the end with a crew of six who were game enough to give the challenge a try.

So out came Sean's old polo ball and a home-made goal of a single wooden frame with a self-knotted net made to the exact required measurements and the next Wednesday pool time in Woking was turned into an ad-hoc polo coaching session. With only one goal, this was supposed to be intense and specialised training for the newly made polo players to get accustomed to the modified set of rules (no tackling allowed!) of the Crystal Palace event, and to learn the basic skills of water polo like dribbling, scoring and goal keeping.

But again, Murphy's Law crossed the well-planned intentions: The diving section which normally occupies the deep end of the training pool did not turn up, but instead some hot-headed senior Club members had heard a rumour of a polo game down the pool and wanted to partake. That much for organised coaching… The swim master's highchair was soon turned into the opposite goal, two teams were formed and the young volunteers could experience the excitement of polo as the real thing. There was no stopping them now, and the down-graded rules were immediately replaced with the original ones, tackling and all. If they did not learn a lot of techniques, they did get the spirit of the game - and a lot of enthusiasm that would see them through a mind-boggling day at Crystal Palace.

But thinking everything was set for a smooth run now, would be making the bet without Murphy again… A few days before the actual game, suddenly two of the Team players withdraw their nomination and the Addlestone Team was once more reduced to the ineligible number of four. An additional player had to be found quickly, and David Rushton came to the rescue suggesting - and convincing - his friend Mark to fill the necessary vacancy.

So came January the 24th, the ACC had a Junior Polo Team up and running, consisting of Neil and Carl Leahy, David Rushton, Mark Catherall and Daniel East.

It was all excitement when we (Sean and Petra) met the others down the Club at early Sunday morning, fetching paddles and the bright blue ACC buoyancy aids which would identify the Addlestone Team during the tournament. And off we went towards London, in true ACC style as late as possibly conceivable to meet the registration deadline at 9:30 am… In an unfamiliar borrowed estate car instead of our old faithful, Sean's green-and-yellow Sherpa van, we hit the road to the capital with Neil, Carl and Danny chirping away their limelight fever in the back. David and Mark were following in Trevor's spacewagon, but took the route via the M25 while Sean insisted to run a shortcut to the A3, so we soon split up. For the rest of the way, I had the map in my lap with Sean's instruction to find the turn-off to a number so-and-so road which would then take us to Crystal Palace…

And there he was again, Mr. Murphy, in his best of shapes. I saw the sign just when we passed it (should like to attribute that to a much too short night's sleep…), and from there on, our journey was a hit and miss. Everybody in the car kept giving their opinions on which turn we should take next, until I finally managed to locate where we were - going in the opposite direction to where we should have been heading! We finally made it to the venue around 10 o'clock. Just as well Trevor had been more straightforward with his driving and had registered our team and collected the instructions.

So, there we were. "Welcome to Crystal Palace" boasted a huge banner over the main pool over which two real polo goals were suspended slightly lower than required for a league game. The competition was way into the third heat of the first set of games when we arrived, and in the diving pool at the end of the hall, there was a synchronised swimming competition under way with imposing classical music. We took position just behind the bench of judges and time keepers and our guys went to the changing rooms.

The qualification round was divided into 3 sets of games - the under 14s, the under 16s and the under 18s - with 6 teams playing in each group. Owing to Neil's rather senior age of 17, the ACC Team were forced to compete in the highest class and were to play in the first heat of their round, game number 7. "Eagles against Ealing", stated the programme sheet. The ADDLESTONE EAGLES!!! So that was what Sean had entered for our team. Not only was this their debut, but they would also have to live up to such a prestigious name!!!

The Game Schedule suggested that the winners of the first set of games would go directly to the semi finals, whereas the loosers would play each other in a round of replays which through a set of another two games would allow the winners to also join in the semis. The semi finals consisted again of three sets of two games (one set per age group), the loosers of which would go to the minor finals and the winners to the finals…

The time until their first challenge passed quickly, hardly enough to familiarise themselves with the atmosphere and the way the games were handled. The League Heats were being played at 6 minutes each with no breaks or change of goal sides and supervised by trainee referees under assessment (under the eagle eyes of Paul Hammond, the rather well known Polo player and referee himself). Although the teams were expected to bring their own paddles and buoyancy aids, polo boats and visor-studded helmets were provided.

And there it was: The synchronised swimming competition ended their morning session with a last tremendous chord and the Tadpoles from we don't know which club won the last heat of the under 16s. The atmosphere between our guys was electric when Sean, the team coach, and Trevor lead them to their designated side of the pool, while I grabbed the camera in pursuit of my journalistic duties. They got a minute or two to get used to the unfamiliar boats before a long whistle called them to take up start positions along their goal line.

Their opposition from Ealing looked much more of a team with their orange coloured club T-shirts and put up a nice game, too, straight and fair. Not surprisingly, our Eagles who had never even trained in that constellation, found it hard to set up to cover the pitch and their opponents and play each other free, but finally won the heat with one to zero in a sudden death time extension. Wow! The Ealing team came off pulling faces while our guys were falling over themselves to recount their most exciting moments of the game. And then of course, other priorities had to be satisfied. Off they went to get heaps of sandwiches and poisonous-looking Slush Puppies…

It followed hours of league and replay heats, interrupted only by more sanies and slush. The Eagles, due to their success in the first game, had advanced in the starter list right into the semi finals which were scheduled for the afternoon. The spirit in the team dropped measurably and especially the younger ones grew increasingly restless. Neither different coloured slush nor the bouncy castle and other activity attractions in the background would stop the repetitive question: "When is our next game???"

I have to admit that watching team after unknown team competing against each other in more or less equally non-tactical approaches was not the most stunning sight, even for us adults. What a relief when after a short lunch break, some members of the top league popped onto the water for a show game. Except for Sean, who used to play in the official league himself, none of us had ever seen canoe polo live before - and what a sight it was! We sat their with mouths gaping while the mock opponents pulled trick after trick, their boats shooting over each others, players rolling and throwing at the same time, and the ball invariably finding its way home… Much too soon, their interlude was over, leaving us with a lot of enthusiasm for this newly-discovered canoeing discipline and the bitter-sweet taste of how difficult it would be to realise some "real" ACC teams to play in the League games all over the region…

After the brilliant show, even the semi-finalists of the under 14s group looked a bit drab but the expectation of seeing the Eagles in action again soon made the waiting time considerably more bearable. Unlike the league and reply heats, the semi finals and finals were played in two halves of 5 minutes each with a short break and change of goal side.

Unfortunately, in one-off tournaments a lot of luck is involved in how far one can get simply by the predetermined draw of opponents. The Eagles might have made the finals against most of the other teams, but Mr. Murphy activated himself for a last attack. They had to play Edmonton - who trashed them five to one… The other team was simply superior - fast, controlled and tactical, quite obviously a real training and playing polo team. Needless to say, they also knew a trick or two how to irritate their opponents and did not abstain from the temptation of trying the odd tackle either. Apart from the frustration of receiving goal after goal, the Eagles - most and foreall captain Neil - also exploded in anger over what seemed to them like unfair treatment from the referees' side. Sean and Trevor had their hands full by the poolside to try and calm them down.

"Degraded" to the last game in the minor finals and rather subdued, the Addlestone Eagles came off the water. Paddles got fired into corners hot-heatedly and the heroes of the day dispersed themselves to find diversion in either sulking in a quiet corner or suffocating their shame with some play in the games arcade.

When the time came for their last game, we had trouble to get all the dispirited members of our team together. Nothing would console them and Neil still went from rage to rage upon the pure thought of the "injustice he had suffered". His mind set on tacklings and fouls, he lead the gang to the goal line and us by the poolside already had visions of red cards and an everlasting blemish on the name of the new-born Addlestone Eagles.

But things weren't quite so bad this time and the Waveriders they played were a better suited opponent. Although giving our Eagles a fair bit of pressure, they only managed to beat them 1:0 in another sudden death time extension. A game lost in dignity, which left the Eagles on the overall fourth place of their age group.

Personally, I think this was quite a feat, considering the fact that they had to play teams a lot older on average than themselves, with only one player in the ACC Team really qualifying for the under 18s section… Unfortunately, only Sean and Trevor seemed to share this opinion!

Just fallen short of the honours of the podium, our polo first-timers hardly wanted to stay long enough to witness the price-giving ceremony and not even the Achievement Awards they were given could mollify the scratched pride. But back in the car, the plight was soon forgotten and we were all laughing again. After all, polo is just a game, isn't it?!?

by Petra Hudson, March 1999