Following in the footsteps of their Junior Women’s team, Kirkintilloch & Kilsyth ASC Water Polo will be playing in the new National Conference League in 2024.
This year, KKASC will be playing against Mid Sussex Marlins, City of Bristol and Otter Luttra (from BWPL Division 2) and Watford, Southampton, Sheffield, Welsh Wanderers (from BWPL Division 3).
Matches will take place between January and March 2024.
Kirkintilloch & Kilsyth Water Polo won their last Phase 1 game in British League Division 3 with a win over Welsh Wanderers.
KKASC 19 v 9 Welsh Wanderers.
Kirkintilloch & Kilsyth finish the league in second place and will now play in the promotional playoffs in April for a place in British League Division 2.
Kirkintilloch & Kilsyth ASC introduced water polo to 50 children at this year’s Summer Camp at the ON-X in Linwood this week.
KKASC Club Development Coordinator, Alan Scobie, was pleased with the great turn out and said, “This was the first time we have ran an introductory mini polo session and it’s amazing that so many young children were keen to get splashing about in the pool throwing the ball around.”
And the young players aged 7 to 13 picked up the game very quickly and by the end of the session were already able to understand basic game tactics.
The Summer Camp continues next week at Tollcross with top class coaches and World Class players coming to Glasgow from Italy and Spain and camp participants flying in from Sweden, Ireland, Wales and England and of course many players from all clubs in Scotland.
Kirkintilloch & Kilsyth ASC added the Scottish Cup to their Scottish League Championship to complete an unbeaten domestic season winning 16-7.
Most of the Under 17s also played in the Under 19s where they were unlucky to lose by one goal conceeding in the last 0.8 secs going down 11-10.
KKASC were the only female Scottish Club in the Under 17, Under 19 and Senior Scottish Cup finals to field a team from one club with all of the other clubs combining with other clubs to field teams.
The KKASC Under 19 team travelled down to Morcambe to play against the best young teams in Great Britain yesterday.
Overall the team played well against three very strong teams, losing to Otter (8-2), Sheffield (7-2) and Liverpool (9-4).
The other two games in the group were far more evenly matched against Worthing and Bristol.
In the Worthing match KKASC controlled the match and led 2-0 at half time, however Worthing fought back in the second half to steal a win 3-2.
In the Bristol match, KKASC had shaken off the early start and the bus journey and took the match 4-2. Controlling the match through the game with 2 goals in each half.
Representing KKASC today:
Heather, Olivia, Mia, Beth, Nicole, Abi, Neve, Abbie, Lovisa, Giulia, Lucy and Zoe.
Thanks again to Nico for coaching and Tina for Team Managing and those who made the journey to Morcambe to support the team. (Including the KKASC flag in the background)
KKASC took part in the English Under 17 Water Polo Championships for the first time since lockdown.
The English Championships was a big step up from the Scottish League with City of Liverpool, Cheltenham and Watford providing strong opposition.
Fresh from their Scottish Under 17 League win, the KKASC Under 17 team travelled to Bolton, along with some friends from Warrender, FV and Dunfermline, to play against the best young water polo teams in GB.
KKASC started slowly against the City of Liverpool with Liverpool taking an early 4 goal advantage. KKASC came back into the game in the second half and pulled the game back to 7-5 before Liverpool scored two goals in quick succession to win the game 9-5.
In their second game of the day, KKASC took on Cheltenham. Again a fast start by the opposition left KKASC trailing 8-3 at half time. KKASC fought back to bring the score back before Cheltenham raced away to win the game 16-6.
The third game was an evenly matched affair, with KKASC this time setting the pace at the start of the game to lead 4-2 at half time. KKASC were first to score at the start of the second half as they extended their lead to 5-2. Watford then upped their game and brought the match back to 6-6. With Watford having a player excluded for 20 seconds, KKASC tried a quick attack, which backfired on them as the goal keeper easily saved the shot and set up a counter attack with one of their players free up front who converted the goal to take the match to 7-6. Despite KKASC hitting the bar twice in the last minute of the game, Watford held on to win the game 7-6.
No immediate rewards for all the players hard work, however there was good moves, decision making and excitement over the course of the three matches which gives us optimisim for the team for next year.
