League Champions through to National Final
1st July 2007by British Swimming
A full programme of matches launched semi-finals day of the ASA Championships 2007 held at Manchester Aquatics Centre. The Women's matches were first at 10:30 and 11:45, Manchester played Liverpool and Penguin played Sheffield.
Manchester got a couple of early goals in the first quarter, but by the end of the second, Liverpool had brought the score back to 2 all. This was in no small part due to the goalies. who continued to excel throughout the third quarter too when Manchester managed to score twice to restore the lead. Another goal, a dressing room for three major exclusions and a penalty finished the match Manchester 5 Liverpool 3.
Julie Allsop, Manchester's coach, commented ". . . About time!" This is the first time the Manchester Ladies have progressed to the finals of this competition in ten years. Julie continued that she felt this year "the players knew it would be close fought - this time they took confidence from the National League (NWWPL)" and Julie concluded that the team are now "technically good enough and mentally stronger". She also played tribute to "Robyn, who was making her debut as a senior goalkeeper. She didn't put a foot wrong!". Julie's praise also extended to captain "Kate - who led by example".
The previous victors of the NWWPL, Sheffield, were not going to give Penguin an easy game, and they shot in some early goals to lead 2-5 by the end of the first quarter. The second quarter saw a couple of goals made from long individual swims, from Larissa Davies, and a couple of penalties which left the score 4-12 by the half way stage.
The score by the third quarter was 6-15 and in the fourth there were a couple of time outs called to sustain the excitement - but the final score was 6-18. The quality of play was very high - Penguin Ladies tend to be quick in to tackle, and the match was a lot closer than the score suggests.
Sundays' Ladies finals between Manchester and Shefield takes place at 13:15 Sunday July 1st.
The Youth boys first semi-final was between Manchester and Lancaster. This proved to be the nail biter of the day. At the same time the first of the Junior age games between Manchester Ladies and Liverpool was taking place in the Diving pit pool. With supporters split between watching both games, there was an atmosphere of anticipation throughout the lunchtime period. Honours were even after the first quarter of both matches - Youth boys 2-2 and Youth girls 1-1. Then in both matches Manchester pulled ahead slightly and they ended the 2nd quarter with the boys 6-5 and girls 6-2.
The girls then went on to continue their scoring form and the final score was 16-2. Liverpool played some spirited defence moves, but Gordon Dacre, the Liverpool coach, described the match as "full of missed chances".
Over in the other pool the Manchester/Lancaster boys could not stop the lead from switching in end to end, tightly matched moves, with credit to the goalkeepers as much as the players. By the end of the final quarter the score finished 12 all - and so two periods of 3 minutes of extra time were played - 13 all!
This then led to penalties. The final score went to 17-18 so Lancaster progressed to the finals. The start of the following two matches was delayed whilst the whole gallery held their breath!
The next two matches saw Bristol play Invicta in the Youth male competition and the Youth Ladies competition between Liverpool and Worthing. Bristol took advantage of an early scoring fest and ended the first quarter 5-1, whereas Liverpool Worthing ended 1-0. The Invicta and Worthing squads both came back into the matches , but those early leads became final scores of 16-12 to ensure that Bristol meet Lancaster in the Youth male finals at 10:45 Sunday; and the Liverpool Youth girls have gone to the finals from a score of 14-8 - their final against Manchester is to be held at 09:30 - the inaugural Sunday game.
The men's decider between Cheltenham and Lancaster, was up against the diving pit game of Junior ladies Manchester vs Sheffield. The Manchester juniors managed to prove successful scorers and their match finished 19-3.
With the GB men's coach, Eelco Uri, watching, Cheltenham managed to overcome the Lancaster men by 12-8. Lancaster were resting their many GB squad players, ahead of the LEN tournament, and they played a younger squad than would normally be seen.
In the Junior men's competition, Sutton and Cheam were playing Leeds. Over in the diving pit, Manchester A played Manchester B in the Youth competition. Unsurprisingly, Manchester A won through but Tim Dunsbee praised Courtney Dean, Jade Smith and Casey Smith in the B Squad.
Leeds were playing in distinctive chequered caps. Eventually, however it was Sutton that converted a 4th quarter start of 3 all to an 8-4 final score.
Invicta Junior then played Manchester in the other semi, whilst Liverpool junior ladies played Sheffield in the diving pit pool. Both games had been keenly anticipated by the spectators, and so the evening matches were still well received.
Sheffield were keen to play their way into the finals, and so they looked to tackle for most balls, but in the end, the single goal lead that had separated the teams up until the final quarter, became a Liverpool victory of 17-8.
Invicta had to fight to score every one of their goals, and Manchester made many chances, but slowly, each quarter, the lead increased and from a 9-3 start Invicta finished the 4th quarter with a final score of 11-5.
This means that the Junior boys final is an all south - Sutton and Cheam vs Invicta - match at 15:00.