The second tournament of the season in the National Div 3 Canoe Polo league, was held in Cheadle, Manchester, on Sat 7th Jan.
Five matches were played and Penrith definitely showed signs of gelling as a team. In the first match, they drew 2-2 against Manchester wildcats, who had beaten them in their last encounter.
Penrith goals form Tim Mather and Morven Fox. However, in the next match they lost 4-1 to White Rose from Leeds with Tim Mather scoring Penrith’s only goal.
Fortunately, in the next match they rallied and beat Kingston D from Hull, 4-1 with Penrith goals from Hillary Clarke (her trademark angled shot from the left wing), Morven Fox, Chris Archer and the goal of the tournament from Tim Mather, when he blocked a Kingston defender’s pass, to drop the ball near the goal line, paddled round the back of another defender and with his boat behind the goal line, managed to scoop the ball up into the net above him.
The next game was a close match against Liverpool, who just edged in front 3-2. Penrith goals from Luke Farley and Morven Fox. Similarly, the last game against Welsh Warriers was close, but Penrith lost 3-2, with both goals from Chris Archer. Overall, Penrith took away a lot of positives from the tournament.
The newly formed team was playing together a lot more positively than the previous tournament and looking forward to the next tournament in March.