Kevin Whitworth / Jacurutu

Great news - octopush is being played in the Western Isles! There is a junior session running at the Harris Sports Centre (Ionad Spòrs Eilean na Hearadh) in Tarbert on Friday evenings. Cameron Morrison, from the sports centre, set this up last year, and has done a fantastic job getting it up and running. The sessions were taking a break over the Christmas Holidays, and I'm not sure when they restart, but I'm sure if you call the sports centre on 01859 502944 they'll be able to tell you.

When I get my act together, I'm going to see if we can't build on Cameron's work and get something up and running here on Lewis as well - both for juniors and for adults. If anyone is interested in playing (or just finding out more), post a comment on this entry and I'll get in touch.

PS Almost forgot to mention, I've also met some of the people from the dive club in Stornoway, and they've been known to play occasionally too!

Last Saturday (14 June 2008) was the inaugural Octopush North East (ONE) Cup tournament in Newcastle, with teams from York, Durham and Newcastle. Due to circumstances, both the York and Newcastle teams pooled together to field single teams in the cup, unlike in the league where York played an A and B team (in no particular order of merit), and Jesmond and Byker were competing separately. With only 3 teams, and a full 2-hour pool session, matches were played 15 minutes each way. Getting our excuses in early, we (York) only managed to get a squad of 6 players to the tournament, so we found it hard going with no substitutes.

Up first was York against Newcastle. This started quite well for York, but the tiredness soon came into play, along with the fact that we've only played once since before Easter due to loss of our pool (again, lining our excuses up...). Despite York's best efforts, Newcastle romped ahead to a decisive first victory.

The second match, to give York a bit of time to recover, was Durham versus Newcastle. A closer match, but still Newcastle came through as victors.

The final game was York versus Durham. The first half went Durham's way, but by the second half, despite the fatigue, York started coming together as a team again, and were slowly dragging themselves back into the game. However, Durham got their second wind in the last minutes of the game, and managed to hold York off to win 10-7.

Undisputed champions were therefore Newcastle, with Durham taking second place and York third. Congratulations to Newcastle, well done to everyone who played, and a big "thank you" to everyone involved in organising it (Jamie and Gareth, I suspect) for making it a fantastic event - hopefully to be repeated next year!

Good news at last. This Saturday, 14 June, sees octopush returning to York. It's been a bad year all told for the university club, loosing pool time at the start of the academic year due to maintenance, and there's only been one session now since before Easter. But, at last, we've got pool time from 16.30 to 17.30 at Yearsley Swimming Pool.

Even better news: we're now starting up a junior club as well to cater for under 16s. Although we've had a couple of under 16s come along to play with us, I suspect it's quite daunting being 12 and faced with the uni team bearing down on you (Ali excepted, of course!). The junior session is on at the same time, 16.30 to 17.30, also at Yearsley - it's a 50 yard pool, so the uni club has the deep end and the juniors the shallow end. More details at the York Octopush website.

Finally, it's the ONE Cup this Saturday up in Newcastle. I've no more details than that, but I'm sure York will avenge some of their earlier defeats to bring the inaugural cup to Yorkshire!

After much talking about it, we're finally making progress on getting a juniors (under 16s) octopush/underwater hockey club up and running in York. We're working closely with the university team and York council to get everything in place so we can start on June 14 (2008).

Many of the details are still to be confirmed, but I've just about got the basics of a website up and running at www.yorkoctopush.org.uk. We're also looking for adult members too, so that once the university breaks up for the summer, we'll still be able to keep playing, so if you're interested, please get in contact.

Meanwhile, keep your eyes peeled here or on the above website for further information!

Despite the enthusiasm of my last post, we still don't have a regular pool session for octopush training in York. This is being worked on, and I hope there will be news soon. In the mean time, if anyone knows of another club or team that wants to share the Yearsley pool with us (it's 50 yards, and the octopush club needs the deepend only), preferably on a Saturday or Sunday evening, then please let me know!

Until then, watch this space!

PS We got our mascot, Ferdinand the Duck, back from Durham this afternoon. So we thought we'd better let them beat us in the match that followed...

Unfortunately, York University Octopush Club lost it's pool at the end of the spring term. However, now everyone is back for the summer, they've sorted out a new pool and new training times.

Training is now on Saturday evenings at Yearsley Swimming Pool. The times may change slightly over the next few weeks, but the first session is tomorrow (Saturday 10 May 2008) 17.00 to 18.00. Meet at the pool just before 17.00, or at the Information Centre/Market Square at the University of York campus at 16.15.

Hopefully this information, and the times of future sessions, will be posted on the club's website and/or on their Facebook group.

Fingers crossed, this term should see the ONE League tournament, and possibly a friendly match against Durham (we need to win the duck back...). There are also plans afoot to set up a youth club/team, and perhaps more, so watch this space!

I forgot to say, we tried the buzzer system out during the Durham match last Sunday. Despite my last post on the subject, I haven't changed it since the last test, mostly due to lack of time. Although it's audible, it's simply not loud enough during the frenzy of a game, and I don't think adding a second buzzer unit will make enough difference. So, the next plan is to get a cheap but loud car horn, and see if I can mount it in the BDH I'd originally bought to use with the piezo buzzer.

Still, we've got more pressing needs than a buzzer. York University Octopush Club (Yorktopush) are currently pool-less. Fortunately, the committee have the Easter holidays to come up with somewhere new to practice, although watch this space as those of us still in York over Easter may try and get something running before the undergrads return at the end of April.

Last Sunday saw York's last match in the ONE League, with York B were playing host to Durham, and in fact the last session at Bootham School's pool.

Durham got off to a good start, building up an strong lead in the early stages of the match, with York B hardly getting a look in. From my position as referee, I could see York put up a spirited defence, but they seemed unable to take the game back to Durham. However, although it took York a little while to get into the swing of things, towards the end of the first half they started to claw their way back into the game.

The second half saw York take advantage of defending the shallow end, and the game was looking a bit more even. Some hard-fought goals and a few good breaks helped to even the score slightly, but Durham's performance in the first half shone through to give a final score of 11-6 to Durham.

I must of course point out that this was really due to Durham cheating. They stole Ferdinand, York's mascot, which clearly had a psychological effect on the team. Ferdinand was last seen on a train heading north, and a challenge that we'll only secure his safe return by beating Durham (again!).

At long last I've got hold of a copy of the scores and final standings from the 2008 Octopush Student Nationals. The official final standings are as follows: 

They're not quite the same as what was read out at the end of the tournament (eg when the places were read out, Durham were put above York, which was clearly wrong). Also, I'm not sure I agree with them. Although the missing scores (see below) don't make a difference points wise ocerall, I reckon Plymouth should be placed above Hills Road Cambridge. Also note that the final places are not based on overall points, but the overall points within the final group - group X take places 1 to 7, and group Y take places 8 to 13 (Aberdeen actually accumulated more points than Plymouth and Hills Road, but are placed lower because they were in the lower final group). For scores of the individual games, please read on (below).

There were also a number of barbarian matches played at between the end of the round robin stage and the finals. Mostly these were former university players who've got nothing better to do than hang around their former university and keep playing octopush after they've graduated (oh dear, that sounds like me...), but the BOA, who helped out with the tournament, also fielded a team. Their results were as follows:

So, congratulations to Glasgow for winning, and once again, thanks to Warwick being great hosts, organising the tournament and ensuing party and giving us a great weekend. Roll on 2009 in Bangor!

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I'm afraid I don't have the full set of scores or the final standings from the Student Nationals yet, but I'll make a start on a report for the weekend without them.

The weekend got off to a good start, leaving York about 17.30 with an eventful journey to Kenilworth, where we arrived about 20.00 to a very warm welcome at Hollyhurst Guest House. After unloading, we headed of into town to find some food, and picked an Italian restaurant on the high street to load up with carbs (well, pizza) for the games on Saturday. Afterwards, we went to the pub, and completely failed to consume any beer, before returning back to the guest house for an early night.

Saturday, after a hearty breakfast, we arrived at the pool in Coventry in time to sign in and for Ali & Tom to attend the captain's briefing. The format was to split the teams into two groups initially. Teams would play every other team in their own group, round-robin style, and then the top teams in each group would play each of the top teams in the other group, and likewise, the bottom teams from one group would play the bottom teams from the other group. Points were awarded for a win (3) or a draw (1), and are carried over from the round-robin stage to the final stage to work out the overall standings.

York had a hectic start to the first group stage, with the first 3 games having only a one-game break between each game. Then a 3 game break gave us a chance for a bit of a breather, before a much longer 8 game (lunch!) break before our last group game. The first game, against the hosts Warwick, went well, with York winning 4-1 (I think). It didn't seem to last long, and it turned out to fit all the games in, matches were being played 5 minutes each way. However, things then started going down hill. We were beaten by Stirling, only managing to score one goal, and then were pretty much trying to limit the damage against Portsmouth and Plymouth. The long break before the final game against Oxford gave us a chance to regroup and re-focus as a team, and talk through things like how to deal with advantage pucks (something we rarely have to deal with, and need to practice more). As a result, we played fantastically against Oxford, gelling together much better as a team, and beat them 4-3 (I think).

With the round-robin stage complete, we discovered we were in the bottom of our group, and would be playing against Aberdeen, Bangor and Durham. This was great news, as Bangor is Jodie's former club, so there was a touch of rivalry there (and instructions from Lucy, another Bangor alumnus, to beat them), and we play Durham in the ONE league, and York A were beaten by them last time round, so we had a point to prove! Aberdeen were strong - we played well and put up a good fight, but lost 4-1. (Sorry once again to the person who got a smack in the face from me as a result of a tackle.)  The match against Bangor was very close, and Bangor beat us by one goal (3-2?). That was really annoying, as we missed one goal where we had 3 against 1 on a break only metres out from Bangor's goal, but didn't manage to score - we'd have drawn at least, if not won, if we'd scored that goal! Durham was the closest match yet, and was a tie well into the second half, with play heading up and down the pitch. I was subbed out at the time and desperate to get into the water when Anthony decided enough was enough and subbed out, giving me a chance. There was a complete melee in the goal mouth, and I couldn't get anywhere near, but the York defense was doing a sterling job, and I just managed to reach under the scrum and hook the puck out, giving me a chance to get it out to Tom, who'd listened to the advice earlier about keeping the forwards out of the melee to be able to make a run if we got the puck. Tom made a fantastic swim up nearly the whole length of the pitch, to score the winning goal!

Although the scores listed above are from memory (and maybe wrong), I'm confident about which games we won and lost, which are as follows:

• First round (group 2):
  • Warwick - York won
  • Stirling - York lost
  • Portsmouth - York lost
  • Plymouth - York lost
  • Oxford - York won
• Second round (group Y - York were 'D'):
  • Aberdeen - York lost
  • Bangor - York lost
  • Durham - York won

The final standings aren't clear. There was some confusion when they were read out. As listed, York came 11th out of 13, finishing above Oxford (12th) and the hosts, Warwick (13th). Bangor came 9th, and Durham 10th. However, despite Jamie's protestations about moral victories and being the nicer team, the general consensus is that York came 10th and Durham 11th. The overall winners were Glasgow, so congratulations to them! 

Overall, I think the York team played very well. There were some strong teams there, and although we lost our way early on, the way we played against Oxford, Aberdeen, Bangor and Durham shows that we've got a great set of players who can pull together as a cohesive team. Sure, we need to develop our skills and tactics, but we're a young team, with many recent converts to Octopush, and little opportunity to play competitively (although the ONE league is helping to change that). We have a great foundation to build on, and should come back even stronger next year.

Before I finish, a couple of thank yous. Firstly to the York team for showing me a good time (not that sort of good time!). Secondly to Trudi and Ken Wheat at Hollyhurst Guest House for the warm welcome, great accommodation, and lovely breakfasts. Thirdly to the guys from the BOA for providing buzzers and doing a great job refereeing. Finally, of course, to Warwick Uni Octopush team for organising such a great event.

And, absolutely finally:

Well done Yorktopush!