Jeremy Sherman

Jez Sherman (no-one in water polo ever called him Jeremy) started his water polo career in his hometown of Bristol, under the expert direction of his father Pete.  Enjoying an uneventful junior career, he came to London to study in 1984 and, being under no scrutiny whatsoever while playing for London University, made the connection with the Poly.  An illustrious water polo career began to flourish.  He was a man who went looking for hard work and epitomised the work-hard, play-hard mantra - always on the hunt for another training session, and the consequent socialising.  The Wednesday night trip to London Hospital from the University was a well worn path (usually accompanied by Rambo and Jerry).

As a junior member of the Poly he made a career of all the TJ responsibilities, quickly realising that a sound TJ performance often resulted in rewards when the kitty was due – although having to spend an evening feeding tokens into slot machines to pay for everyone’s drinks did sometimes feel like a burden.  Perhaps this was why, early in his playing days, he earned the nickname of “Baldrick”.  However it might also have been linked to another occasion when, following a post-rugby concussion, he turned up in mid-winter to travel North with the Poly, armed only with a t-shirt and carrying his trunks.  As you can imagine this resulted in the sage shaking of heads from the wise Poly elders.

Jez broke into the England team in 1985 and then Great Britain a couple of years later.  He was also part of the GB Students team that played at the World Student Games in Zagreb in 1987.  He is renowned for his teamwork, work-rate and never say die attitude to every game, and every training session.  It was always an extreme disappointment when he was on the other side in training.

Having completed his studies, Jez made the well-worn Poly pilgrimage to Perth where he and a good number of other pilgrims showed the Aussies how to play.  City Beach duly won their first ever Western Australia State Championship.

On return from Oz, he decided to follow in the footsteps of the good Dr. Hallwood, as a career as a drug salesman beckoned.  His subsequent appointment as team captain had nothing to do with having a company car and being willing to drive at high speed anywhere in the country, since most of what Jez did was at high speed.  With him as captain, the Poly went through another unrivalled period winning National League, London League, and ASA Cup titles. Over the period 1990-1996 Poly were British Champions 6 years in a row.  The ASA Cup became the exception when we fell out with the ASA in 1993, after being expected to play a game when all our players were at GB training, the result of which was that Poly did not enter the competition again.

During this period Jez played for England and also for GB at the European Championships in 1989, 1991, and 1993.  He then went on to captain GB from 94-98, and it was there that great friendships were formed with the clan North of the border.  This resulted in Alan Anderson, and Barry-the-Cat Davidson migrating to London.  Jez was also partly responsible for starting a new trend at the Poly when he actually started talking to the opposition after the match, and sometimes during games as well.  Initially this was frowned on by the elders, and I can still see Freddy raising a furrowed brow from the broadsheets and muttering "Is that wise dear boy?”.  But eventually it caught on.

Along with the above desperadoes, and the rapidly greying Punchy, the Poly dinner was re-initiated and after a somewhat bumpy start downstairs in a Kebab restaurant somewhere near Warren Street, it continued to grow every year, dragging in an ever widening circle of friends and ex-players to become the behemoth that it now is.

Following the 1996 season Jez moved back to his hometown of Bristol, and promptly initiated an upturn in the fortunes of Bristol Central, winning the league for the first time in 1997 and then another 3 times in the next 4 years.

Jez and family eventually moved to New Zealand in 2006 because of their desire to spend more time outdoors (surely we could have bought him a tent?).  He has lived there ever since, still playing water-polo and finally winning a masters Gold in 2018.  His connection to the Poly is, however, undiminished.  He is still a regular contributor to communications, and always catches up when he returns to these shores.  He is rumoured to be eyeing up Singapore for the World Masters in 2025.  Maybe another get-together is on a cards?

Alan Anderson, July 2024