Poly’s Great Goalkeepers
As in many other sports, to play in goals at water polo requires an ability to put team success above personal safety. Who would willingly volunteer to have a heavy ball thrown as hard as possible in their general direction from as little as two metres away with a fair probability that it will hit you square in the middle of your face? Such a person may by definition be expected to have a degree of eccentricity as well as a level of courage and skill. As pointed out by Neil May, the harder the team practiced their shooting the better the goalkeeper became [and, like as not, the higher the risk of injury and the greater the insanity level required to play in goal]. The Poly Team has been blessed with a long line of extremely talented goalkeepers, many of whom had their own peculiar quirks and foibles. Here are some of the Poly favourites.
Alf L Cox (1893) - Eccentricity Rating N/A
“A novice at the game [initially] his rise has been most rapid: defends his charge splendidly and is a decided acquisition to the team.” Alf went to Calcutta in 1904 and came back with consumption, poor chap.
F Cyril Moore (1898) - Eccentricity Rating N/A
Proved himself a worthy successor to Alf Cox. “In quite championship form” in a match against Worthing in 1899.
Arthur Judkins (1907) - Eccentricity Rating 3/5
A recruit from Hornsey, who played for the Middlesex team in 1904, “Juddy” joined the Poly in 1907, captained the side in 1922, played for England in the Olympic games, played for Middlesex as late as 1930 (having had his first cap in 1901), and was still turning up in the Poly shortly before his death, in 1947, aged 70. He was bombed out of his home in 1941 so, via the magazine, he blithely sent his new address and regards to his Poly mates.
Peter Pass (1949) - 2/5
Hard to believe that Peter Pass started his polo career in goal. However, like many goalkeepers he fancied he could do better outfield than most of the players in front of him. And after scoring 6 goals from his goalkeeping position he thought he could swim less and score more, if he played outfield. Unusually for a goalkeeper he decided to play as a back, rather than as a hole forward, but even more unusually he really was better than the players in front of him. The rest is history. “Father” of the modern Poly team.
Fred Waters (1955) - 3/5
When Fred joined the club he was reported to be “so deadly keen that he eats, sleeps, talks and dreams water polo”. Clearly not quite the full shilling. In May 1957 the Magazine reported that he was in the process of taking another Waters to Court over the sale of a so-called car, and they wrote a poem about this event, which concluded as follows:
“The final summation, the piper's been paid,
With Counsels acounting the lolly they've made,
Solicitors, clerks out-of-pockets the like
And Fred goes to work on a second-hand bike.”
In the February 1960 magazine, they offered a fond farewell for Fred, or "Boy Boy" as he was known, when “Having convinced the lads of his age and having got steadily younger year by year, Fred found himself conscripted for National Service … with Her Majesty's Royal Air Force”. Sadly Fred died young in 1970 at only 43, the news of which came as a great blow to the club. He was “one of the very great characters of the game. Although not representing his country, he was one of the finest goalkeepers in the game”.
Neil May (1957) - 2/5
Got his GB Cap in 1958 shortly after returning from the tour to Moscow which took his game to a new level. Captained the Poly for several years and was still playing extremely well in the early 1970s when he organised a couple of European Cup tournaments, as well as the renowned “Aquafresh” tournament which celebrated Poly’s centenary at Crystal Palace. “Mother” of the modern Poly team.
John Littleton (1964) - 3/5
Recruited from Weston-super-Mare when he came up to London University to study. Went on to play for Poly for many years, including in the 1971 European Cup, and he coached London University and later the Poly first team quite brilliantly. He was renowned for his intellect (a Professor of Pharmacology at King’s College in his 30s), his wit, his love of fine wine and good food, his hospitality in Devon, Hackney and then Theed Street, his appetite for rough cider and curry, and much more.
John Harrison (1973) - 3/5
Coming to the Poly as a seasoned Australian international, with over 50 caps and having played in the Mexico Olympics of 1968, ‘Arrow firmly established himself as one of the Poly characters, excelling in important games on tour in Braunschweig, as well as at home in the Europa Cup. He made his mark and established long friendships with the team despite only playing for one season. A top orthopaedic surgeon in his spare time, he went on to give further service to Australian international waterpolo, as team manager to the Athens Olympics in 2004, as well as team doctor on many other occasions. Sadly passed in 2019 at 75.
Paul Tollefson (1976) - 2/5
Paul was Ray Clemence to Pat Lennox’ Peter Shilton. Two excellent keepers who had to be rotated to make them both unhappy. Unlike many goalkeepers he did not fancy he could do better outfield than the players in front of him, although he was once pressed into service as a full back for a cup match in Durham (Poly Mag Oct 1979) when only seven players were available. Surprisingly he was not asked to consider making the change permanent, given that he was one of only 5 players left in the water at the final whistle, in a game that Poly still won convincingly. He was the hero of the day in the 1979 cup final against Sutton, saving a penalty in the dying seconds to secure victory 5-4.
Pat Lennox (1977) - 5/5
Came to Poly from Ireland via Scotland, before leaving in 1982 for South Africa. A top class goalkeeper who played for GB for several years, he was unsurprisingly known as Pat the Cat at first. Later this was shortened to Mad Pat for reasons that are hard to fathom. However, there were occasions when he was attacked by ferocious man-eating foliage, maybe because he had a passion for cultivating bicycle trees and ensuring that they were kept in full bloom. Before the cup match in Durham mentioned earlier, he famously took to the canal outside the pool for a warm up, possibly because the canal was considerably wider than the playing area indoors. A key member of the “Polykleptic” squad that gathered memorabilia for the club room, he later reformed his ways and is now back in Ireland doing good work as a man of the cloth in East Belfast, helping criminals, drug users and others in difficulty to overcome their problems.
Andy Wheatley (1981) - 3/5
Known as Half-Price for obscure reasons, Andy was an excellent goalkeeper coming into the squad after the Tollefson/Lennox era. Unfortunately, like many goalkeepers, he fancied he could do better than most of the players in front of him and he later made the first team as an outfielder.
Andy Knight (c1986) - 4/5
Andy’s trial in the old Poly bath was famous, in his mind at least, for his belittling of an Irish former-captain of the Poly, by saving, often with both hands, anything that was thrown at him. He was indeed selected for the team immediately after that evening. Never short on confidence he played for Wales and Great Britain, and toured with the Masters for many years.
Ned Denison (c1990) - 5/5
In the absence of magazine records it is hard to be sure exactly when Ned played for the Poly, but he came to Poly somewhere around 1990 as an established US International goalkeeper, and he seemed to be with us for years. A genial man, he was certainly unconventional, but in case there was any doubt about his faculties, he gave up the comparatively sane activity of water polo goalkeeping in favour of long distance open-water swimming. Having moved to Ireland to pursue peace of mind, he became the first European to complete a Frosted Triple Crown, which consists of the English Channel, the Catalina Channel (to Southern California) and the 46k circuit of Manhattan Island (in addition to an “Ice Mile” for good measure). He is in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame and now spends most of his time coaching from his base in Kinsale, County Cork. His main focus is on the development of his customers’ mental strength through punishing swims round Sandycove Island. Bonkers.
Paul Annegarn (c1992) - 6/5
“Anagram” came into the club in 1992 and enjoyed many years of success between the sticks, playing for Great Britain in due course. A South African with a hidden history of involvement in conflict resolution, he became a usually-placid man when he played for the Poly. Unfortunately, unusual events occasionally happened in our water polo matches, and Anagram did not spend a long time negotiating before taking action to resolve the situation. Like many goalkeepers Paul felt he could do better outfield than most of the players in front of him, and he particularly fancied playing as a hole forward. This was a perilous business for the opposition backs, who needed to understand that the normal rules of grappling with a forward would not apply.
Matteo Gaspari (2010) - 2/5
Matteo came to the Poly from Vicenza, Italy. Like many goalkeepers he fancied he could do better outfield than most of the players in front of him but, to be fair, he was quite a handy leftie with a knack for finding the back of the net when allowed out of his cage. He had an intensity that marked him out as a proper Poly player, who bought into the train-hard play-hard mentality of the club. He was rumoured to like a hot shower after training, so would no doubt have been at home in the hot-pot, if only he knew what it was. But imagine an Italian liking a pizza after a game. Luigi would never have put up with that.
Julian Lewis (2021) - 2/5
Extremely talented goalkeeper who has played in the Olympics and World Championships for South Africa. Not marked as the most eccentric of goalkeepers, probably because he appears much too committed to his job, often going awol for some work event or other.