Highlights from Archive
1882: The first mention of waterpolo appeared in Poly archives:
“A very interesting entertainment has been arranged by the heads of this department to take place at the Whitfield Street Baths on Thursday, September 28th, of which the following is the programme:—
1. 117 Yards Handicap (4 Lengths). 1st prize given by Hon. A . F . Kinnaird
2. Learners' Race.
3. Two Lengths Race open to the Institute. 1st prize given by Q. Hogg, Esq.
4. Two Lengths Back Race. 1st prize given by Mr. R. Mitchell.
5. Race in Clothes. Complete suit to weigh not less than 7lbs.
6. Two Lengths Handicap. Open to the Reed and Brass Band.
7. Polo Match.
The Whitfield Street first-class bath has been engaged for the evening. . Tickets for admission, sixpence each, may be obtained of H . Gray, Captain of Swimming, or J . Arnold, Hon. Secretary of the H.U.A.C.
The Reed and Brass Band have kindly volunteered their services for the entertainment. The prizes will be on view at the Institute the week previous.”
1884: Opening of Swimming Bath. First records of a Poly Waterpolo team.
1885: First Rules of Polo Published by GB Swimming Association.
Late 1880s-early 1890s: Weekly Poly Magazine reports of games against numerous teams, including Otter, Dolphin, Magpies, Cricketers, Amateur, Nautilus, Ravensbourne, Priory, Gresham, Citizens and more. Of these, only Otter survives to this day. Many of the games were well attended, and frequently the winner got a polo ball as a prize. Evidently ball theft started much later.
Leading players of the 1890s were L Hartung, Will Hankins and Arthur Leith. Hartung departed to Berlin in 1892, much to the disappointment of the team, and in June 1990 was reported to have been wounded in Florida, South Africa, fighting for the Gordon Highlanders. Will Hankins joined the Poly in 1884 and remained with the club for many years, going on to become president of the ASA until his death in 1931, after 47 years involvement with the sport.
1896: The World Encyclopaedia of Water Polo reports on a game between Poly and the “Cercle de Natation de Bruxelles”, played in Vienna in 1896. The match is said to have sparked the development of water polo in Hungary, which has the proudest tradition in the world, having adopted it as its national sport.
1897: The Senior Team won London League for the first time.
1898: Poly’s best season to date, when they won London Water Polo League, Middlesex County Championship and Southern Counties Championship. Unbeaten by any club side all season in 28 matches, losing only to “Rest of London” 3-2 in an exhibition match. A report of the subsequent celebratory dinner appears in the Feb 1899 Poly Mag. Who knew that the Poly Boys could sing?
First winner of the Studd Trophy: Robert Grey, a notable swimmer and waterpolo player.
1899-1911: The first team continued their domination of South East polo, winning 3 trophies each year until 1912, when they were dismayed to win only the London League.
1905: Tour to Brussels and Antwerp. This is the earliest record found of overseas games in the Poly Magazine, although the club was obviously touring Europe before then. The Antwerp president said “…we are particularly pleased to have inaugurated the maiden match between the Poly and the Antwerp Otter water polo players. The meeting has been a great success, and, we hope, the first step towards future reunions…”
1906-07: Poly made the final of the National Championship for the first time. Apparently Poly were robbed 4-6 by Weston-super-Mare, and a crooked referee, who sent two of the Poly boys out and disallowed two Poly goals. They also completed another clean sweep of the London League, Middlesex County Championship and Southern Counties championship.
A photo of a Poly Team in Vienna in 1906 was unearthed. There does not seem to be any record of this tour, but this entry was found in the 1907 Magazine: “The Danube is reported to be too chilly for water polo. Our team never had a chance of showing their skill, and were occupied in seeking for breath instead of scoring goals. The coldest July for 130 years is the verdict of the Savants in Vienna, and they ought to know, so our boys are to be commiserated with at having struck such a snag.”
1906-1910: Poly made the final of the National Championship again in 1908, 1909 and 1910. 1910 was a particularly good year.
1911: Another tour to Brussels. It did not go well, but Poly enjoyed the hospitality: “The score at half-time was 4-0, and the full score against us, 7-1. This does not represent the game, but I do not think on the top of our form we could beat them… A banquet in honour of all the visitors commenced at 2 a.m., and I think we can lay claim to have well beaten them here, as we had had practically nothing to eat since leaving Charing Cross.“
1919-21: Following the First World War, the Swimming and Waterpolo Club regrouped and in 1919 was reported as having over 200 members. By 1921 it was well over 300.
1922: Tour to Brussels and Amsterdam. Poly resumed their domination of South East polo, winning all three trophies again.
1934: “About seventy members and friends of the Poly Swimming Club sat down to the Diamond Jubilee Dinner, at Pagani's Restaurant… Old pals were happily talking over those great games of two or three decades ago, when water polo was, as it still is to-day, a tough game for he-men, and very naturally, conversation turned to what the present day boys should be capable of doing…” The menu of the dinner said “May this Diamond Jubilee Dinner mark but a step in the progressive history of the club and be one of many stimulating an ever-widening interest in swimming, in friendly rivalry and in healthy club spirit.”
1937: Poly made the final of the National Championship again, for the first time since 1910, but they lost again, this time to Plaistow. Ian Geddes, who scored two goals in this game, came down to the Poly when on leave from wartime duty during the war and sadly lost his life in Tunisia in the 1943 campaign.
1946: As activities resumed with considerable energy, Tom Cogswell described the workings of the club during the war. In a poignant report (carefully typed on a scrappy piece of grid paper) he also resigned as Secretary and Treasurer, although the club persuaded him to stay on as Treasurer and he was there until 1963, a total of 38 years service.
1949: New rules were introduced, with players allowed to move after the whistle was blown for a foul. Bob Knights and Peter Pass were the latest and youngest members to represent Middlesex Juniors.
1954: Four Poly players made a pilgrimage to Turin to see the swimming and water-polo events of the European Games. Pass, Fincham and Searby made the epic trip in an ancient Ford that blew up as soon as it got back from its 2,200m journey. They learned a lot about top waterpolo, amongst other things.
1955: A proposed match against a visiting team from Romania was cancelled by the ASA: “…when the London League requested permission from the A.S.A. to meet this Continental team the letter replying to this request stated: "The A.S.A. is not prepared to approve matches with a team of Romanian players visiting this country and about whose status nothing is known." When I mentioned this matter to Ernie Scott, who is on the A.S.A. council, he had no knowledge of it whatsoever. Far be it from me to throw a spanner in the works, but it is high time that the A.S.A. were made to realize that far from assisting the fostering of good relations, such high handed actions are crippling not only the attempts, but the sport itself. Oh, to look forward to the halcyon days when all matters to do with water polo are governed by a Water Polo Federation.”
Jun 1955: “Chris, Gentlemen, has a complaint. He says that since 1939 over three hundred slips and towels have been misplaced. Now, as the Club's membership is this side of the two hundred mark, somebody is being greedy.” A rather remarkable sequel to this "Story of the missing accoutrements" is that upon visiting another swimming bath in another district, a Poly swimmer was given a Poly slip to wear. Naturally, he returned it to the Club. Further investigation has also revealed that at least half of the University of Yale are wearing Poly slips so the loss can at least be put down on the balance sheet as Advertising.
Jul 1955-Sep 1955: Two South Africans in the team. Austin Fincham and Clive Nettleton. Fincham appears to have been a bit of a character judging by this report. Roger King goes to San Sebastian for the University games and gets in trouble with the authorities for Spanish-flag souvenir-hunting.
1956: First victory over Cheltenham in their own pool, since 1934.
“The Water Polo section of the Men's Swimming Club is gaining many representative honours, and we are pleased to hear that Bill Tovey has been capped for England against Ireland and has been chosen as reserve for Great Britain against Spain.” He joins a very distinguished band, including Peter Pass (England and Great Britain), Bob Knights (England), Fred Waters and Roger King (Great Britain and Rest trialists).
Great report on Poly’s first win in the National Championships, identifying clearly where the club’s pursuit of excellence started. It includes a lovely story about Roger King wearing his “Red Pyjamas” to the Mayor’s pre-match reception. Liar dice reported as a popular pastime, evidently a longstanding Poly tradition.
1957: Report on Peter Pass and Bob Knight’s experiences in the Melbourne Olympics, or at least getting there and back.
Lovely story about trying to acquire some antlers for the Poly Trophy Room.
Bill Tovey reported to be “bullying the juniors out of the hot-pot”. Not entirely sure where the “hot-pot” history started, but it didn’t finish till the pool was shut in 1986.
Report on the Poly’s tour to Moscow to compete in the Festival Games. Poly come 4th as a Club side playing against 7 full international teams, beating Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Belgium but losing heavily to USSR and Hungary. The travel arrangements, by rail, make Batman Tours look positively luxurious.
Poly retained the National Championship beating Cheltenham in the (raucous) Birmingham final.
1958: Neil May swam 100 (yards) Fly in 72.4 but was narrowly beaten by a Navy man, who managed a 64.
London League/GB Fixture Clash: Peter Pass, Bob Knights & Austin Fincham were not available to play against Sutton & Cheam, who refused to rearrange the match. Never any friction between these two clubs.
Neil May got his first GB Cap.
Report on a club tour to Rotterdam: The final results were a 4-3 win against Germany ; 5-5 draw against the number one Dutch team, and losses of 4-3 to the Hungarians and 4-3 to the number two Dutch team.
In the inter-club Darts Championship, the Swimming Club beat the Darts Club in the final! But, in water-polo, the National Championship final was lost fair and square to Cheltenham.
1962: Poly lost 12-11 at Cheltenham in the second round of the ASA Nationals, in a game described by the local paper as the “finest game…ever seen”. It went to four periods of extra time and Cheltenham were deemed to be simply the lucky team that was in the lead at the final whistle. Neil May, the “brilliant GB goalkeeper”, made numerous fine saves and Pete Messider up front scored seven goals.
1963: By beating Poly 5-3 in their last match of the first ever NWPL, Cheltenham were clear winners of the league. However, in a pattern that was to be repeated regularly, Poly compensated by winning the National Championship (for the fourth time). In the final against Sheffield, Neil Tasker “gave an object lesson…on the arts of speed, positional sense and ball handling” scoring four times. Neil May made a crucial save from Ted Motley when the scores were tight, but Poly ran away with it, 6-2.
1964: In the quarter-finals of the National Championship, Poly were well beaten by Penguin 9-6, for whom Ron Turner starred in Les Baldwin’s absence. However, in a pattern that was to be repeated regularly, Poly compensated by winning the NWPL (Premier League Championship) by beating Otter 4-3, with goals from McCrory (2), Brayford and Knights. All this happened after an earlier 8-4 thumping by Otter in the league which resulted in the two teams being tied on points, prompting a very late-season play-off. Subsequently the rules were changed to decide the title on goal average.
1965: Poly lost disappointingly to Sutton 4-5 at home in the ASA Knockout, and were second in the league to Birkenhead but only on goal average, and by the tiniest fraction (0.016 of a goal). If they had conceded just one fewer goal in the whole season victory would have been theirs.
Arthur Winter published the final part of his history of the sports clubs and societies in the Polytechnic (1930-65) an extract of which is in the archive for this year.
1966: Poly again came a close second to Birkenhead in the NWPL. Preparation for the away match in Birkenhead, and the horrors of the New Ferry open-air pitch, consisted of regular training in the cold waters of Hampstead Ponds, but it was to no avail and Poly lost 4-1.
A new player, Terry Bensted, was starting to make a name for himself with regular appearances in the first team.
1968: The club welcomed 6’8” Glyn Berry to the club from Penguin, and also “promising 15-year-old Tony Love who belies his surname with provocative aggression”.
Mysterious report of a tour to Prague, taking in games against Offenbach & Würzburg on the way, matches against Slavia Prague and Pilsen while there, and further fixtures against Offenbach and Duisberg on the way home. Apart from the match descriptions, most of the rest of the report is not seriously intelligible if you weren’t there. Is anyone curious enough to know what “old Searby’s party trick with a hole” consisted of, or what lullabies were led by “Bockwürst Bensted” and how he came by that title? But it is heartening to note that they were well enough to play chess, and that Tasker emerged as champion. Slavia Prague, Pilsen, Offenbach and Frankfürt were all successfully entertained in London tournaments later in the year.
Our illustrious press officer bemoans GB’s failure to take a water polo team to the Mexico Olympics and provides some possible solutions to their poor performance, a theme that is hardly unusual in Poly history. Also noted is that Poly provided representatives to each country participating in the Home Internationals. Peter Pass won the competition for England, Glyn Berry was second with Wales, Aidan McCorry came third with Ireland and Jack Gauldie picked up the wooden spoon for Scotland.
1969: A pre-season tour to Germany, with a series of matches against top German opposition, was the prelude to the first time the club “did the double”, winning the NWPL Premier League with a record 24 points out of 28, and beating Everton 6-4 in the final of the ASA National Championships. The ASA final was a tight game played with an old leather ball that did not suit the Poly, probably the last time we ever saw one of these in competition. With the score 4-4 at the end of the third, the game was effectively won when Phil Brayford fired a 12m long shot past the out of position Everton goalkeeper.
1970: Report of another Tour to Offenbach. What did Tasker and Brayford get up to?
May & Pass report on the first round of the European Club Championships, played in Sofia. Poly learned a lot about European polo standards from this tournament, but failed to qualify losing to Sofia (10-3) and Zagreb (9-3).
1971: Poly win the National Championship by beating Sutton 10-4 in the Crystal Palace final. It is the first time since the war that a team has won the title for 3 consecutive years.
Report on first round of European Cup played at Crystal Palace, a home tournament which attracted a lot of interest, thanks to a huge effort from Neil May to promote, finance and organise the event. Poly qualified for the semi-final round for the first time, by beating Antwerp and Marseilles, before losing heavily to Moscow Marine. Poly’s leading goalscorers were Chris Ayling and Glyn Berry, with the star of the tournament being the top Russian international Osipov. In the semi-final round Poly travelled to Hvar, where they played against Mladost Zagreb (still a powerhouse in European Club Waterpolo more than 50 years later), De Robben of Holland (half of whose team went on to win the Olympic Bronze Medal in 1976) and Olympiakos of Greece, also one of the top club sides in Europe. Despite having to send a weakened team due to the business commitments of two key players, the Poly only lost by a single score to both De Robben and Olympiakos. Mladost went on to win the final of the competition that year, and the experience of playing against them inspired the team to go on an extended training camp to Yugoslavia before the 1972 event.
1972: Peter Pass was awarded an MBE for Services to Water Polo in the Queens New Years Honours List and so became the first British Water Polo Player (and probably still the only one) to have received such an honour. See application letter under “People”.
Report of training camp tour to Yugoslavia by David Chapman. Does not quite tell the full story of the renowned “Batman Tours” with its travel complexities and technical hitches.
Report on Quarter Final of European Cup again played at Crystal Palace. Poly again lost to the Russians (CVSK Moscow) narrowly this time, drew with the Rumanian Champions (Dinamo Bucharest) and had a great chance of qualification before allowing the German champions Amateur Duisberg to come back at the death and win 4-3.
This was reported as the club’s finest year ever, losing only one game all season:
National KO - Champions
National League - Champions
Southern Counties - Champions
London League - Champions
London League Reserve Division - Champions
1973: Poly narrowly failed to qualify for the Europa Cup second round after drawing with a strong Bucharest team through a goal from Tony Meek in the last seconds. As a result Poly were level on points with the Romanians but they went through on goal difference.
Poly won the NWPL Premier League convincingly once again, athough they were defeated 7-6 by Everton, after extra time, in the ASA National Championship Final in Walsall, which brought to a temporary halt to the club’s Europa Cup entries.
1974: Antwerp Tour report, with best result ever against Rote Erde Hamm, W German Champions. Poly won the NWPL again but lost the ASA National Final 6-4 to Aston. Poor refereeing again an issue.
The Aquafresh Tournament, a 5-a-side tournament to celebrate the club’s centenary year, took place in late 1974 and was covered by BBC Grandstand in January 1975. This was a massive success, largely thanks to the efforts of Neil May, and introduced some ideas which were revolutionary at the time, but which have subsequently been adopted by the sport more generally. A video of this tournament is in the repository but has not been loaded onto the website. Although the picture quality is poor, the speed, mobility and high standard of play is evident. The video also includes some highlights from the Montreal Olympics in 1976, and Grandstand coverage of a match between Poly and Portobello from the late 1980s. Again the picture quality has sadly degraded.
1975: Poly retained the NWPL, but again missed out on the ASA National Championships, following defeat in the semi-finals by Leamington that resulted in a 6-month ban for Andy Lench who remarked on the referee’s performance. Financial issues forced a withdrawal from European competition after an expensive draw to an away tournament in Sofia.
1976: A mid-season tour to Braunschweig in W Germany provided the impetus for the club to complete a league and cup double for the first time since 1972, although the coach was extremely upset by the failure of the team to despatch Sutton and Cheam by more than 7-6 in the final of the ASA Championships. There was significant disappointment that Poly failed to qualify for the semi-final of the Europa Cup, having staged another preliminary round at Crystal Palace. In the key match of the tournament Poly lost to Kosice of Czechoslovakia 3-1 in a low-scoring game.
1977: Poly won the ASA National Championships, beating Cheltenham in the final in their own pool, to complete another “double” and then headed to Barcelona for the first round of the Europa Cup. The might of the Hungarian champions (Vasas), the Barcelona side and the team from Partizan Belgrade were too much for a team that tried hard to forget afterwards.
1978: Poly beat De Robben (Hilversum), the Dutch national champions, in the final of an invitation tournament in the Hague. having beaten Den Haag in the semi-final. Mad Pat Lennox incited Olympic Bronze medallist Nico Landeweerd before the final by saving all his shots in the warm-up, something he failed miserably to do within 15 seconds of the swim off. But Rod Jones scored the winner with 35 seconds to go, and Poly held on.
There was much disappointment that Poly lost the league title narrowly to Sutton and Cheam, but there was some compensation by beating Everton in the final of the ASA Championships, with 5 goals coming from Terry Bensted.
In an eventful trip to Genoa, Poly again failed to qualify for the semi-final of the Europa Cup.
1979: A pre-season tour to Greece set the team up for the “Ain’t no Stoppin’ Us Now” double-winning season. The league was almost wrapped up by the beginning of September, until Poly suffered defeat at the hands of bottom club Aston, who played in the smallest, shallowest pool available, and had the benefit of some questionable refereeing. But the league was still won comfortably with only one other point dropped all season. In the final of the ASA National Championship, Poly beat Sutton and Cheam 5-4, with Paul Tollefson saving a penalty in the final seconds to avoid the need for extra time.
In the European Cup-Winners Cup there was another trip to Barcelona where Poly again went out of the competition in 3rd place, having beaten the Austrian Champions 5-4, but having lost heavily to Barcelona and Ferencvaros of Hungary.
1981: Following a disappointing transitional season in 1980, Poly were more competitve in 1981, but losing 7-2 to Sutton & Cheam at Crystal Palace made all the difference and Sutton won the NWPL title, with Poly a close second. But Poly compensated in the ASA National Championship by despatching Sutton in the semi-final and beating Birkenhead 10-8 (after three periods of extra time) in the final.
1982: In 1982, the pattern having been re-established, Poly came second (by one point) to Maindee in the NWPL, but took consolation in victory in the ASA National Championship Final, by beating Southport 10-7. Svein Sandoy was MOTM scoring 5 goals (not 4, and not a close match, as stated in Swimming Times Nov 1982). Poly also travelled to Transylvania to play against the Romanian and Hungarian Champions in the Europa Cup, but again failed to progress.
1985: Five years since last winning the NWPL, Poly again won the first division and, for the first time in ten years were also undefeated. Sadly the double was not achieved, with the team losing to Maindee in the final of the ASA Championship.
John Littleton writes of Poly’s failure to make it through the first round of the Europa Cup once again, this time in Marseille, where the home team, the Hungarian Champions and the Czech Champions were much too strong for Poly. The refereeing standards appear to have been interesting, as a result of which Marseille beat the Hungarians and won their own tournament. Some compensation for the town being hit by a hurricane.
1986: Poly brought home the double for the first time since 1979, by beating Portobello in the ASA National Final (see also Swimming Times October 1986) and winning the league title for the loss of only one game.
In the European Cup, Poly travelled to Odense, where they beat the Danish Champions, but lost to the two heavyweight champions from Hungary and Russia, and again failed to qualify.
Sadly the Poly Magazine reports dried up at this stage, before the Newsletter was discontinued completely in July 1988.
The best account of this period comes from the pen of Jez Sherman entitled, believe it or not, “Mr Wobbly and Co Take Charge”. Following another “double” season in 1988, Poly fell second to Sutton in 1989 and 1990, before regaining top spot in 1991 and dominating the sport in Britain all the way through to 1995 when the team fell to fourth in the league. Sadly very few written records of this period were made, and there are no detailed reports of their ventures in Europe, other than in this article. Other star players of the time included Andy Knight, Robert Eastman, Alan Anderson, Kevin Roberts and, possibly the greatest of them all, Jerry Birmingham.
1996-2010
After the departure of Jez Sherman around 1995, the club was captained, first for a few years by Kevin Roberts, and then Ivan Drinkwater followed by Neil Pearce. Despite some of the superstars retiring or moving on, Poly remained in the top four, even drawing with Lancaster in their pomp in 1996 and getting second place in the league in 1999/2000. Key players during this period included Paul Annegarn in goal, Neil and Ivan Drinkwater, Neil Pearce, Jason Shaw, Paul Trainor, Howie Wong and Nicky May. The occasional appearance of old stalwarts like Phil Gilham helped the numbers; and Gavin Haywood and Neil Green were strong youngsters. City University pool closed down in 1998/99, which was a great shame as “ The Walkabout” pub in Islington made for a great clubhouse at that time.
From 2000 onwards, Poly had a disappointing set of results for some time, even dropping into Division II for a spell. The club faced a crisis when the players turned up to training at Porchester one day and weren’t allowed in. It transpired that Poly owed them a small fortune in pool hire costs, which hadn’t been paid for weeks. Steve Behr and Simon Gardner describe their experiences playing for, and trying to rejuvenate, the club during this period in an article entitled “The Wilderness Years”.
2010-2024
From a results point of view, performances improved significantly from 2010 onwards, first under the captaincy of Luke Jones and later under Chris Icely. The following two references are personal accounts of how the Poly fared during this period, and all old members were delighted when Poly got back to the top of the British water polo tree in 2023, with victory in the Super 5s and the British Championship. The challenge is now to sustain this level for many years to come.
Luke Jones has written a great personal history of his time with the Poly, and what it means to him.
Chris Icely has written a tremendous account of his time in the Poly, who he captained for many years until their recapture of the British Championship in 2023