A photo of Murray Anderson and Neil May (with Pat Lennox in the middle).

The club celebrated its 150th anniversary on Friday 20th September, when over [120] water polo enthusiasts sat down to dinner at the City of London Club. Guests included large contingents of old friends from Portobello and Sutton & Cheam, with Tad Detko representing the refereeing community. Attendees also included many of the old guard, several of whom had attended the club’s centenary dinner in 1974. Most notably the occasion once again brought together Neil May and Murray Anderson who were stars of the Great Britain team in the 1960s.

It was a great evening of reminiscing, with the reunions of many people who had not been seen together for several decades.

Chairman John Clark made a rousing opening speech, recognising the strength of the club’s culture over the years and making the claim that Poly is the oldest surviving water polo team in the world.

President Phil Hallwood spoke about the success of the current team, after winning the “double” in 2023, and drew a vociferous response from the team when challenging them to get back to the top, by putting away the disappointment of two second place finishes in 2024.

In proposing the toast to absent friends, he gave an emotional summary of the immense contributions to the club of Barry Turner, the Prof (John Littleton) and Jerry Birmingham who had all sadly died since our last dinner. This was a prelude to the introduction of a new annual award, in Jerry Birmingham’s memory, to the “Fairest and Best” member of the club. This will usually go to a playing member, but in recognition of his enormous contribution to the club over the last twenty years the award went to James Reddick. This popular choice brought the house down and, following a lengthy standing ovation, James made a moving acceptance speech in typically modest fashion.

Following a short break in proceedings, there was a raucous auction of several novel donations, many of which went for inflated prices owing to the generosity of members and friends. The highlight of the auction was undoubtedly the sale of Simon Gardner’s ancient bathrobe, which the Sutton boys were clubbing together to buy, with the threat of setting it on fire. Thanks to the deep pockets of one of the old boys, this fate was averted.

The evening wound down with a very successful raffle, which will also have contributed significantly to help the club’s finances and Chris Brown gave thanks for everyone’s generosity.

It is understood that events continued elsewhere afterwards, but the aftermath has not yet been properly assessed.