A strong and well organised Basildon squad won this year’s East Region water polo Under-14 summer cup with a clean sweep of victories at the Royal Hospital School Pool near Ipswich on Saturday June 16. But it was an exciting tournament, with the result in the balance until the penultimate game when Basildon came up against Colchester, the other unbeaten team at that point. The early exchanges of this match were close with Basildon only just edging into a 2-1 half time lead. The second half, however, saw Basildon take a strong grip on events, scoring a further three goals without reply as Colchester struggled to deal with with the prolific James Warman and Nathan Croft. Croft finished with three goals in what was ultimately a convincing 5-1 victory.

Other teams taking part in the league format tournament were Deben, who finished third, Ipswich, fourth, and Chelmsford.

Basildon had the tournament top scorer in James Warman who scored nine goals, while Croft weighed in with another six for them. Colchester’s strong showing was led by seven goals from Sam Mackinder, while Chelmsford’s Dani Brazier was the top scoring girl with four goals.

Final table
Basildon, 8 points
Colchester, 6
Deben, 4
Ipswich, 2
Chelmsford, 0

Match results
Deben 3 Ipswich 1
Colchester 4 Chelmsford 2
Basildon 8 Ipswich 0
Deben 1 Colchester 4
Chelmsford 2 Basildon 4
Ipswich 1 Colchester 5
Basildon 6 Deben 0
Ipswich 3 Chelmsford 1
Colchester 1 Basildon 5
Chelmsford 1 Deben 2

Top scorers
James Warman (Basildon) 9
Sam Mackinder (Colchester) 7
Nathan Croft (Basildon) 6
Dani Brazier (Chelmsford) 4
Cameron Cowan (Colchester) 4
Rufus Church (Deben) 3
Kieran Harris (Deben) 3
Alex Humphries (Basildon) 3
Bradley Watts (Ipswich) 3