Southern Highlands Water Polo Club hosted the NSW Country Championships very successfully over the long weekend.
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Teams travelled from both the North and South of the State to participate at a time when things are not easy in the country.
The games were played at Frensham Centenary and Mittagong Pools on the Sunday, in the preliminary rounds and Mittagong Pool on Monday.
"We're very happy with the way the Championships have gone. The games and functions have all run smoothly.
"Players have been very impressed with the facilities, it has been a great start to celebrating 40 years of water polo in the Southern Highlands," enthused Southern Highlands Club President Miles Lochhead said.
The women's team, the Highland Flames, despite being very competitive in all their games, narrowly missed the medal play offs.
In round one they met the eventual Gold medal winners, Tamworth, going down 8-3. It was only late in the match that Tamworth was able to assert their superiority.
The younger Southern Highlands side found the experienced Tamworth side just a little too wily.
The Flames missed the medal playoff round, after a two goal loss to Wyong 3-5, who were the eventual Bronze medal winners.
The Highland Flames led early but were unable to repel the strong Wyong attack, a few crucial turnovers saw Wyong capitalise and knock the Flames out of medal contention.
The home Men's side, the Highlanders, managed to take the Bronze medal in the Division Two Championship, after good games against Illawarra and Far North Coast/Easts.
The Illawarra side scored a brilliant win in the Division Two Final against Far North Coast/Easts to take the Gold medal 9-5.
Illawarra and Southern Highlands are closely related and it was great to see them take two of the three medals in their division.
Highlands and Wollongong players often play in each other's competitions. The Southern Highlands junior competition was the nursery for many of the Illawarra players.
The Women's Championship was taken out by Tamworth with an 8-6 win over Albury. There is a good deal of distance between the two regional cities but there certainly was nothing between them in the final.
The scores were locked at 5-5 at the end of the third quarter before Tamworth managed to regain the lead and hold on to take the Championship.
In the Men's Division 1 Final it was an all ACT affair, with the Canberra Dragons playing off against the Nordek Club, also from Canberra. Nordek were too strong and ran out comfortable winners 8-5.
They scored consistently and led throughout each of the four quarters, with only the final period seeing the Dragons make any inroads but all too late. The Newcastle University Water Polo Club defeated the Albury Sharks 8-4 to take the Bronze medal.
A key player for Albury was Ben Douglas who played all his junior water polo in the Southern Highlands.
It was brilliant to see this event bring 17 teams into the Southern Highlands over the weekend.
The Southern Highlands Water Polo Club, celebrating 40 years of water polo in the Highlands, can be proud of their efforts in hosting the event.
The Southern Highlands Club is looking forward to having six junior teams compete in up and coming junior Country Championships.
