​Cumbria Ladies first canoe polo tournament this year

Penrith are defending their goal against the Valkyries attack, with Hilary Clarke as goalkeeper and Kerry Holdsworth, Kirstine Bailie and Nadine Merrick in defence.

Cumbria Ladies canoe polo team had their first outing in this years’ newly formed North-west regional ladies league in Manchester on Saturday 18th November. They are currently placed 6th from 7 teams but had several closely fought games and things are looking good for the rest of this season.
The team is made up of players from Penrith, Duddon and Lakeland Canoe clubs, with Penrith and Duddon fielding players for this event. The team had players with a range of experience from 25 years playing to several who have only started canoeing in the last two years.
The first game was lost 4:1 against a very well organised Liverpool Uni team. The second game was a closer fought 2:4 loss to Lancaster Uni, with the Cumbria players feeling more confident after the first game. Next up came the only win of the evening for Cumbria against the Queen Bees from Manchester Uni with a final score of 5:3, and the final game was against the well drilled Valkyries team from Scotland which finished 3:1.
Hilary Clarke was the top goal scorer at the tournament with 8 goals with Nadine Merrick scoring Cumbria’s other goal of the night. The rest of the team was Kirstine Bailie, Kerry Holdsworth, Leanne Parrett, Maia Peplow and Alex Stables. Leanne and Maia were competing for the first time outside of competitions organised within Cumbria, and Alex and Kirstine were playing for the first time in a women’s tournament.
Penrith Canoe club run a women and girls’ canoeing session at the Penrith swimming pool every Monday evening. For more details see www.penrithcanoeclub.co.uk.

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