Well another early start meeting at Churchie School at 06.30. Everybody made it - except for Alex Feary's billets who didn't think he needed to meet until 08.00 ! The bus had to leave without him but a lifesaving car run by Ruth Hay got him to the airport on time.

The plane took off slightly after the scheduled time of 08.20 and it took 5 hours to get to Perth.  On landing Andy was whisked away by Uncle Mark to have his first flying lesson (not on the itinerary so no BMS insurance cover.)  As ever, it seemed to be feeding time at the zoo, and as we went through the beautiful river-lined suburbs of Perth, every fast food outlet acted like a siren to their stomachs. 

We arrived at Bicton Pool, the home of Melville Water Polo Club, and the National League team Fremantle Zanzibar Mariners, whose history is closely intertwined with that of Australian Water Polo.  Situated on the bank of the Swan River it is the most picturesque of all the locations and with lottery funding they have built a superb clubhouse and dry-land training facility.  However, they forgot about a cafe!  Straggling like the cast in the final scenes of "A cold one in Alex" the boys had to scrimmage (a training game) against their hosts.

Bicton Water Polo Club Pool

Aquinas are the top school in WA and showed why in the two games.  The pitch was 30m and the boys weren't up for much swimming and minus Andy we looked a bit thin in attack.  Gazza has a couple of huge fast breaks but failed to beat the keeper. We defended well but only scored twice through Dom and James.  The final score was 3-2 and hopefully the boys will be determined to reverse that in the official game under lights tomorrow at 7.30pm.

Rupert Houghton defending closely.

Bryn Powell distributing the ball.

Bryce Titman in action.

Alex Feary choosing his pass.

Dom Thurmott under pressure.

Seniors watching the juniors play.

The seniors are playing more cohesively as the tour goes on and moved the ball down the pool well.  However the defence of Aquinas with players "in the lanes" (ball side marking) made shooting opportunities minimal and then the goalie filled the space extremely well.  We managed one from a penalty.  Aquinas hit us hard on the counter and gained many kick outs in the first half and converted many of them.  When we got back we zoned effectively. With 5 state U/17 players and the Australian Schoolboy centre forward in their side we put up a manly performance. 12-2 was the final score.

Blair Abrahams about to slot one in.

Defending.

Again !

I'll stop that !

A view of  Bicton Water Polo Club Pool from the river.