Junior water polo players for world championship

Press, 25 February 1981, Page 16

Junior water polo players for world championship

By

RAY CAIRNS

New Zealand junior water polo players face the biggest challenges of their fledgling careers later this year. They are to compete, in the,inauguraljunior world championships, at a 'European venue still to be’fixed, in the period of the August school holiday’s. The national side is .effectively an; under-18 combination, with the slight variation that the date of qualification is January 1, 1963. That is, for players to be eligible, they must have been born in 1963 ?or later. With: pew international regulations providing for 7min quarters and permitting " the use of up to 13 •players, a ..full-sized squad has-been chosen by New Zealand for the world .tour. Also, not really surpris-. Ingly, seven of ; the/players -

are from Canterbury and four from Wellington,- with the others Mark .Grooby, of Auckland; and Graham Laing, from Dunedin. <. Some of .the Canterbury members are probably close to national honours. Lachie Marshall, the-captain of the junior side, is a left-hander of the highest , class and a tough, intensely; determined competitor. ; . Another' is Nigel Ward, outstanding on the Canterbury junior teams’ tour to Australia in December and now ranking probably behind only .Maranui’s experienced Robert Bofgers. . fA third player in that category is Joe Boyce, a big strong hole-man < who has made marked progress in the last few months. These players. and Bryan Buck (six -weekstoo old ler-considera-

tion for the four), were the keys to Canterbury’s successes in Australia. However, they had topclass support from Frank McMaster, Brent -Ferigo and Bruce ’ Wilson, the other Canterbury team 7 members in the national side.. ? The Wellington team, members/are , John Dyson, Neil Watson,- Peter Nota and Simon Jackson,’the first and ' last I already- national agegroup representatives. Watson, the youngest member of the parly, has made rapid progress’in the last year and perhaps stands to develop most on the tour. Grooby;once -of . Canterbury, has had. several seasons of-top-levebclubiwater polo, and really progressed a'year ) ago under the . coaching of Dennis Reid, the former New ,y.- ■'

The chunky Laing, also a top age-group swimmer and surf lifesaver, has suffered /from the spasmodic progress of water polo in Dunedin, but > he is adetermined competitor. // Two reserves have been named: Gary Connor, of .Canterbury, and Auckland’s Jeremy 'Knights. Connor, only 159? but a husky young •man/ is another player to have made marked progress in the past few months and he must have gone close to selection. Knights played for the national under-16 team a year ago. The manager of the team is. Mr Russell McKinnon, of Wanganui, long a stalwart of water polo in that area, and -the .coach Mr Lindsay Scott, , )of Christchurch. He was also coach of the national under-. 19 team .'which toured Cali-