On Saturday 16 October players from the Rochdale club were playing in divisions 1 and 5 at the Nautilus Tournament in Sheffield as part of the Manchester squad.
Isaac Rhodes Dawson was playing in Division 1 and the Manchester A team came away with silver medals. Two outstanding matches were against Southport and Southsea. They beat the old enemy, Southport 3-1, smiles all round, then they played Southsea, the current national champions and a team that has won every match they have played for at least 6 years. Manchester managed to draw with them, a fantastic result.
In Division 5 representing Manchester C were Ella Tomlinson, Becci Northover, Claire Hollinshead, Sophie Redmond, Adam Thetford and Mick Hyde. There had been a couple of late player withdrawals due to Covid and injury and one hastily recruited replacement who had not played our formation before, so was on a steep learning curve.
First game was York, we managed a 7-2 victory and everyone was warming up nicely. The second game was against the Midlands Marlins, we knew this would be a crunch match and was hard fought with the lead changing hands several times. Finally with one second left on the clock the Midlands scrambled in a 5th goal, by the time the players surfaced, the buzzer had gone for full time and we had lost 5-4. Manchester won the last 3 games convincingly, beating South West Ladies 8-1, Plymouth B 5-1, Nottingham 9-1. So silver medals for Manchester C and promotion to division 4, this is the second promotion in 2 years, and means that they will have to play in the 3 metre deep pool next tournament.
Mark Palfrey was the late addition to the squad due to withdrawals and was voted MVP (Most Valuable Player) for his outstanding play and speed of adapting to a new formation, which he hadn’t played before.