Under the rains of storm Ciarán, a quality-over-quantity team of eight took the win for London Orca at the Hampton Outdoor Pool against Blue Marlins.

The Orcas started their Winter League campaign with the right foot, bringing to end a streak of losses at Blue Marlin’s home.

The Marlins started the match well by winning in the first quarter 1-2, as the Orca still needed to find the reference points for shooting in an outdoor pool, but as we warmed up and settled into a rhythm we caught up and took over ending the second quarter 3-2 for the Orcas.

The third quarter was the key to our victory – we knew they were getting tired and we also knew we needed to put a bit of a margin to prevent a comeback when eventually we’d start getting tired too.

We won the quarter 5-0, with some beautiful goals from Freddie, Matt and Fesey.

Michael played in goal and delivered a performance for the ages – saving goals left, right and centre, and giving us security and guidance in defence.

Lance also had a great evening, displaying a terrific defensive performance. Starting from the bench, he came in in quarter 2 and 4, dropping on pit with confidence and stealing quite a few crucial balls from the attack.

A year ago, we lost this game 13-14, conceding too much and always chasing the result. Last night we won with confidence, leading most of the game and controlling the score with intelligence – a testament to our growth this year as a team.