Dawlish News

TSW Junior Octopush Team returned to their newly-refurbished home at Dawlish Leisure Centre on Saturday, in time to celebrate a tumultuous and triumphant year.  Teignbridge Council Leader Ros Prowse was there to welcome them back with pride.  Teignbridge Council have been very accommodating for the team of deep-diving high-flyers.  The pool is one of very few in the country with new tiles marking out the court, and the tile surface makes Dawlish one of the fastest pools in the country.  The team have had to refurbish and commission new goals to minimise tile trauma, along with the costs of travel in Britain and abroad; the players will for ever be grateful to kind sponsors and well-wishers.  The team have enjoyed a glorious summer, which Teignbridge Council kindly accommodated at Teignmouth Lido, and picked up some new friends and recruits en route.

The year kicked-off with a sponsored cross channel snorkel where players and officials pushed a “puck” 22 miles along the bottom of the pool.  “It was a big earner,” a club official commented, “And it had to be, because the next stop was Holland.  That’s why we chose the cross channel distance.”  The youngsters of Teignbridge were spectacularly successful against international competition, winning the Under 16 tournament and finishing in silver position in the Under 19 events.  “That was by way of a warm up for our British National Title defence in Leeds,” the spokesman continued.  “We took four teams: at Under 12, Under 14, Under 16 and Under 21 levels.  We took 3 gold medals and a bronze. TSW Juniors are not just the best team in Britain, they are the best team there has ever been in junior Octopush.”  The team, with colleagues from Plymouth and Helston, also clean swept the British Regional events, as well as the club titles.

The crowning glory of the year was to see nine current players, and recent old-boys and old-girls, selected to play for Great Britain in this summer’s World Championships in Eger, Hungary.  Britain came away with three bronze medals and one silver, across the categories.  The spokesman concluded, “It is quite wonderful how a little place like Teignbridge can be so dominant in any sport.  Teams from the big metropolitan boroughs have not even known where Teignbridge is; they do now!”

Well done Octopushers!!