On the weekend of the 21st and 22nd of April, West London Penguins boys and girls team competed in the U17’s finals after both teams secured a top 2 status in their group divisions in the preliminary round. The girls competed against Worthing, Cheltenham and City of Manchester and the boys side took on City of Manchester, Cheltenham and Caldonia. 

 

The West London Penguin boys team were the defending champions for the U17’s NAGS with the WJ Read trophy being reinstated with the club for the second year running. The Squad: 1 Adriano Porsia, 2 Shai Saltman, 3 Daniel D’souza, 4 Matthew O’Neill, 5 Ron Feder, 6 Matteo Antonelli, 7 Victor Laslop, 8 Maximos Dimitrios Karagiannis (Captain), 9 Michelangelo Antonelli, 10 Rafael Nikolaos Karagiannis, 11 Konstantinos Patras, 12 Ektor Ioannis Karagiannis, 13 Dominic O’Neill. After beating City of Manchester 17-12 in the semi finals the boys proceeded to the gold and silver finals against a strong Cheltenham side. A match that had us all at the end of our seats due to the back and forth motion of the game but in the end the West London Penguins boys took the lead in the final quarter of the game and took the trophy home once again with an overall score of 24 -17. On top of all this the team also took home awards in the categories: Most Valuable Player (MVP) and Top Goalkeeper overall in the U17’s open tournament with Matthew O’Neill (4) and Adriano Porsia (1) being presented with these respectively. 

 

West London Penguins girls show promise in moving to the finals from the preliminary rounds. This year's NAGS being the first time they have climbed the ladder to being in the finals the team had a buzz in the air. The squad: 1 Kaila Saltman, 2 Alice Daunt, 3 Darya Kakari, 4 Anjelea Gallagher - Padayachy, 5 Greta Perkins, 6 Manpreet Gill, 7 Jaspreet Gill (Captain), 8 Florence Mauri - Boulogne, 9 Emily Barea, 10 Miia Anjala, 11 Alba Dittli, 12 Sareena Gallagher - Padayachy, 13 Iskra Clarke - Patel. In the semi finals the girls played their best game against a Worthing side, never giving up and fighting with their all, with the girls securing a result of 11- 5, advancing into the gold and silver match where they narrowly missed the win to a strong City of Manchester side with a result of 8-10 taking silver home. Although the girls were disappointed this was a great result for the new team and they are hopeful for next year. Their goalkeeper Kaila Saltman (1) took home top goalkeeper of the female U17’s NAGS overall. 

 

Captain Jaspreet Gill [7] said ‘Overall I feel the weekend went really well. After putting in many hours of training, it’s nice to see that it pays off. I am very proud of the team constantly uplifting each other. The team work was amazing. It may not have been our year this time, but we will be back to claim our gold’.